Local restaurant boosters should sigh with collective disappointment: St. Louis’ Gerard Craft didn’t win the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest.
Instead, Alexander Roberts of Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis landed that honor, the foundation just announced from New York’s Lincoln Center.
Craft, of course, helms Niche Restaurant and Taste by Niche in Benton Park and Brasserie by Niche in the Central West End. This marks his second consecutive year as a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Award, the culinary world’s pre-eminent honor.
The Midwest category includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Vying with Craft and Roberts for the best-chef title in that category were Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery in Minneapolis; Colby Garrelts of Bluestem in Kansas City, Mo.; and Lenny Russo of Heartland in St. Paul, Minn.
This article appears in May 1-31, 2010.