On May 4, a merry mob of chefs, journos, publicists and party animals will storm Chicago’s Lyric Opera house for the announcement of the 2015 James Beard Awards.
The 25-year-old event is being held outside of New York for the first time. The idea was to highlight the awards’ “relevance” by reflecting that New York is no longer the nation’s only culinary capital.
So, where are four of five nominees in the “outstanding restaurant” category? Three are in Manhattan and one in Westchester. Good luck, Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Ala.!
The same old choices — Per Se! The Spotted Pig! — aren’t the only Beard Award howler. How many of roughly 600 voters actually checked out places in Manhattan, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and Walland, Tenn., to see if they truly offer “outstanding service?”
The James Beard Foundation does much to support chefs around the US. Criticizing the Awards is like burning the American flag. But they routinely cast up a winner’s circle of predictably familiar names.
They say their mission is to “celebrate, nurture and honor America’s diverse culinary heritage.” Yet a look back as far as 2007 finds not one Brooklyn nomination. Sorry, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare and Blanca!
And where are the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese and Filipino offerings? Asian styles rule the scene from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore. Yet, of 53 nominations in 11 different categories, a mere seven may be (barely) called Asian.
One is “outstanding restaurant” for Momofuku Noodle Bar. Its Beard-darling chef, David Chang, has already won five awards, more than Meryl Streep’s Oscars.
Now, is Momofuku Noodle Bar at its peak after 11 years, at a time when Japanese ramen spots hold the high ground? Or did they run out of categories to deify Chang? (A goofy rule doesn’t let a chef or restaurant win twice in the same category.)
The big dining news is being made by places with names like Shuko and Sushi Nakazawa. Yet in all 50 states, Beard nominators cited only one fully Japanese restaurant: Portland, Maine’s Masa Miyake.
Just as the Oscars often absurdly split awards for Best Director and Best Picture, there’s no correlation between Beards for outstanding restaurant and the various chef categories.
If Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony is up for outstanding chef in the US, how can Gramercy Tavern not be up for outstanding restaurant? In fact, Beard Awards do not judge recent performance, except for “rising star chef of the year.”
No, “outstanding chef” is defined as a “working chef whose career has set national industry standards and … served as an inspiration to other food professionals.”
An “outstanding restaurant” is one which “serves as a national standard bearer of consistent quality and excellence in food, atmosphere and service.” Awards so broadly defined can mean just about anything — or nothing.
Meanwhile, how did Marco Canora make the best NYC chef list? Fine talent that he is, his main restaurant, Hearth, has changed little in 10 years.
Maybe voters swooned from the bone-broth aroma wafting from his Brodo window — a product eater.com colorfully termed “meat-flavored water.”
The Beard voting process is as murky as Albany politics, from an “open call” of 30,000 to a 12-person committee to pick semifinalists to a “voting body” of nearly 600 for finalists and winners.
No wonder the results seem more like yesterday’s leftovers than something fresh and worthy of 2015.