The James Beard Foundation Awards were announced in New York and on Twitter last night, honoring the American food world’s best of 2008. The restaurant awards were heavily focused on New York but the book awards ran the gamut, with two personal favorites honored.
Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York was named Outstanding Chef and Manhattan’s Jean Georges was awarded Best Restaurant. Best New Restaurant, also in New York, was Momofuku Ko. In addition, 10 regional chefs were honored.
For books, Michael Pollan’s fabulous In Defense of Food, which I wrote about 16 months ago, picked up the award for Writing and Literature. It’s his second Beard; The Omnivore’s Dilemma won in 2006. Shirley Corriher, my favorite food scientist, won for Baking and Desserts with Bakewise, which I’ve been dipping into and learning from for months now and have only scratched the surface.
A dual winner, of both the Single Subject and Cookbook of the Year awards is Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient by Jennifer McLagen.
Other book winners:
- Photography: The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, Dominic Davies, Photographer
- International: Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
- General Cooking: How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised Tenth Anniversary Edition), Mark Bittman
- Reference and Scholarship: The Flavor Bible, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
- American Cooking: Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook, Martha Hall Foose
- Healthy Focus: The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, Ellie Krieger
The media awards were announced Sunday and The Washington Post’s food section was named the country’s best.
Beyond the Great Wall will likely be my next purchase. I’ve had my eye on it since its starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and it went on to win the IACP Award for Best International Cookbook. It was one of the first books I put in the Ella’s Picks section when I stocked my new Amazon store and I’ve now created a special section for the Beard winners in my Seasonal & New category if you’d like to browse them easily on one page.
