It was almost a year ago today that Gerard Craft stood on a podium in Chicago and accepted the 2015 James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Midwest,” the first time a St. Louis chef had been so honored. SLM caught up with Craft the next day.
This year, four St. Louis-area chefs were nominated as semifinalists in the category, and in April, both Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe and Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus (below) were announced as finalists (Ben Poremba and Mike Randolph did not advance).
Nashan and Willmann had been semifinalists in the “Best Chef: Midwest” category multiple times, but only Nashan ever advanced to the finals (in 2014).
The other finalists this year included St. Louis native Paul Berglund (Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis); Justin Carlisle (Ardent in Milwaukee); and Lenny Russo, (Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market in St. Paul), his sixth nomination in seven years, according to the Post-Dispatch’s Ian Froeb, who handicapped the three chefs this morning.
Twitter photo
It was Paul Berglund (right) who stood on the podium this year.
The chef thanked his team ("I love you guys sooo very much") as well as "all of America's farmers who are showing us that, farm by farm, positive change can really happen in our society."
And for the second guessers who are thinking that "yeah, but a St. Louis chef won the award last year," think again. As Froeb pointed out, the pool of James Beard voters (of which he is one, as am I) is much too large, diverse, and uncoordinated "to worry about trends." In other words, "because a St. Louis chef won last year should have no impact on whether one wins this year." (At least a St. Louis native won.)
The James Beard Awards have been compared to the Oscars of the culinary world, and as such (and as trite as it may sound), it truly is an honor just to be nominated. We expect to hear that comment--and many more--when we catch up with the two Kevins. We'll update this post when we do.
In the meantime, a hearty "Congratulations, chefs!" will suffice.
UPDATE, Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. This morning, Kevin Willmann was unavailable for comment, but SLM was able to reach Kevin Nashan en route from Chicago back to St. Louis, still reeling from the James Beard Foundation awards gala. "It's fun and an honor to get to hang out with the people you read about, some of them your idols,” Nashan said. “But most exiting was to see people like Jonathan Waxman get honored…he’s been at this a long time and is still killing it. Guys like that inspire me and my team to move forward, to get better, to stay relevant.”
Follow George on Twitter @stlmag_dining or send him an email at gmahe@stlmag.com. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
