Step One in the James Beard Awards: Make it to the semifinals list.
The foundation released the 2009 list this morning of 20 nominees per category. Voting among members will result in a list of five nominees per category, to be released March 23 in Chicago. Winners will be announced May 4.
Among the Philly highlights:
- Stephen Starr as outstanding restaurateur
- Marc Vetri as outstanding chef
- Distrito, Zahav and Izakaya (AC) as best new restaurant
- Jonathan McDonald of The Pub & the Kitchen, Chip Roman of Blackfish and Michael Solomonov of Zahav as rising-star chef of the year
- Fred Ortega of Lacroix and Kate Honeyman of Buddakan for pastry chef
- Lacroix for wine service
- Vetri for service
- Jim Burke of James; Steven Cameron of Blue in Surf City, NJ (and soon at Noble); Michael DiBianca at Moro in Wilmington; Jose Garces of Amada; Chip Roman of Blackfish; Michael Solomonov of Zahav; Marcie Turney of Bindi -- all for best chef/mid-Atlantic region
- Douglas Rodriguez, still a partner at Alma de Cuba, is up for best chef of the South for Ola in Miami.
The Insider Video Show
- Search: Find a restaurant in the Philadelphia area
- Archive: Previous Food&Drinq entries
- Beer Lass
- Blogalicious
- Foodaphilia
- Foobooz
- Jack Curtin's Liquid Diet
- Joe Sixpack
- Mac & Cheese
- Main Line Dine
- MealTicket (City Paper)
- McDuff's Food & Wine Trail
- Philadelphia Grub Street
- Philadining
- PhilaFoodie
- Philly Food and Drink
- The Fightins
- What I Weigh Today (Joy Manning's blog)
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