You Don’t Say

The 2007 James Beard Awards were announced this past Monday. I’ve refrained from commenting about them, partly out of laziness, partly out of sour grapes. A good friend from here in the Midwest who was nominated in the media category lost out to — surprise! Another nominee from New York. This week’s NYT food section article on the awards carried the headline “New York Makes Strong Showing at James Beard Awards”. A bit like saying “California Makes Strong Showing at Oscars”. What a shock!

But I shouldn’t be too curmudgeonly about it. The James Beard Foundation has had enough scandal to deal with the past two years. Any anyway, my old home town hero (and one heck of a nice guy) Rick Bayless won best restaurant of the year for the inimitable Frontera Grill. So congratulations to him! Also a big joepastry.com congratulations to Dorie Greenspan for her wonderful Baking: From My Home to Yours. Great stuff. Here’s to all of this year’s nominees and winners!