Did you hear that? Utter radio silence.

Y&H expected a cacophony of food blog and board commentary today following the announcement of the 2009 James Beard Awards for restaurants and chefs.  But after the D.C. area got the cold shoulder last night at the Beard ceremony in the Big Apple, there has been little hand-wringing about the snubs, aside from an implication of favoritism among judges (Don Rockwell), an honor-to-be-nominated pep talk (Michael Birchenall), and a straight-forward, just-the-facts-ma’am report (the Post’s Joe Yonan, an award-winner himself this year).

What’s missing? Arguments, fussing, and outraged commentary about the New York-orientation of this year’s winners. However, if you study the 2009 winners, particularly national categories in which nominees come from all parts of the country, you’ll find that New York chefs and restaurants won 8 out of 9 times.

WTF? I mean, WTF?

OK, yes, everyone who follows food in this country understands that NYC is still the epicenter of the known universe when it comes to dining. Just ask a New Yorker — or even someone who just writes for a New York publication — and they’ll tell you.

This year’s winners got me to thinking about the process behind the voting. On the foundation’s Awards Policies and Procedures page, you can find this explanation under the Restaurant and Chef Awards:

Read More “D.C. Chefs/Restaurants Shut Out in 2009 Beard Awards” »

The nominees for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced this morning, and the big local winners were the Washington Post and José Andrés with three noms each.

Technically, I guess you could say that Andrés, aside from nods for best new restaurant, outstanding chef, and web/radio, shared a fourth nomination, too. His boffo new Los Angeles restaurant, The Bazaar, also earned one for best design.

The Post’s Tom Sietsema racked up a pair of nominations, one for his Sunday magazine feature about noisy dining rooms and one for his restaurant criticism. Sietsema submitted three reviews to earn the latter nomination: Great Expectations (3/2/2008), Robo Restaurant (6/1/2008), and An Earned Exclamation (7/20/2008). In the review category, Sietsema will be competing against Adam Platt from New York magazine and LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his criticism in 2007.

“I’m humbled by the nominees in the criticism category in particular,” e-mailed Sietsema, who’s been nominated twice before. “I mean, Johnathan Gold [sic] was the first food writer to win a Pulitzer for his reviews! And I love Platt’s prose in New York magazine. Most of all, I was pleased to see all the Washington chef talent on the Beard list. Those guys all work very hard and deserve the kudos that have come their way.”

Read More “D.C. Rakes in the Noms for 2009 James Beard Awards” »

The James Beard Foundation has released its massive list of semi-finalists [PDF] in the restaurant and chef categories, and the D.C. area has plenty of contenders. So far, at least.

It’s a bit early to get too pump over this list, which was whittled down from more than 15,000 entries. At present, many of the categories boast 20 or more semi-finalists, but by March 23, each will be pared down to five. The winners will be honored on May 4 at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

With that said, D.C. was well represented among the semi-finalists. Young & Hungry sends out a hearty congratulations for those local chefs and restaurants that made the cut. They include:

Read More “Beard Semi-Finalists Just Announced: D.C. Is Well Represented” »

This is sort of like reporting that, new flash, no one was killed today in Congress, but I figured my wife, Carrie, can’t be the only person who heard this item on WAMU this morning. She called to tell me there was a fire at the Mandarin Oriental, which houses one of the city’s finest restaurants, CityZen, home to James Beard-award winning chef, Eric Ziebold.

Read More “False Alarm: No Fire at Mandarin Oriental Hotel” »