Don’t look now, but reservations at Niche just got a little more difficult to secure.
If you haven’t heard the news, Gerard Craft won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Midwest last night at the annual James Bread Foundation awards gala in Chicago.
Craft had been a finalist for the award six times (four in succession) but had never won the restaurant industry’s highest honor, often dubbed the “culinary Oscars.” No local chef had ever won a Beard award and Craft was the only semi-finalist from Missouri to advance to this year’s final round. (Patrick Connolly, a native St. Louisan and the former exec chef at Basso, won the Best Chef: Northeast honor in 2008 while at Radius restaurant in Boston. He told us today that Craft's award was "rooted, established, and nurtured--all in St. Louis. It doesn't happen that way all the time, but it's awesome. It paid off.")
So what does a James Beard award mean for Gerard Craft and for St. Louis? SLM caught up with him a few hours ago, amidst a flurry of phone calls and attaboys.
So how do you feel the day after winning a James Beard Award?
I returned home to find a big, “Congrats, Daddy” banner that my girls made, so I’m feeling pretty damn good.
So you’re sitting at the awards ceremony last night, waiting for the Best Chef: Midwest announcement to be made. Be honest: somewhere in the back of your mind, weren’t you thinking that “you know, after six shots at this, I’m due?”
Actually, I was the most relaxed I’d ever been, because I had convinced myself that after six times I was never going to win. I didn’t even bother to write a speech.
Doesn’t such an award add pressure to what the Niche Food Group is already doing here? It has to.
Not really. The award is validation for what we’ve done...but we’ve always had big plans. We’re always pushing, regardless. I definitely would like to see more Beard awards in St. Louis—I hope this is the first of many.
What have other Beard winners told you to expect after all the hoopla wears off?
That the accolades you receive after this award--as well Food & Wine’s awards—gives you opportunity. It fills your restaurants, temporarily. But you have to remember that many of the award-winning restaurants fade away, they’re not around anymore.
Right. A Beard award could also be looked upon as an opportunity to sit back and slack off.
We never have and we never will. We’ll continue to challenge ourselves, every day, by constantly asking “Is this good enough? Could it be better?”
