Andres wins best chef; another SoCal shutout at the Beard awards

Jose Andres of minibar in Washington, D.C., was named the outstanding chef of the year at the James Beard Foundation's annual awards ceremony Monday night at Lincoln Center in New York. Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park in New York was named the outstanding restaurant in the country. The best chef in the Pacific region went to San Francisco's Michael Tusk of Quince and Cotogna, ahead of a crowd that included Los Angeles’ Michael Cimarusti of Providence.

Once again, no Los Angeles restaurants won a major award, continuing a string that dates back to 2004, though Andres also runs Bazaar at the SLS here.

Among other top awards, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's ABC Kitchen in New York was named best new restaurant; Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You in Chicago was named outstanding restaurateur; Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon in Portland, Ore., was name rising star chef; and Eleven Madison Park's Angela Pinkerton was named outstanding pastry chef.

In the beverage and service categories, Julian P. Van Winkle III of Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery in Louisville, Ky., won the outstanding professional award, and the Modern in New York won the outstanding wine service award. Per Se in New York won for outstanding service.

Rounding out the regional awards, Alex Young of Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich., won for the Great Lakes; Michael Solomonov of Zahav in Philadelphia won Mid-Atlantic; Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery in Minneapolis won Midwest; Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune won New York City; Tony Maws of Craigie on Main in Cambridge, Mass., won Northeast; Andy Ricker of Pok Pok in Portland, Ore., won Northwest; Stephen Stryjewski of Cochon in New Orleans won South; Andrea Reusing of Lantern in Chapel Hill, N.C., won Southeast; and Saipin Chutima of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas and Tyson Cole of Uchi in Austin, Texas, tied for Southwest.

-- Russ Parsons

Photo: Jose Andres; credit: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Comments

[Russ parsons]

Hi Carolyn,
Those are great honors and you guys should be proud of them, but the reference was to restaurant awards, not cookbook, and national, not regional, honors.

[Caroline Styne]

I must note an error here. Suzanne Goin of Lucques won two awards in 2006 for Best Chef California and Best Cookbook from a professional point of view.

[Russ Parsons]

Mark, This post is about the restaurant awards. We covered the other awards Friday night when they were given. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2011/05/diana-kennedy-top-chef-top-james-beard-awards.html

[Mark Ryan]

If you're only considering people who put raw ingredients to flames (or at least give their name to a place that does such) then, yes, it was a shutout. However there were three Angelenos that did win James Beard Awards this weekend:

-Jonathan Gold (MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award)
-Patrick Kuh (Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award)
-Mark Ryan (Video Webcast Award)