Earlier this month we ran a partial list of the Semi-Finalists Announced for 2008 James Beard Awards. Well, a few days ago the giant list got paired down for the last time and the Finalists have now been announced.

If you’re unfamiliar with the great length of awards from the Beard Foundation, you’ll get a better understanding of it when you actually glance at their page. For instance, categories are not just for Restaurants and Chefs, they also include: Book Awards, Journalism, Broadcast Media, Design and Graphics, Humanitarian Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and America’s Classics.

So here are our highlights on some of the awards we think matter most, or at least that you would be interested in hearing about:

Outstanding Restaurateur Award: Joe Bastianich/Mario Batali, Tom Douglas, Richard Melman, Wolfgang Puck, Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Outstanding Chef Award: Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago; José Andrés, minibar by josé andrés, Washington, DC; Dan Barber, Blue Hill, NYC; Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles; Frank Stitt, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL.

Outstanding Restaurant Award: Boulevard, San Francisco; Campanile, Los Angeles; Gramercy Tavern, NYC; Jean Georges, NYC; The Slanted Door, San Francisco.

Best New Restaurant: Anthos, NYC; Central Michel Richard, Washington, DC; Fearing’s at the Ritz Carlton, Dallas; Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles; Osteria, Philadelphia.

Rising Star Chef of the Year Award: Nate Appleman, A 16, San Francisco; Sean Brock, McCrady’s, Charleston, SC; Gavin Kaysen, Café Boulud, NYC; Johnny Monis, Komi, Washington, DC; Matt Molina, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles; Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, OR.

In other awards …. among Television Food Show, National or Local were selected: The Best Recipes in the World with Mark Bittman, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie and Top Chef Season 3.

Websites of merit were: Chow.com, Epicurious.com and Starchefs.com

The Book Awards as expected, some of them jived with the ones on the IACP list announced last week where as other books are only on the one list or the other. Feel free to compare for yourself.

Among those Cookbooks which stood out as being on both lists (note this is not an all-encompassing group but a partial) were: Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto; Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor by Peter Reinhart; Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich; Love Affair with Southern Cooking: recipes and recollections by Jean Anderson; Rosa’s New Mexican Table; Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook by Jacques Pepin; Cooking by James Peterson; and, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman.

And for all of the rest of the awards and finalists on the long list, visit the Beard Awards here. The Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on June 8, 2008. Likewise, the Cookbook of the Year and Cookbook Hall of Fame will be announced at that time as well.

{28 Mar 2008}