UPDATE: Here are all the winners:
Best New Restaurant
Next, Chicago
Outstanding Chef
Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in New York
Outstanding Pastry Chef
Mindy Segal of Mindy's Hot Chocolate in Chicago
Outstanding Restaurant
Boulevard in San Francisco
Outstanding Restaurateur
Tom Douglas of Tom Douglas Restaurants in Seattle
Outstanding Service
La Grenouille in New York
Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional
Paul Grieco of Terroir in New York
Outstanding Wine Program
No. 9 Park in Boston
Outstanding Bar Program
PDT in New York
Rising Star Chef Of The Year
Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar in New York
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REGIONAL CHEF AWARDS
Great Lakes
Bruce Sherman of North Pond in Chicago
Mid-Atlantic
Maricel Presilla of Cucharamama in Hoboken, N.J.
Midwest
Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison, Wisc.
New York City
Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern in New York
Northeast
Tim Cushman of O Ya in Boston
Northwest
Matt Dillon of Sitka & Spruce in Seattle
Pacific
Matt Molina of Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles
South
Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Ala.
Southeast (tie)
Hugh Acheson of Five and Ten in Athens, Ga. & Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta
Southwest
Paul Qui of Uchiko in Austin, Texas
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James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award
Wolfgang Puck
James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year
Charlie Trotter
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James Beard Foundation Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America Inductees
- Grant Achatz, chef and author, Chicago
- Mark Bittman, journalist and author, New York
- Dana Cowin, editor-in-chief at Food and Wine magazine, New York
- Emily Luchetti, pastry chef and author, San Francisco
- Marvin Shanken, publisher, New York
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James Beard Foundation America's Classics
- The Fry Bread House in Phoenix
Owner: Cecelia Miller
- Nora's Fish Creek Inn in Wilson, Wyo.
Owners: Nora Tygum, Trace Tygum and Kathryn Tygum Taylor
- St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis
Owners: Stephen Huse and Craig Huse
- Jones Bar-B-Q Diner in Marianna, Ark.
Owners: James and Betty Jones
- Shady Glen in Manchester, Conn.
Owners: William and Annette Hoch
PREVIOUSLY:
The annual James Beard Awards, happening Monday night at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, are one of the biggest events in the food world. Little else brings together as many chefs from across the country. Alton Brown, the co-host of this year's awards, actually lit the Empire State Building in honor of the festivities.
Monday night's James Beard Awards will honor established and rising chefs from across the country, outstanding wine programs, restaurateurs, individual restaurants and more (see the full list of 2012 nominees). On Friday night, the nominees for the broadcast, book and journalism awards gathered for a separate awards ceremony. Check out the winners for those honors here.
Like any major award show, the James Beard Awards are not without its detractors (see here and here), but the medal still remains one of the few recognized -- and coveted -- accolades granted to chefs and other food professionals across America.
HuffPost Food is on hand at the awards to fill you in on the evening's winners, attendees and festivities. If you want to follow along, check out the liveblog below, watch the awards live if you'd like, and be sure to follow the hashtag #jbfa on Twitter (and follow us @huffpostfood).
Check out our liveblog below.
Chef Jose Andres won the award for Outstanding Chef last year. This year, he announced the new winner: Daniel Humm of four-starred Eleven Madison Park!
"I wish there was an award for outstanding wife," said Humm.
Boulevard in San Francisco won the much-coveted Outstanding Restaurant award. Chef Nancy Oakes, perhaps sensing the crowd was getting restless, had one of the shortest acceptance speech of the night!
"Any award you win from the Beard Foundation is bound to be memorable," said Thomas Keller, before announcing the winner.
"The most exciting thing about the award is the party after," responded Daniel Boulud.
We can hope that Tom Douglas will be partying afterwards, even if he wasn't present at the awards. He is the first restaurateur from Seattle to win this award.
Worth noting: it is in fact spelled "restaurateur" not "restauranteur."
New York's La Grenouille has been around for 50 years -- since 1962 -- and is now the winner of the Outstanding Service award.
Chef Grant Achatz and partner Nick Kokonas' Next Restaurant in Chicago, helmed by executive chef Dave Beran, has won for the Best New Restaurant. Next, which only debuted about a year ago, changes concepts every three months. So far, the restaurant has gone through Paris 1906, Thailand, Childhood and is currently serving an homage to El Bulli.
After a rather long interlude from Wolfgang Puck, the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Mindy Segal of Mindy's Hot Chocolate in Chicago won the award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. She couldn't be at the awards as she is currently renovating her restaurant.
Alton Brown's wise words for how to snag some food for the Gala post-awards:
"Run, push and shove"
Chef Rick Bayless announced the new inductees of "Who's Who of Food & Beverage Of America."
If you haven't heard of these people already, now you can catch up! But hopefully you've heard of at least a few of them...
The inductees are:
Grant Achatz, of Alinea and NextMarvin Shanken, founder of M. Shaken Communications
Design firm Bentel & Bentel Architects won the award for Outstanding Restaurant Design for Le Bernardin's redesign in New York.
For Outstanding Restaurant Graphics, Pandiscio Co won for The The Americano at Hôtel Americano, also located in New York.
| @ amateurgourmet : I wonder if there are more people Tweeting from the James Beard awards than there are people reading the Tweets. |
Two Georgia chefs, Linton Hopkins and Huge Acheson both won for Best Chef: Southeast. "I'd like to thank the town that I live in," said Acheson on Athens, Georgia.
With the upcoming foie gras ban in California, there are several chefs and attendees sporting "Save the Foie" buttons.
We're not sure what to make of this photo from D'artagnan's Twitter feed, with noted foie opponent Wolfgang Puck wearing one of those buttons...
Tim Cushman of O Ya took the award for Best Chef: Northeast. He was facing some serious competition in the Boston and New England area. He came prepared to win with a list of his staff to thank! "Work hard, persevere, always be a humble cook," says Cushman to aspiring chefs.
Chris Hastings from Hot & Hot Fish Club in Birmingham won Best Chef: South. We saw him cook elk last year at Meatopia -- this guy knows what he's doing.
Paul Qui of Uchiko in Austin won for Best Chef: Southwest.
Matt Dillon from Sitka & Spruce in Seattle won Best Chef: Northwest. This is his first Beard award. "I have to thank my mom," he said, after he admitted he got nervous in front of a lot of people.
Matt Molina won for Best Chef: Pacific for Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. Among chefs that Molina thanked was Mark Ladner, chef of Del Posto and another member of the ever-growing Batali empire.
| @ cettedrucks : just want to make it clear, this is the first time a pastry chef has ever won the rising star award #jbfanoise |
| @ qualityrye : Tina Tosi, who creates ambitious riffs on American junk food instead of kowtowing to Fancy France, deservedly wins #JBFA cc: @momomilkbar |
| @ RuthBourdain : Sluttiest dress: Thomas Keller. #jbfa |
Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison, Wisc. won for Best Chef: Midwest. This is the second time a chef from L'Etoile has won.
Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern took the prize for Best Chef: New York City. He's (also) the second time a chef from Gramercy Tavern has won. "There's no way I would be here right now without your tireless dedication and loyalty," said Anthony to his staff. He also had kind works for head honcho/restaurateur extraordinaire. "I feel so privileged you invested in me."
Bruce Sherman of North Pond in Chicago won for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Charlie Trotter, before announcing the winner, said that he thought Chicago might be the best food city in the country.
"The last thing I want to do is get in a pissing match with New York chefs...you guys are awesome," said Sherman when he accepted his award.
Maricel Presilla garnered the award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic for her restaurant Cucharamama in Hoboken, New Jersey. Perhaps New Yorkers have a legitimate culinary reason to take the PATH train now. "Si se puede," Presilla said to all the Latin American budding chefs out there, to a big round of applause. "I want to be the inspiration." Fun fact: Presilla is a professor of medieval Spanish history.
PDT, the not-so-secret bar attached to Crif Dogs in New York, won Outstanding Bar Program, a new award.
And, New York continued to dominate in the bar category with Paul Grieco of Terroir, the ever-growing wine bar mini-chain in Manhattan and soon-to-be Brooklyn, winning the Outstanding Wine/Beer/Spirits Professional. If you haven't had a Riesling at Terroir in the summer, you should strongly consider adding that to your To Do list.
Boston also represented in the alcohol category, with No. 9 Park garnering the award for Outstanding Wine Program. Fun fact: this is the first restaurant from Boston to take home this award.
After a rather long one-man show about James Beard, the actual awards announcement have finally begun!
Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar has won for the Rising Star Chef Of The Year. Looks like she already started celebrating as the Momofuku team and some friends pre-gamed in a party bus and ate barbecue from Daisy May's.
The 2012 James Beard Foundation Awards have just begun. We'll keep updating, but if you want to watch the festivities, there's a livestream here.
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Posted: 05/07/2012 6:23 pm Updated: 05/08/2012 1:14 pm