Earlier this month the James Beard awards were handed out—I somehow missed this and just realized why: Washington, D.C., in every way, shape, and form was shut out, so there weren’t any major stories to be done in the local papers on, say, Jose Andres, Michel Richard, or Eric Ziebold (previous winners).
A few highlights:
The cookbook of the year is one most of us will never own: Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold, with a list price of $625. But on Amazon you can get one for a mere $455.85 and there are even used copies available for as little as $410.27! Why not get it today? Yes, that search engine is just a click away!
Congratulations to Michael Ruhlman who won in the General Cooking category for Ruhlman’s Twenty (something quite affordable).
Under Writing and Literature, Gabrielle Hamilton’s unminced Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef took the prize.
The always excellent Lettie Teague won for best food-related column (her works appear in the Wall Street Journal).
Recent Top Chef Paul Qui was named best chef in the southwest (at Uchiko).
Andrew Zimmern won for Best Television Program on Location (Bizarre Foods).
And lastly, congratulations to Ted Allen who deservedly earned the Media Personality prize while his show Chopped took home Best Television Program, In Studio or Fixed Location.
While Lettie Teague is probably a lovely person who can write a nice sentence, her knowledge of wine appears to be minimal. Her columns seem to specialize in finding someone who knows somewhat more than she does who happens to be photogenic and then recommend the wines she had for lunch. There is no there there. Sadly the WSJ weekend section has never had a serious wine writer who is on a par with the FT (Jancis R) or the NYTimes (Asimov).