Dan Barber Named Nation’s Top Chef By James Beard Foundation

By Verena Dobnik

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Dan Barber, a pioneer of the so-called farm-to-table restaurant movement, was named the nation’s top chef Monday by the James Beard Foundation.

Dan Barber was lauded for using his New York restaurants — Blue Hill New York and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills — to highlight the difference seasonal and sustainable agriculture can make on the plate.

Barber sees his cooking — which he calls American seasonal — as an effort to raise awareness about everyday food choices. At Stone Barns, which is set on a working farm, the menu is a simple list of fresh ingredients.

Barber, who was named one of the nation’s best new chefs in 2002 by Food & Wine magazine, previously was recognized by the Beard Foundation as the top New York chef in 2006. He also was a finalist for the top chef last year.

The James Beard awards are the Oscars of the food world, and honor those who follow in the footsteps of Beard, considered the dean of American cooking when he died in 1985.

Barber’s award comes at a time when much is being made of the importance of reconnecting Americans with food at its source. For example, first lady Michelle Obama recently planted a vegetable garden at the White House, a move long sought by proponents of sustainable agriculture.

Michael Pollan, a vocal critic of conventional agriculture, got a similar nod from the foundation Monday. His “In Defense of Food,” an examination of the American diet and food system, won a Beard book award.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s New York restaurant Jean George was honored as the nation’s top restaurant. The restaurant was a finalist in the category last year.

David Chang, who has received numerous accolades for his Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar restaurants in New York, earned “Best New Restaurant” for his Ko, which has been celebrated for its tasting menu-only offerings. The foundation honored Chang as best New York chef last year.

The foundation’s award for rising star went to San Francisco chef Nate Appleman, whose restaurant A16 features the foods of Italy’s Campania region.

In the cookbook categories, Jennifer McLagan’s “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient,” won two awards — cookbook of the year and single subject cookbook.

Last year’s top chef, Grant Achatz, won a book award this year for “Alinea,” a cookbook based on his Chicago restaurant of the same name. The book won the professional cooking category.

The organization’s Lifetime Achievement award went to Ella Brennan, whose family has been a virtual dynasty in the New Orleans restaurant scene for decades.

Winners

The winners of the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards include:

———

RESTAURANTS AND CHEFS (NATIONAL)

— Outstanding Restaurateur: Drew Nieporent, Myriad Restaurant Group, New York

— Outstanding Chef: Dan Barber, Blue Hill, New York

— Outstanding Restaurant: Jean Georges, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Phil Suarez, New York

— Outstanding New Restaurant: Momofuku Ko, David Chang and Peter Serpico, New York

— Rising Star Chef: Nate Appleman, A16, San Francisco

— Outstanding Pastry Chef: Gina DePalma, Babbo, New York

— Outstanding Wine Service: Le Bernardin, Wine Director: Aldo Sohm, New York

— Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional: Dale DeGroff, Dale DeGroff Co., New York

— Outstanding Service: Daniel, Daniel Boulud, New York

———

CHEFS (REGIONAL)

— Best Chef: Great Lakes

Michael Symon, Lola, Cleveland

— Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic

Jose Garces, Amada, Philadelphia

— Best Chef: Midwest

Tim McKee, La Belle Vie, Minneapolis

— Best Chef: New York

Gabriel Kreuther, The Modern, New York

— Best Chef: Northeast

Rob Evans, Hugo’s, Portland, Maine

— Best Chef: Northwest

Maria Hines, Tilth, Seattle

— Best Chef: Southwest

Paul Bartolotta, Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas

— Best Chef: South

John Currence, City Grocery, Oxford, Miss.

— Best Chef: Southeast

Mike Lata, Fig, Charleston, S.C.

— Best Chef: Pacific

Douglas Keane, Cyrus, Healdsburg, Calif.

———

BOOKS

— Cookbook of the Year

Jennifer McLagan, “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes”

— Cookbook Hall of Fame

Jane Grigson, body of work including “The Art of Charcuterie,” “Good Things,” and “Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book”

— American Cooking

Martha Hall Foose, “Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook”

— Baking and Dessert

Shirley O. Corriher, “Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking”

— Beverage

Steven Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, Michael A. Weiss and The Culinary Institute of America, “WineWise: Your Complete Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Enjoying Wine”

— Cooking from a Professional Point of View

Grant Achatz, “Alinea”

— General

Mark Bittman, “How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised Tenth Anniversary Edition)”

— Healthy Focus

Ellie Krieger, “The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life”

— International

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, “Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China”

— Photography

Photographer: Dominic Davies, “The Big Fat Duck Cookbook”

— Reference

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, “The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs”

— Single Subject

Jennifer McLagan, “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes”

— Writing and Literature

Michael Pollan, “In Defense of Food”

———

OTHER:

— Humanitarian of the year: Feeding America

— Lifetime achievement: Ella Brennan

Food And Wine’s Best New Chefs 2009

Somehow yours truly got left off Food & Wine’s list of Best New Chefs of 2009. Well, there is always next year, right? Anyway, here are this year’s more than deserving recipients from the F&W website:

Nate Appleman

A16 and SPQR, San Francisco
A16: Menu | Reservations | Website
SPQR: Menu | Reservations Not Accepted | Website

Nate Appleman has cooked in Italy but credits his Greenville, Ohio, childhood for his initial interest in cooking: “There were whole weekends when no one could go outside because we had three feet of snow. I watched Julia Child and The Frugal Gourmet all day long.“ He’s been fixated on becoming a Best New Chef since picking up a copy of Food & Wine’s July 1998 issue.

We loved: Berkshire pork shoulder roast and porchetta with lemon and wild arugula (A16); spaghetti amatriciana with guanciale, tomatoes, red onion, chile and pecorino (SPQR).

More about Nate Appleman »

 

Bryan Caswell

Reef, Houston
Menu | Reservations | Website

Bryan Caswell doesn’t sauté any fish at Reef; instead, he sears it on a custom-made griddle inspired by the planchas he used while working in Barcelona. “I don’t need a guy washing 9,000 sauté pans,” he says. The Jean-Georges Vongerichten protégé imagines one day opening a 2,000-square-foot oyster bar.

We loved: Crispy-skinned snapper with sweet-and-sour chard and tomato brown butter; grilled amberjack with plantain and long bean sauté.

More about Bryan Caswell »

 

Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook

Animal, Los Angeles
Menu | Reservations | Website

Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook met during the first day of cooking school at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. But they learned even more from obsessively eating out. “When we were 22, 23, we went to see our accountant, and he told us we’d spent $150,000 that year on dining,” Shook says.
We loved: Quail fry with slab bacon, chard and maple jus.

More about Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook »

 

Kelly English

Restaurant Iris, Memphis
Website

Kelly English’s father, a lawyer, had a surprising reaction when his son told him he’d rather go to culinary school than law school: He was delighted. The pair celebrated at New Orleans’s August, where English would later cook with John Besh, now his mentor.

We loved: Sautéed veal sweetbreads with pork belly.

More about Kelly English »

 

Mark Fuller

Spring Hill, Seattle
Menu | Reservations | Website

Seattle-born Mark Fuller spent seven years working under star chef Tom Douglas before branching out on his own with Spring Hill. Fuller’s lifelong passion for noodles started with the saimin (similar to ramen) he ate while growing up in Hawaii. Now he has an enormous following for his Monday night spaghetti-and-meatball dinners, and his favorite YouTube clips are on how to make hand-pulled noodles.

We loved: Olive-oil-poached albacore tuna with smoked king clam panzanella, arugula and avocado.

More about Mark Fuller »

 

Linton Hopkins

Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch Public House, Atlanta
Restaurant Eugene: Menu | Reservations | Website
Holeman and Finch: Menu | Reservations Not Accepted | Website

When Linton Hopkins was a kid, his mom once refused to make him hollandaise sauce for his eggs—so he prepared it himself, with a recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Hopkins still has the (egg-stained) cookbook, plus a vast collection of others including Junior League and community cookbooks.

We loved: Chicken livers, soft grits, pickled peaches (at Restaurant Eugene); the H&F burger, served only after 10 p.m. (at Holeman and Finch Public House).

More about Linton Hopkins »

 

Chris Kostow

Meadowood, St. Helena, CA
Menu | Reservations | Website

Chris Kostow has cooked under three former F&W Best New Chefs: Trey Foshee, Daniel Patterson and Daniel Humm. He got his start cooking in high school, when he had a summer job at a restaurant. He’d fry chicken all day, starting at 9 a.m., while listening to the same Beastie Boys album over and over. Among his favorite perks of cooking at Meadowood: “I have a great garden and a beautiful dining room.”

We loved: Bolinas goat poached in whey with wheatgrass, sea salt and olive oil.

More about Chris Kostow »

 

Paul Liebrandt

Corton, New York City
Menu | Reservations | Website

Born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and raised in London, Paul Liebrandt has worked at an impressive number of Michelin-starred restaurants, including Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. He has cooked for both British aristocracy (Prince Andrew) and Hollywood royalty (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon).

We loved: “From the Garden,” a mixture of more than two dozen vegetables and herbs; smoked pasta with Gouda and truffles.

More about Paul Liebrandt »

 

Barry Maiden

Hungry Mother, Boston
Menu | Reservations | Website

Using a grassroots campaign, Barry Maiden raised more than $10,000 (much of it through Pay Pal) to finance Hungry Mother. “We started with friends and family, asking them to donate $5 to $500 to help offset the costs, and the word spread. We got contributions from as far away as California,” he says. All the donor’s names are now stenciled on a wall at the restaurant.

We loved: Warm beef tongue canapé; fried green tomato, grilled homemade bacon and red remoulade sauce.

More about Barry Maiden »

 

Naomi Pomeroy

Beast, Portland, OR
Menu | Reservations: 503.841.6968 | Website

Naomi Pomeroy taught herself how to cook using cookbooks, including a decades-old copy of The Joy of Cooking. The onetime vegetarian eats meat now, but she’s choosy about where it comes from: She picks the non-sustainably raised beef out of her favorite pho noodle soup.

We loved: Charcuterie plate with foie gras bonbon; steak tartare and quail egg toast; chicken liver mousse with candied bacon.

More about Naomi Pomeroy »