Catching Up...

With the wedding less that two months away, I unfortunately have not had time to post very often. If I were to have some spare cycles, here are a few things about which I would write:

• A recap of our dinner with Jeremiah and Tesha at Manresa back in March, complete with pictures of course


• Our short trip to Napa, doing a bit of wine tasting and ending the day with a fabulous dinner on the patio at the newly renovated 25° Brix in Yountville


• A short congrats to the 2008 Bay Area James Beard Award winners


• Five Facts for Karen: After I posted my list for Scott, Karen suggested that I have a list with non-food related facts


• Progress on "The List" - yes, I will share it with everyone some day...

There are more things, but these were the ones that came to the top of my mind. Of course, I will also write more about our wedding: the planning that we did, the vendors that we chose, etc. But all in good time...

I hope that everyone has a restful and relaxing Independence Day! I know that I can use the day off. Don't forgot about your favorite annual eating contest. Let's see if anyone will break the 20000 calorie barrier at Coney Island this year.

Another Strong Bay Area Showing

This past week, James Beard Foundation announced their nominees for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards. Like last year, the Bay Area food community is well-represented. Boulevard and The Slanted Door, two perennial San Francisco favorites, are up for the Outstanding Restaurant Award. While not a clean sweep like last year, four of the five nominees in the Best Chef in the Pacific Region (California and Hawaii) are from the Bay Area: Douglas Keane of Cyrus, Craig Stoll of Delfina, and Michael Tusk of Quince are repeat nominees from last year, with David Kinch of Manresa joining them on the list of nominees.

Nate Appleman of A16 and SPQR is a repeat nominee in the Rising Star Chef of the year. Nicole Plue of Yountville's Redd and Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery were nominated for Best Pastry Chef of the Year.

Other Bay Area nominees include Terra for the Outstanding Service Award and Merry Edwards of her eponymous winery for the Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional Award. Bobby Stuckey, formerly of The French Laundry and now co-owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado, is another nominee in the latter category.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on Sunday, June 8, 2008.

We Have A Winner Some Winners!

As I mentioned earlier, several Bay Area chefs were nominated for James Beard Foundation Awards this year. Last week, the winners were announced at a gala held at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The Bay Area was well-represented in the winner's circle. Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc in Yountville was named the Outstanding Restaurateur. Keller also operates the restaurant Per Se in New York City. Also winning a major award was Traci Des Jardins of Jardinere, who was named the Best Chef in the Pacific region. Des Jardins won for the first time after being nominated for this award six previous times. In 1995, she won the James Beard Award for the Rising Star Chef.

Other Bay Area winners included the San Francisco Chronicle, which won for Best Newspaper Section and Best Newspaper Feature Writing with Recipes, and Michael Pollan of UC Berkeley who won the Writing on Food award for his book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Congratulations go out to all of the winners!

And the winner is...

...a Bay Area chef! The nominees for the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced earlier this week. All five nominees for Best Chef of the Year in the Pacific Region, which encompasses California and Hawaii, are from the Bay Area. Four of the chefs, Traci Des Jardins of Jardiniere, Roland Passot of La Folie, Craig Stoll of Delfina, and Michael Tusk of Quince are from San Francisco. The fifth nominee is Douglas Keane of Cyrus, which is located in Healdsburg, which is just a pleasant afternoon drive north of the City in Sonoma County.

Also, Nate Appleman of A16 was nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year. Nancy Oakes' Boulevard is up for Restaurant of the Year and Thomas Keller of The French Laundry (and Per Se, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc) is a finalist for the Outstanding Restaurateur award.

My sweetie and I have had the good fortune to be able to visit many of the restaurants listed above (Quince, Cyrus, Delfina, A16, Boulevard, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc) and look forward to visiting some of the others in the future. The San Francisco Bay Area is undoubtedly one of the most fantastic locations in the world for foodies like us.