News Tue Feb 21 2012

2012 James Beard Award Semifinalists Announced

By Andrew Huff

The 2012 James Beard Award semifinalists were announced today, and of course several Chicago spots were on the list.

Bistronomic and Next are semifinalists for Best New Restaurant, along with 27 others. That list will be narrowed to five, and if I were to guess, Next might make the final cut but Bistronomic most likely would not. Meanwhile, Next executive chef Dave Beran is a semifinalist for Rising Star Chef of the Year, along with Matthew Kirkley of L2O and David Posey of Blackbird. Bistronomic's Martial Noguier is a semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Also nominated in that category are Michael Carlson of Schwa, Stephanie Izard of Girl & the Goat, Martial Noguier of Bistronomic, Chris Nugent of Goosefoot, Brice Sherman of North Pond, Giuseppe Tentori of GT Fish & Oyster, Paul Virant of Vie and Andrew Zimmerman of Sepia. Carlson, Sherman and Virant were finalists last year, but Alex Young of Zingerman's Roadhouse, the only non-Chicagoland finalist, took home the award.

Interestingly, also nominated for Best Chef: Great Lakes is Josh Adams of June in downstate Peoria Heights; it's rare to see such an isolated restaurant receive attention from the Beard Foundation. Adams cooked a meal at the Beard House in New York in 2010, and clearly made an impression.

Paul Kahan of Blackbird, Tony Montuano of Spiaggia and Carrie Nahabedian of Naha made the list for Outstanding Chef. This is Nahabedian's first nomination in this category; she won Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2008. Kahan was a finalist for Outstanding Chef last year, along with fellow 2012 semifinalists Gary Danko of Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco, Suzanne Goin of Lucques in Los Angeles and Charles Phan of The Slanted Door in San Francisco. Montuano was a finalist in 2010.

Patrick Fahy at Café des Architectes and Mindy Segal of Mindy's HotChocolate got the nod for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Both were nominated last year, though Fahy was at Blackbird at the time.

Tru made the cut for Outstanding Restaurant, which is a category open only to restaurants in operation for 10 years or more. Donnie Madia of One Off Hospitality is a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur.

Spaggia and Topolobampo are semifinalists for Outstanding Service, while Sepia is the lone Chicago restaurant in the Outstanding Wine Program category. The Aviary and The Violet Hour are semifinalists for Outstanding Bar Program, which is a new category in this year's awards.

Lastly, earlier this month the foundation announced that Charlie Trotter would receive the Humanitarian of the Year award.

The finalists will be announced on March 19, and the 2012 James Beard Foundation Awards will be presented May 7 (the book, broadcast and journalism award winners will be announced May 4).