New York--It was light, witty and all in good taste as a Who's Who of the culinary set turned out for the first James Beard Awards.
Held aboard the luxury liner MS New Yorker earlier this month, the black-tie party drew more than 800 prominent "foodies," including leading American chefs, sommeliers, food writers and others in the industry.
Organized under the umbrella of the non-profit James Beard Foundation, the awards honor the memory of the late cookbook author, cooking teacher and culinary consultant, whose legendary career earned him the sobriquet "America's dean of gastronomy."
"It's sort of a coming of age for the fine-food world. At last, we have our own Academy Awards," said Peter Kump, food writer, teacher and president of the James Beard Foundation, a culinary-education organization based in Beard's former town house in Manhattan.
The top toque of the night went to the chef to the stars, Wolfgang Puck, chef-owner of Los Angeles' Spago, Eureka Cafe and soon-to-open Granita restaurants, who was named as the Farberware Millennium Great American Chef of the Year. Mr. Puck was unable to attend.
In the regional category, Rick Bayless, chef-owner of Chicago's Frontera Grill and Topolobampo restaurants, was named best chef in the Midwest. Mr. Bayless also failed to attend; he was busy attending his wife, Deann, at the birth of their daughter, Lane.
The Sandeman Restaurant of the Year Award went to David Bouley, chef-owner of New York's Bouley, which opened in 1987.
During the pre-awards cocktail reception, the guests -- many of them clutching a concoction of grenadine, orange mint syrup, rum and orange seltzer decorated with a feather that was created by Oklahoma City chef John Bennett -- nibbled on cheese and pate and exchanged memories of Beard.
To prompt them, the salon featured a huge, bow-tied bust of Beard sculpted in ice and another carved from a 75-pound chunk of Wisconsin Cheddar cheese by chef Charles Saunders of Max's Grille in Boca Raton, Fla. "What better way to immortalize him than in this cheese?" said Mr. Saunders, who labored for a week on his creation.
Not to be outdone, pastry chef Albert Kumin of Vie de France's International Pastry Arts Center in Elmsford, N.Y., unveiled "the James," a 3-foot-tall image of an aproned Beard, chiseled from a 70-pound slab of chocolate. "He was a gentleman," said Mr. Kumin reverently, recalling Beard's kind words to him when he was the pastry chef at the then-new Four Seasons restaurant here.
