From the Big Apple to the Mini Apple: Beard Awards to scholarships


CHEERS TO OUR BEARD WINNERS…and more New York City News. It was a hot and humid 85 degrees when we rolled into New York City for the 20th Annual James Beard Awards the first weekend of May. But you can bet your booty it was even hotter on the stage at Avery Fisher Hall over at Lincoln Center by Monday evening, May 3, with many of our talented Minnesotans holding their breath to see who would win the prestigious James Beard Medallion, this year boasting a bright, grass-green neck ribbon. Deemed the “Oscars of the Food World,” The James Beard Foundation Awards really are the most coveted honor for chefs, food and beverage professionals, broadcast media, journalists and authors working on food, as well as restaurant architects and designers—and we had Minnesota nominees in most categories until the very end.

Three famous faces in the food world co-hosted the stage proceedings, which is named the most prestigious recognition program in the country to honor professionals in the food and beverage industries. Co-hosts were past Beard Award-winner Alton Brown (host of “Good Eats” on the Food Network) and two esteemed James Beard Outstanding Chef Award-winners, Lidia Bastianich (famous for cookbooks, TV and restaurants) and Wolfgang Puck.

Lidia fans update: Lidia is also the chef and owner of four acclaimed New York City restaurants, Felidia, Becco, Esca and Del Posto in the meatpacking district, where we lunched like royalty the day after the Awards. (see the FSN Blog for New York City pics). She is also founder and president of an entertainment company that produces food broadcasts, and with her son, Joseph, she produces award-winning wines at their Bastianich Vineyards in Friuli, Italy.

And Wolfgang fans? Puck, whose group heads up our own 20.21 at the Walker Art Center, began with his Hollywood Spago opening way back in 1982. He was an instant success and has been culinary phenomenon ever since. He also won the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef of the Year in 1991 and 1998 (the only chef to have won twice), and the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant for Spago in 1994. Other fun Puck host spots include Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, the new Cut in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, The Source in Washington, D.C., several fast-casual restaurants including his new Wolfgang Puck Bistro concept, and a number of restaurants in Las Vegas including the newly-opened Brasserie Puck in Crystals at CityCenter.

This year’s Awards theme was “The Legacy Continues,” and celebrated the spirit of mentorship—both on stage and at the party afterward from the legendary hosts above, to the Past JBF winners presenting the medallion to this year’s winners. For example, past Best Chef New York City winner David Bouley presented the medallion to the 2010 winner, chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison.

Of course, the Award at top of the list we all wait to hear about is our Best Chef Midwest category, which had three of the five finalists from Minnesota this year. Isaac Becker, chef and owner of the popular Minneapolis hotspot 112 Eatery (just voted best restaurant and best late-night restaurant in April “Best of” City Pages issue) was up as a three-time nominee. Becker is also chef and owner of the new Bar La Grassa. And for the first time, Lenny Russo, chef and owner of Heartland Restaurant in St. Paul, was also a nominee. But the winner was Alma’s owner and chef, Alex Roberts.

Roberts had been a nominee before—his fourth time up, to be exact. Well deserved, too, for this New York born (but raised in Minnesota) graduate of French Culinary Institute. He paid his dues in the Big Apple, too, from Gramercy Tavern to Bouley and the Union Square Café before moving back here. You may recall he opened Alma in 1999 with a commitment to organic, sustainably-produced food and has received numerous accolades in the process—including FSN’s Top Ten Twin Cities Chefs in 2005 and Top 25 Minnesota Chefs (voted by their peers) in 2009. He also opened Brasa Premium Rotisserie in 2007, just off East Hennepin in Minneapolis in 2007, and later added a second St. Paul location on Grand Avenue, again committed to organic, sustainably produced food. He has great fans for both Alma and Brasa—which just got a winning nod for Best Takeout from the City Pages reader poll. Cheers Alex!

We also had the local talent and nomination of Michelle Gayer, chef and owner of the Salty Tart in the Global Market up for the Outstanding Pastry Chef Award—one of five nominated in the whole nation. It was a tough competition and the nomination was very prestigious. She was passed over this time (Chef Nicole Plue of Redd in Yountville, Calif., won the award), but there’s always next year!


NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN…the Journalism and Broadcast Media Awards were presented at a Sunday Dinner, the night prior to the Lincoln Center Awards. Three more Minnesotans were honored, and two came up winners. MPR food reporter and cookbook author Lynn Rosetto Kasper was nominated as one of the top three in the country in the audio web cast and radio category for her show, “The Splendid Table,” but missed the medallion this year (the award went to the “Kojo Nnamdi Show,” hosted by Kojo Nnamdi online in Washington, D.C).

In the category of TV Food Personality,” our own Andrew Zimmern won the JFB Medallion with his “Bizarre Foods” show on The Travel Channel. He won over the Beard’s show co-hosts Alton Brown and Rick Bayless, known for his “Mexico One Plate at a Time” show on PBS. Besides “Bizarre,” Zimmern is still keeping busy as monthly columnist and contributing editor at both Minneapolis-St. Paul magazine and Delta Sky Magazine. He is also the author of “The Bizarre Truth: How I Went Out the Door Mouth First And Came Back Shaking My Head.”

Meanwhile, in the “Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer” category, food and wine writer and Minnesota Monthly food critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl (who wrote the book “Drink This: Wine Made Simple” last fall) took home her fifth JBF Award. Three in the last four years have been for wine writing—this girl never loses! Now a busy mother of two as well as writer and editor, she missed the New York City hoopla, but saw how fun Twitter can be when a friend tweeted her that she had won. Her winning article was titled “Chardonnay Uncorked,” and can be seen via this link. (http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/December-2009/Chardonnay-Uncorked)

For more on Chardonnay, you can grab her feisty fun and beginner-friendly book, too, which I did at a party at Solera when it came out last fall. Her subtitle is almost as long as Andrew’s: “Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the most wonderful drink on earth.” Between its covers are instructions on how to master nine major varietals of wine; and the Chardonnay chapter is excerpted at the link above. She says, “My goal with the book was to simplify wine without dumbing it down, and to help readers teach themselves to fish, so to speak, instead of relying on a critic to serve them up a fish. I hope you like it.”

Dara was also interviewed for a short Q&A on some of her fun “Wine Wisdom” up on the James Beard Blog dubbed, “Delights & Prejudices” if you want to take a peek for yourself. (http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/index.php/2010/05/wine-wisdom-dara-moskowitz-grumdahl/)


MORE CHEERS TO WAYNE KOSTROSKI…who was honored with a JBF Award as the 2010 Humanitarian of the Year. He is the founder of Cuisine Concepts, the company operating the former Goodfellows and Tejas, and the current Franklin Street Bakery and Bar Abilene. The restaurateur and entrepreneur is known for legendary charity support as far back as the 1980s. I first recall working with him with on the famous Share our Strength Chef Culinary Tastings, with their famous Taste of the Nation. The first Minnesota event was held over at the Depot in St. Paul with Leeann Chin and about 15 to 20 local chefs, and it was my first time to see the excitement of a walk-around cocktail party with chef serving stations and silent auction tables for fundraising. It was a delicious and delightful way to raise money—Minnesota nice, I’d say. Wayne went on to coordinate the national SOS events which got bigger and better and then in 1992, he helped warm up our “Minnesota Nice” hosting of the Super Bowl, promising feasting in freezing weather by feeding travelers hot, fun food with guest chefs and guest football players, too. The rest is history! The Taste of the NFL’s 20th Anniversary is coming up at Super Bowl 2011 in North Texas. Wayne says he’s “just warming up.” At least we know he won’t have to deal with freezing snow and wind chill in Texas.


MORE AWARDS TO STUDENT CHEFS OF TOMORROW…on the homefront in the Mini-Apple. The theme of mentorship goes on right here, thanks to the Education Foundation of Hospitality Minnesota’s Restaurant, Lodging, and Resort Associations, along with local education and our food community for their support to educate, develop future employees and offer scholarships for students who go into the culinary and hospitality industry. Education Foundation Board member and co-chair Pete Mihajlov (co-founder of Parasole Restaurant Holdings) and his team at the new Il Gatto in Uptown, hosted the complimentary luncheon last month for 22 scholarship award winners and the Sauk Rapids-Rice High School team who competed in the national ProStart Invitational. It was very happy bunch of young people, that’s for sure. A young award winner at our table, Erin Weeks, will head to Johnson & Wales for pastry school and was grateful for the $2,000 support.

All in all more than $40,000 in scholarships was awarded this year, thanks to over 20 Benefactors from Canary Beach Resort and Canterbury Park, to Green Mill Restaurants, Holiday Inn & Suites in St. Cloud, Sysco Minnesota and Ecolab, to Lord Fletcher’s and Pepsi Beverage in Burnsville, to family foundations like the Curt Carlson Foundation and the Mihajlov’s family along with support from Board co-chair Bill Naegele and his restaurant No Limit, just to name a few. Bravo and cheers to one and all. Nothing beats a good mentor in our lives (plus a few dollar in our pockets) to put a smile on a student’s face.