Watch video from 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards.
NEW YORK, NY (May 4, 2009) - Winners were announced this evening for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards, the nation's most prestigious recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries. During a ceremony hosted by Cat Cora, Emeril Lagasse and Stanley Tucci at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, awards in 38 categories were presented, including Restaurant and Chef, Book, Design and Graphics, and special achievement awards. Industry leaders from across the country attended this year's highly-anticipated festivities, which celebrated "Women in Food" and included a post-show Gala Reception featuring some of the nation's top female chefs, sommeliers, mixologists and artisanal producers, led by Gala Chair Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. Among the winners was City Grocery's John Currence who took home the Best Chef: South region award.
For the fourth time in five years, City Grocery chef John Currence has received a nomination for the "Best Chef, South" category of the James Beard Awards. The awards, also known as the Academy Awards of the cooking world, are considered by many to be the highest honor a chef can be given.
"This is an incredible honor," says Currence. "But It has everything to do with my staff--it's really about them. Of course it's incredibly flattering to be nominated, I just wish the nomination carried the name of the restaurant rather than just my name. This has been a tough but satisfying year at all three places, and everyone has carried the ball equally."
The Awards Ceremony will be held at the Lincoln Center in New York on Monday, May 4, 2009. Other area locals recognized this year are John T. Edge, who will be inducted into the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America, and Martha Foose for her cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook.
Teamed with Chef John Ondo of Restaurant Lana in Charleston, City Grocery scored an Iron-Chef win Saturday at Charleston's Food and Wine Festival. "Backbreaker!" says Currence, "We had thirty minutes to assemble 4 dishes. Our secret ingredient was goat cheese and I completely locked up when the timer started. Fortunatelty, I had had a good "chalk talk" with sous chef John Stokes right before hitting the stage which he planted a seed for one of the dishes and that, along with a stellar performance by John Ondo carried us through." The win is City Grocery's second competition win in the last year, the last coming in New Orleans at the Great American Seafood Cookoff. "Competition cooking is not my thing at all," says Currence who nosed out Marc Collins of Circa 1886 and Jean-Robert de Cavel of Jean-Robert at Pigall's, "but winning a couple of these things has been fun. I guess I'm a little competitive."
Chef John Currence is excited to join fellow culinarians on March 29, 2009, for an authentic dining experience at Chelsea Market, New York City's most iconic artisanal marketplace. The event, "Sunday Supper at Chelsea Market", is an open-to-the-public fundraiser that benefits industry's future talents.
The inaugural event will transform Chelsea Market's 400-foot concourse into one long "supper table" serving a farm-to-table, multi-course dinner for 250 guests. Currence will be highlighting his food philosophy of "Fresh, Local, Fun" by contributing Smoked Scallop Boudin to the meal. For each course, "Sunday Supper" guests will share several family-style options with wines from Chelsea Wine Vault.
The event will take place from 7 - 11 p.m. on Sunday, March 29. Reservations are $176 for James Beard Foundation members and $220 for non-members and can be made by calling 212.627.2308 or visiting http://jamesbeard.org/chelseamarket.
