Oh, look; a New Orleans chef won the James Beard Foundation’s award for Best Chef South. There’s a surprise.
It’s becoming something of a broken record to announce the winner of the American culinary community’s biggest prize is from NOLA. Last year the south region had a tie, and both were from New Orleans.
This year’s winner is Alon Shaya of Domenica. Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico, New York, was named Outstanding Restaurant. Donnie Madia, One Off Hospitality Group, Chicago, is the 2015 Outstanding Restaurateur. It must have been nice for him to win the award this year — for the first time in its 25 year history the foundation held the awards in Chicago instead of New York.
Michael Anthony of New York’s Gramercy Tavern was awarded the Outstanding Chef title. That’s one I can’t quibble with — I dined there again a couple of months ago and found it to be as wonderful as ever. (And I was happy to lend my vote to Anthony for the overall award.)
New York City’s Batard was crowned Best New Restaurant.
For a full list of winners, visit the James Beard website.
