Archive for the ‘Awards’ Category
Michelin Anoints Bay Area’s 2010 Culinary Elite
October 19, 2009
The MICHELIN Guide released its much-anticipated list of San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country stars today, just before tomorrow’s release of the 2010 Red Guide. As was the case for New York, this year’s guide includes several newly starred restaurants.
UBI UBI congratulates all the owners, chefs, and staff members for these honors, and welcomes Aziza, Commis, étoile, La Toque, Luce, Santé, Solbar, and Ubuntu to the list of star recipients. Cheers, to all of you! Read More »
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Michelin Awards NYC Restaurants Its 2010 Stars!
October 5, 2009
The release of the 2010 MICHELIN Guides is upon us and word has already spread about the newly awarded - and highly coveted - MICHELIN Guide stars within the New York restaurant scene. Without further ado, read below for the list of restaurants that made it into this year’s guide.
UBI UBI would like to extend congratulations to all the owners, chefs, and staff members who earned these special honors, plus give a warm welcome to all newcomers on the list. Kudos! Read More »
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Passion is What Really Drives the Restaurant Industry
May 19, 2009
In interviewing the chefs honored at the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards, it dawned on us that the evening—in fact, the entire dining culture and industry—is ultimately about sharing and engaging in pleasure. And you’d be hard-pressed to name any medium that encapsulates pleasure for more people than the simple and intrinsic power of good cuisine.
An illustrative example is Bill Smith of Mustache Bill’s Diner in Barnegat Light, an island off the coast of New Jersey. One of five special achievement award honorees in the America’s Classics category, Mr. Smith didn’t even know he was being scouted by the James Beard Foundation, and probably wouldn’t have changed anything even if he did. “It’s still the same little place with the same regulars, the same 13-hour days as when I bought it 38 years ago,” said Mr. Smith. He and his diner obtained notoriety for their pancakes in the shape of celebrities’ profiles, first of Guy Fieri, host of the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Then the Food Network went back and asked him to prepare pancakes in the likeness of Bobby Flay and multiple other hosts. Mr. Smith insists that the place hasn’t changed. The biggest difference then and now? The time when breakfast is served. “When we started, the big business was breakfast for the fishermen, 4:30 to 6:30 in the morning. Now breakfast is more like 9 to 11:30 a.m. We call it the ‘Hollywood breakfast’ because it’s so late.”
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Discover the True Stars of the James Beard Foundation 2009 Awards
May 12, 2009
The 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were star-studded not just by gourmet standards, but by the standards of anyone with a TV. The panoply of presenters and stars in the audience included (among many others): Mario Batali, Stanley Tucci, Lorraine Bracco, Martha Stewart, Nora Ephron, Tom Collicchio, Cat Cora, Emeril Lagasse, Gail Simmons, Jacques Pepin, Ted Allen, Todd English, and Richard Gere. But the true stars may have been the chefs whose food we got to sample that very night.
As soon as the ceremony was closed, the more than 1,000 attendees streamed out onto two floors of the lobby for the gala—a bacchanal of dining and drinking by selected chefs and mixologists. The theme this year was “Women in Food,” so each booth’s head chef was a woman, several of whom had just won a Best Regional Chef award.
It was obvious why these women were among the selected chefs to be featured that night: They were unafraid to try something new, especially if it challenged the palate, and even if it didn’t always quite marvel.
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James Beard Foundation Awards: Too Much NYC Love?
May 5, 2009
Attending the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards on May 4 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, we were first struck by the chaos of the press room, the joy of the winning chefs, and the personality and professionalism of all the culinary artists making their way through the crowds of admirers.
But while watching the ceremony itself, we were struck by how utterly New York-centric the awards are. This is a yearly complaint, but 2009 was extraordinary even so: Gotham swept every top cooking and restaurant service category except Rising Star Chef. Case in point:
- Outstanding Restaurant: Jean Georges
- Outstanding Chef: Dan Barber, Blue Hill
- Outstanding Restaurateur: Drew Nieporent
- Best New Restaurant: Momofuku Ko
- Outstanding Pastry Chef: Gina DePalma of Babbo
- Outstanding Wine Service: Le Bernardin
- Outstanding Service: Daniel
- Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional: Dale DeGroff of Dale DeGroff Co.
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