James Beard Awards 2009 Nominees Announced

The final nominees for the 2009 James Beard Awards—routinely described as “the Oscars of the food world”—have been announced. On the New York front, chef/owner Dan Barber of Blue Hill is up for the Outstanding Chef Award, against Craft/Top Chef mogul Tom Colicchio and three other chefs from across the country. Pichet Ong, whose restaurant P*ong closed this past weekend, appears in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category. Momofuku Ko (and its accompanying, ultra-competitive reservations system) is up for Best New Restaurant, and in the Outstanding NY chef category, Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony is up against Terrance Brennan, WD~50’s Wylie Dufresne, Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune, and The Modern’s Gabriel Kreuther. This year’s ceremony will highlight the achievements of “Women in Food;” in the meantime, catch up with our coverage of last year’s awards here. A full list of nominees can be found at the Awards’ website; following a Flash-heavy intro depicting wonderwheels of dancing spatulas and spoons.