Video: Celeb Chef Interviews at the James Beard Foundation Awards

This is a pretty sweet find I stumbled on. Just nine days ago the prestigious James Beard Awards were given out in New York City. And now, from that event, here is almost a half hour of video, broken into three parts, where cookbook author and television personality David Rosengarten interviewed celebrity chefs on the Beard red carpet, compliments of devour.tv and Bravo network.

Here, David talks with event hostess Kim Cattrall and event host Bobby Flay, along with José Andrés, Drew Nieperont, Terrence Brennan, Cesare Casella, Ted Allen, Tom Collechio and Todd English.

Part 2 of the video for some bizarro reason starts out with a total repeat of the Kim Cattrall interview. Don’t let that fool you though, for this is plenty of new material here. In fact the entire rest of the clips is with interviews featuring Masaharu Morimoto, Pichet Ong, Katie Lee Joel, Michael Psilakis, Donatella Arpaia, Thomas Keller and Douglas Rodriguez.

We go a slightly different place in part three with interviews as well as some background on the Beard Awards, and then interviews with chefs Wylie Dufresne, Marcel Vignenon (from Top Chef, season 2), Tony May, Dan Barber, Cindy Wolf, Michel Richard and Danny Meyer.

And yes David, we too find it both ironic and very scary a food award show has no food!

2008 James Beard Awards Winners

The winners of the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards announced Sunday night, June 8th, include:

Restaurants and Chefs, National

Outstanding Restaurateur: Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, New York

Outstanding Chef: Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago

Outstanding Restaurant: Gramercy Tavern, New York (Danny Meyer)

Outstanding New Restaurant: Central Michel Richard, Washington (Michel Richard)

Rising Star Chef: Gavin Kaysen, Cafe Boulud, New York

Outstanding Pastry Chef: Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery, San Francisco

Outstanding Wine Service: Eleven Madison Park, New York

Oustanding Wine and Spirits Professional: Terry Theise, Terry Theise Estate Selections, Silver Spring, Md.

Outstanding Service: Terra, St. Helena, Calif.

Chefs - Regional

Best Chef: Great Lakes - Carrie Nahabedian, Naha, Chicago

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic - Eric Ziebold, CityZen, Washington, DC

Best Chef: Midwest - Adam Siegel, Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, Milwaukee

Best Chef: New York - David Chang, Momofuku Ssam Bar, New York

Best Chef: Northeast - Patrick Connolly, Radius, Boston

Best Chef: Northwest - Holly Smith, Cafe Juanita, Kirkland, Wash.

Best Chef: Southwest - Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colo.

Best Chef: South - Michelle Bernstein, Michy’s, Miami

Best Chef: Southeast - Robert Stehling, Hominy Grill, Charleston, S.C.

Best Chef: Pacific - Craig Stoll, Delfina, San Francisco

Books

Cookbook of the Year - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “The River Cottage Meat Book”

Cookbook Hall of Fame - Paula Wolfert, “Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco”

Asian Cooking - Niloufer Ichaporia King, “My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking”

Baking and Dessert - Peter Reinhart, “Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor”

Cooking from a Professional Point of View - The French Culinary Institute with Judith Choate, “The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine”

Entertaining - Trish Magwood, “Dish Entertains”

Americana - Jean Anderson, “A Love Affair with Southern Cooking”

General - James Peterson, “Cooking”

Healthy Focus - Jean Harvey-Berino with Joyce Hendley and the editors of EatingWell magazine, “The EatingWell Diet”

International - Anne Willan, “The Country Cooking of France”

Reference - Rowan Jacobsen, “A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America”

Single Subject - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “The River Cottage Meat Book”

Wine and Spirits - David Wondrich, “Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to ‘Professor’ Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar”

Writing on Food - Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life”

Photography - Photographer: France Ruffenach, “The Country Cooking of France” by Anne Willan

Also ….

Television Food Segment, National or Local: The Victory Garden, PBS

Television Food Special: Top Chef Holiday Special, Bravo

Television Food Show, National or Local: Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, American Public Television

Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition: Epicurious.com, Tanya Steel

Multimedia Writing on Food: Josh Ozersky and Daniel Maurer, nymag.com, “Grub Street”

2008 Beard Award Finalists Named

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.

Still More Famous Chefs Slated for Upcoming Pebble Beach Festival

You recall my first mention here of the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival roughly a dozen days ago. Well, with six more days left before it starts, there’s even more “big names” showing up for what has become (in just it’s first time ever) one of the biggest events ever.

Along with the previously mentioned names of Jacques Pepin, Mark Miller, Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Charlie Trotter, Tom Colicchio, Ted Allen, Michel Richard, Susan Spicer, Josiah Citrin, Walter Manzke, Todd English, Hubert Keller, and Michael Mina coming to the event …

… Now also add: Cat Cora, Mark Miller, Ming Tsai, Masaharu Morimoto, Alain Passard, Claudine Pepin, and still several dozen more top chefs. Show starts this Thursday, March 27th through Sunday, March 30th. More details at the site.

Michel Richard’s 60th Birthday Surprise Party

From the Washingtonian:

He may look like a jolly French Santa Claus, but chef Michel Richard of Citronelle and Central Michel Richard looked jollier than normal [Sunday] night. In honor of six decades—more than half of which have been spent filling lucky diners’ bellies with livers, duck confit, and lobster medallions—Richard was tricked into an evening drive to CityZen. There, a crowd of about 200 friends, fellow chefs, food-media types, and family members drank Champagne in blazers and cocktail dresses while waiting to surprise the birthday boy. With invitations sent a month ago, could the night really be kept secret? Didn’t it dawn on Richard that CityZen is normally closed Sundays? Or that his Central kitchen staff had been acting funny? His press-relations director, Mel Davis, didn’t seem to think so, but according to one rumored story, spread throughout the evening, Richard had a gut feeling in the car ride over. He apparently asked his wife, “Zees isn’t a surprise partay, ees it?”

For the best moments of the night list, visit the link above for The Washingtonian. For sweet photos of the affair check out the Flickr gallery.