This is James Beard. Ever heard of him before? He was an American food writer and chef who is credited with creating “American Gourmet” and bringing French food to an American audience. In addition, he was known for his flamboyant personality, was the first chef on television, and created CityMeals on Wheels, which still helps thousands of New Yorkers. When he passed away at the age of 82, his dear friend Julia Child had the idea to preserve his Greenwich Village townhouse as “the gathering place it has always been”. The non-profit
James Beard Foundation was started in 1986 in his townhouse (complete with floor to ceiling mirrors in the “private quarters”) with the aim to host dinners to benefit culinary students and honor chefs and food writers. Their biggest event, The James Beard Awards, are held each May to honor outstanding chefs and journalists. These have been called, time and time again, the “Oscars” of the food world!
We were thrilled this past weekend that so many of our dear friends were honored for their contributions! In fact, three out of the four authors we welcomed this past fall for our author series were not only nominated, but won awards as well! A huge congratulations to our friends Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of
Food 52 (Food Publication of the Year), Brad
Thomas Parsons (Cookbook award for Beverage) and Christina Tosi, of Momofuku Milk Bar fame, for her win for Rising Chef of the Year! We’ve got some VERY important friends! Congratulations!
Food 52's Merrill and Amanda
Brad Thomas Parsons showing us wsup.
Christina Tosi
We’re incredibly happy to be stocking many Beard Award winning cookbooks – like
Ruhlman’s Twenty and Blood, Bones and Butter – and Beard Nominees, like
Joe Beef,
The Oxford Companion to Beer,
Eleven Madison Park,
The Food of Spain, and
Plenty. In addition, we carry books from Beard Nominated chefs like
David Chang and
April Bloomfield. The
PDT cocktail book, by the geniuses at PDT which was one of the biggest hits of last holiday season, is also great to pick up, as they won the inaugural award for Best Cocktail Program!
Huge congratulations are in order to our neighbors at
isa, who were up for Best New Restaurant. Yep – out of all the new restaurants in the entire country, isa was nominated! We’ve had amazing meals there and we are so glad we’re right down the street from them. If you haven’t been there yet – go! Make sure to tell Dan behind the bar we sent you!
Finally, we just can’t talk about the Beard Awards without mentioning one of our dearest friends. Liza DeGuia has been a friend of Whisk since we first opened – in fact, she may have even been one of our first customers! Her passion is her web series,
Food Curated. FoodCurated is a website where she blogs and profiles amazing food producers in beautiful short films. This year, she was nominated for the third year in a row for Food Curated! Unfortunately, also for the third year in a row, she was passed over for the honors.
Look out, Susan Lucci!
Liza DeGuia's glamour shot
