For those of you who are uninitiated, the James Beard Foundation Awards are the Oscars of the Food World. If you're a Chef, no higher accolade can come your way than a JBF Award. Being able to hang that Gold Medal in your establishment means a lot. It always makes me proud to see the number of names and restuarants that come out of Oregon.
Personally and albeit a bit biased, the food scene in the Pacific Northwest is amazing. It's taken a while to break through the Left Coast Bias & California to the south - but people are standing up and taking notice and have for a couple of years now. If you watch any of the Cooking Channel, Portland shows up on all kinds of shows like Eat St., Unique Eats & Unique Sweets - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Several top playes in the Food Media scene in PDX show up on those shows as well - most notably Mike Thelin the co-founder of Feast Portland.
You can download the entire Semifinalists here: James Beard Foundation Awards.
But I just want to take a look at all the Oregon Semifinalists.
Best New Restaurant
OX Restaurant, Portland OR (I actually interviewed for a line cook job there.)
Outstanding Bar Program
Clyde Common, Portland OR
Outstanding Chef
Vitaly Paley, Paley's Place Portland OR
Outstanding Pastry Chef
Ken Forkish, Ken’s artisan Bakery, Portland OR
Outstanding Wine,Spirits or Beer Professional
Stephen McCarthy, Clear Creek distillery, Portland OR
Best Chef: Northwest
Greg Denton & Gabrielle Quinonez Denton OX, Portland OR
John Gorham Toro Bravo, Portland OR
Naomi Pomeroy Beast, Portland OR
Adam Sappington The Country Cat, Portland OR
That's quite the list. The winners will be announced March 18th at the big JBF Awards shindig. Good luck to all our PDX restauarnt's and Chefs that are up for Beard's.
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