Le Coucou, the classic French restaurant from Daniel Rose in New York, was named Best New Restaurant at the James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony in Chicago Monday night. Stephen Starr, whose Starr Restaurants group owns Le Coucou and several Philadelphia brands, was named Outstanding Restaurateur. (Here’s my review of Le Coucou.)
The Outstanding Chef award went to Michael Solomonov of the Israeli restaurant Zahav in Philadephia. Oddly, Rose was not nominated in for either Outstanding Chef or Best Chef New York City. The latter went to Marco Canora of Hearth.
Best Chef South, the category that Florida competes in, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Puerto Rico (because why not) and New Orleans, I mean, Louisiana, went to Rebecca Wilcomb of Herbsaint in Louisiana. I mean New Orleans. (I’ve lost count how many times New Orleans has not only dominated the nominations but won the award.)
The full list of winners can be seen at the James Beard website.
