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Toasting the food world's top stars and restaurants at Lincoln Center
The culinary world tipped its toque to the year's best chefs and restaurants Monday night at the James Beard Awards, the food biz's top honors, held at New York's Lincoln Center.
New York City locked down a handful of the night's big awards, including Outstanding Restaurant (Eleven Madison Park), Best New Restaurant (ABC Kitchen), Outstanding Service (Per Se) and Outstanding Pastry Chef (Angela Pinkerton from Eleven Madison Park, pulling a twofer). The rest of the honors were spread out fairly democratically, with D.C. critical fave Jose Andres nabbing Outstanding Chef, Chicago's Richard Melman winning Outstanding Restaurateur and Portland's Gabriel Rucker snagging the coveted Rising Star Chef Award.
The night's theme was "Ultimate Melting Pot," which celebrated a diversity of food influences. But natch, as with any year, controversy was thrown into that pot of stew, courtesy of Beard arch-nemesis Anthony Bourdain, who ranted on everything from the year's theme to the controversial nomination/win of Twitter jester Ruth Bourdain. Chefs had an opinion or two about all of that—as well as how the night went down. Read on for some piping-hot dish.
By Alexis L. Loinaz and Matt Rodbard; photos by Sam Horine
