Twin Cities stacks Beard semis

Like any job, it’s been a learning curve here at FSN headquarters for your humble editor. I knew nothing about the restaurant industry when I started. Before being anointed FSN editor, I wrote for all three of our parent company’s publications, which are the Restaurant Finance Monitor, an exclusive, monthly, national newsletter focused entirely on the financial side of large restaurant companies; Franchise Times, a national publication focused on—you guessed it—the franchising industry; and Foodservice News. It was a massive crash course in the industry.

FSN was rewarding from the get-go, allowing me to get out of the office and meet the entrepreneurs and chefs who are the industry. Dealing largely with the independent restaurateur has forced me to engage more fully in the subject of food—when I wrote about restaurant “companies,” the product was the franchise and its system, and the food merely part of the system.

This increased food focus has been good on several levels. On the macro, it’s educated me on the country’s food network as a whole, and on the micro, it’s made me a better home cook. Somewhere in the middle, it’s put me in touch with many interesting and knowledgeable people—owners, chefs and, yes, even sales reps.

In recent years, the term “chef” has joined easily with the term “celebrity,” which I still don’t know what to make of. I’ve always thought of chefs as having a similar mental makeup as writers—people who enjoy presenting their creation to the consuming public, which takes a certain amount of ego, but that ego is kept in check by a desire to not attract much attention to oneself. And I think, to a large degree, the best chefs—like the best writers—still have that mental makeup. For example, I don’t know La Belle Vie’s Tim McKee personally, but I’m guessing, based on his skills, he could make a lot more noise for himself if he so desired.

And that goes for the rest of the Minnesota chefs who made the list of semifinalists for James Beard Foundation Awards (the Beard awards are the top honors for culinary professionals). By the time you read this, the finalists will have been announced, but it’s no small feat what Minnesota—and the Twin Cities specifically—accomplished in the semis with the number of nominees in multiple categories, narrowed from about 10,000 submissions.

Among Mario Batali, Jean-George Vongerichten, Wolfgang Puck and Richard Melman are Richard and Larry D’Amico for the Outstanding Restaurateur Award.

Stuck in the list of Outstanding Restaurant semifinalists with New York City’s Gramercy Tavern and Jean George, San Francisco’s Boulevard and Chicago’s Spiaggia is Lucia’s Restaurant & Wine Bar in Minneapolis.

Outstanding Wine Service? Yep. Got one there. La Belle Vie. Rising Star Chef? Heck yes. The semifinalist in that category is Saffron’s Sameh Wadi.

And for Best Chef Midwest? Four Twin Cities chefs made the semifinal list of 20: Isaac Becker of the 112 Eatery, Mr. McKee, Alexander Roberts of Restaurant Alma and Lenny Russo of Heartland. I’ve had the good fortune to eat meals from all these chefs during my tenure, and, while I’m no food critic, the meals I’ve had have been both great, and consistent. McKee and Roberts were finalists last year for the award.

The semifinal announcement results goes a long way to quieting those that said the Twin Cities unique dining scene was in serious decline, particularly after a number of high-profile closings last year.

FSN last did a Top Ten Chefs list at the end of 2005 (visit the archive at www.foodservicenews.net) and while some of the restaurants have closed, nine of those top chefs are in a restaurant kitchen (one, Seth Bixby Daugherty, formerly of Cosmos, is working to improve meals at public schools through his Real Food Initiatives foundation). The dining scene in the Twin Cities hasn’t decayed, it’s adapted. And there are many new faces making noise that might crack our top ten when we roll out another list later this year.
Congratulations to the Beard semifinalists. Make a point of visiting their restaurants and support their efforts.


The bloat

A New York Times article last month titled “The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party’s Over” was an interesting read for me. It detailed various food enthusiasts battle with weight gain given the “foodie” climate of overindulgence. (And I hate the word “foodie.” And I hate even more when people proudly proclaim themselves a “foodie.” Might as well call yourself a “breathie” too. And what’s with that Gourmet PBS show “Diary of a Foodie”? Not a bad show, but the intro is so fast paced, the narrator so serious, you’d think they were war correspondents. Please.)

But the Times article. It got me thinking about my own shocking discovery a couple months ago: That I don’t need a belt to hold up my pants anymore. I’ve purchased jeans with a 38 waist and 34 inseam for many years to clothe what two decades of hockey and soccer does to warp a body—oversize legs and a narrow waist. I’d have to buy a oversize pant to fit around my mutant thighs, and cinch ‘em up with a belt.

With age comes a shifting metabolism, and a lifestyle that requires most waking hours spent at a computer. Throw in that the job has turned me into an experimenting home cook, and now I don’t need that belt. I’m not a vain person, but I have noticed a few changes—most notably, back pain. It’s amazing what an extra 25 pounds around the middle can do to your lumbar vertebrae.

That’s nothing compared to the Fat Pack members in the article, stories that range from the slightly hefty diabetes deniers (it’s over diagnosed, one said. Excuse me? We’re surrounded by high-fructose corn syrup) to the morbidly obese and near death (eGullet founder Jason Perlow)—all foodies, dedicated to trying everything—usually with a lot of pork product—many times per day.

But when an indulgence monument like Mario Batali says he’d like to drop 40 pounds, one has to think a sea change in the extreme “foodie” lifestyle is on the way (imagine Batali joining the ranks of fitness impresarios). You can find me at my neighborhood Y, trying to follow Batali’s lead.


Of note

Check out the Dish: Cuisine for Change event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul on April 24. Twenty area restaurants are participating. Proceeds benefit Second Harvest Heartland. Visit www.2harvest.org for details.