Awards

The October issue of Bon Appétit unveils the winners of the 11th Annual Bon Appétit Awards. The honors are awarded to the "most inspirational, influential, and innovative" tastemakers in the world of food. The headline honor, Chef of the Year, went to Michael Psilakis, head chef at Manhattan's Anthos, for being the person who "totally reinvented" Greek cuisine. I'm not too surprised by the unveiling, as I met Psilakis at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen. The chef, here with Anthos business partner Donatella Arpaia, has been one of the most talked-about chefs this year.

Psilakis follows in the footsteps of last year's winner, Momofuku chef David Chang. For a full list of all this year's Bon Appetit Award winners, read more

Yesterday, the VIPs of the culinary community took off their chef's coats and headed down the red carpet to their very own awards show. Considered the Oscars of eating, the James Beard Awards are the food world's most prestigious honors. With categories covering the entire spectrum of the industry — cookbooks, journalism, chefs, restaurants, and media — the event brought out the best of the best.

The big winner of the night was Chicago's Grant Achatz, who was voted the nation's top chef by the foundation. Other winners include Mario Batali and partner Joe Bastianich for outstanding restaurateurs and San Francisco's Craig Stoll of Delfina for best chef in the Pacific.

To take a look at a list of winners and a gallery of the celebs on the red carpet, including Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Katie Lee Joel, Wylie Dufresne, Kim Cattrall, Jacques Pepin, and Todd English, read more

A little over a month ago, we tipped you off to the 2008 James Beard Awards Long List, and well the time has come: the long list is now a short list. This morning the official list of nominees was released. There are 52 categories including cookbooks, journalism articles, television, radio, web, restaurant design, and most importantly the restaurants and chefs themselves.

To discover some of the biggest award nominees, just read more

You may know the James Beard Awards, and you might also know the Food Network Awards, but have you heard of the Golden Clog Awards?

Food author Michael Ruhlman — you may remember him from The Next Iron Chef — and bad boy Anthony Bourdain have put their heads together and have created the Golden Clog Awards. They said it's born out of "too many beers and late night yakatori," and I think it's just downright fun. The categories are hysterical, and their reasons even more so. Bourdain has actually managed to nominate himself for an award even! The actual awards will take place this Friday, but if you're curious to see the categories — including "The Alton" and "The Douchebag" — and nominees, read more

The first round of nominees for the 2008 James Beard Awards have just been announced. Well not really, the judges were sent the "long list" earlier today, and the folks at Grub Street managed to get their grubby little hands on a copy.

The list is the best of the best in the US, and features quite a broad range. The categories are Restaurateur, Best Regional Chef (separate categories for each region), Pastry Chef, Rising Star Chef, Chef, Restaurant, Service, Wine Service, Wine & Spirits Professional, and Best New Restaurant.

It's interesting to me that New York City gets its own category, but since it's such a hot bed of culinary delights, I guess it's only fair to the rest of the Northeast. The lists definitely run the gamut of flavors and styles. There are some obvious names — like Mario Batali, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Wolfgang Puck — but there are some newcomers as well. Here at Sugar HQ, we're excited by the inclusion of several of our new fave eateries (SPQR and Spruce in San Francisco).

If you're curious, check out the entire long list of nominees. It's interesting to note that the cookbooks, newspaper articles, webcasts/radio, and restaurant design are not on this list. Those will surely be announced in the weeks to come, and when they do, we'll definitely let you know!

So, were any of your favorite chefs or restaurants on the long list? Do you feel that your region is well represented?

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Yesterday, in New York City's J. Javits Center, celebrity chef Martin Yan, Lee Anne "Top Chef" Wong, and 300 Chinese restaurateurs gathered for the Fourth Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Show (try saying that fast).

The awards are broken down into ten categories — Overall Excellence, Regional Cuisine, Take-Out, Buffets, Best Value, Signature Dish, Rising Stars, Nutrition-Friendly Menus, Asian Fusion, and Metro Favorites — and there are 100 winners on each list. This year competition was open to all Chinese restaurants in the US; there were more than 43,000 participants from all 50 states. The winners were then chosen by a mystery diner program — anonymous visits and evaluations of each restaurant — as well as votes from diners and the public as a whole.

To find out if your local restaurant made the list, check out their website or download the pdf.

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In the upcoming issue of Bon Appetit magazine — available on newstands September 11, 2007 — the results for the 10th Annual Bon Appetit Awards will be revealed. However, if you can't wait that long I've got the results right here. The awards are given to chefs, writers, and artisans who have changed the way America eats. The main honor, Chef of the Year, is being presented to David Chang of Momofuku in New York. He has "energized a new generation of diners" and "strips away all the nonsense of fine dining." If you recall, 30-year-old Chang was also the winner of the 2007 James Beard Award Rising Star Chef. I've never been to his restaurants, but I know that next time I head out to New York I'll definitely get in line!

To see who the other Bon Appetit Award winners are, read more

It was cool to find out that we were nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award for Best Food Blog and Best Blog Design, but I think it would be even cooler if we won! There are tons of other amazing sites in the running - so I'm not sure how we'll do, but if you have a spare moment, could you be a doll and vote for YumSugar? It would really make my week!

Thanks everyone!

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone who has voted for Fab to win a Webby! You all are so awesome. Ok, I need to ask you to keep the voting coming. If the Webbys are the Oscars of the web, the Blogger's Choice Awards are the People's Choice Awards of the web. Fab has been nominated in two categories:

• Best Blog Design
• Best Shopping Blog

Yes you do have to do a little sign up but when do you not have to these days? Your votes are MUCH APPRECIATED since Fab has a measly 18 votes as of right now. Thanks, peace and love!