Celebrity chef Bobby Flay and I were dressed alike at the 18th annual James Beard Foundation awards—in tuxedos with straight silver ties instead of the more traditional bowties. Still, no one in the row of paparazzi lining the red carpet leading to Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall took a picture of me. I guess they could tell us apart, and knew Flay was co-hosting the awards with actress Kim Cattrall, one of the stars of “Sex and the City.”
The awards have come a long way when it comes to glitz factor. I’m told the first ceremony was a sort of booze cruise around Manhattan. Then it was moved to a ballroom at The New York Marriott Marquis hotel, where it was held for many years. Now it’s performed on a grand stage at one of the most prestigious concert halls in the country. Several websites report on its proceedings live.
Past hosts have included fairly well-known celebrities, but I don’t think any of them had hit movies showing on screens across the country at the same moment that they were introducing presenters for awards for the best restaurant in the Midwest.
The James Beard Awards used to be called the Oscars of the restaurant world, but no longer. Now just calling them “The Beard Awards” is enough.
Still, despite what I’m sure are months of planning and a desire for a smooth display of aplomb and professionalism, the award presentations do stumble amusingly.
For example, Traci des Jardins, chef of Jardinière in San Francisco, who last year won the Beard award for best chef in the Pacific states, seemed unaware that she was supposed to be onstage to announce this year’s winner, and a couple of uneasy minutes—or maybe 45 seconds—went by before she showed up on stage.
Once winners were announced, they were for some reason required to walk the entire length of the stage to accept their medallions and give their speeches. Some were clearly not accustomed to dressing in formalwear and looked awkward. They are chefs after all, not movie stars.
And many of them don’t like giving acceptance speeches and would have been glad to have received their medallions in the mail. But the trappings of glamour do seem to be the price of celebrity.
Recently, I expressed concern about the direction chef stardom is going—where personality is more important than food, where good looks and social tension on reality TV shows grab the public’s interest.
But the fine-dining world seems to be doing all right, as shown by the fact that it can simultaneously enjoy the celebrity of some members of its ranks and still hand out awards to those who don’t know how to act in front of a camera.
The star factor certainly seems to be working for the Beard Foundation, which has added new members to its roster of award sponsors, including spirits distributors and a high-end car company, which backed the Best New Restaurant award and gave the winner, Michel Richard of the new Centro Michel Richard restaurant in Washington, D.C., a year’s lease on a luxury hybrid.
But what most of the chefs seem to like most is merely getting a chance to get together, all in one place, to be proud of their profession and glad for the surrogate family they have created.
In accepting this year’s award for Outstanding Chef, Grant Achatz, the executive chef of Alinea in Chicago who last year was diagnosed with advanced cancer in his mouth, thanked the many chefs in the room who had offered help and support, which he said “was critical at a time when I needed it.”
Based on the standing ovation Achatz received, everyone seemed to appreciate that more than the glare of the camera.