The 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced this evening at a banquet in New York City. The awards, named for the innovative 20th century chef and food writer, are given to restaurants, chefs, and food writers who show excellence and achievement in their fields and continue to emphasize the Foundation’s mission: to celebrate, preserve, and nurture America’s culinary heritage and diversity. The awards were established in 1990. This year’s recipients include:

Outstanding Restaurant: Jean Georges (New York City)
Outstanding Chef: Dan Barber (Blue Hill, New York, NY)
Rising Star Chef: Nate Appleman (A16, San Francisco, CA)
Best New Restaurant: Momofuku Ko …read more

Truman and I had a concert at the house earlier this week. He was beating on the homemade drums and I was belting out a punk rock version of the Alphabet song (think Ramones) on the Tinkertoy microphone. It was awesome. We told Rick all about it when he got home and he gave me that look that I’m sure he gave Santa when he was a kid, “You know, maybe we need to look at getting him a drum set.”
Yeah. Whatever, darling. I mean, I’m all about fostering my son’s talents, but how do I know my son is …read more