A Saucy congrats goes to local chefs Gerard Craft of Niche, Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe and Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus Restaurant and sommelier (and Sauce columnist) Glenn Bardgett of Annie Gunn’s, who have been named semifinalists for the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards – the chefs in the Best Chef Midwest category and Bardgett in the Outstanding Wine Service category. Semifinalists were announced this morning; finalists for the prestigious award, dubbed “the Oscars of the food world,” will be announced March 21, with the winners announced at a gala ceremony in New York on May 9. The news comes just two days after Willmann, Josh Galliano of Monarch and Anthony Devoti of Five Bistro garnered national attention with inclusion on Food and Wine magazine’s list of People’s Best New Chef nominees, a new award where diners vote to determine the winner.
In a Saucy turn of events, The Scoop unexpectedly became the bearer of the exciting news this morning when sending a text message of well wishes to the three chefs. Neither Craft nor Nashan had realized that he had been named a semifinalist. All three chefs expressed their excitement for the honor. “My only words are I love U STL,” texted Nashan. Willmann responded, “I’m so excited for STL and all of her great cooks!” While Craft texted, “The feeling is good with big plans in the works.” However, he did not enumerate what those “big plans” were.
This article appears in February 2011.