SF Chefs’ Mixed Night Out At The Beard Awards

Nate Appleman grins through a victory photo shoot

Results were mixed at last night’s James Beard Foundation Chef and Restaurant Awards for the Bay Area, but a Lincoln Center full of some of the country’s best food and drink, and a night of lavish after-parties, did much to assuage disappointment.

Nate Appleman of A16 and SPQR took home an early-evening victory with the Rising Star Chef award. Even though he predicted a win in an interview with us last week, the reality seemed to shake him up all the same. “I’m tingling all over,” he told us backstage. “You know, I thought [the Best New Chef award from] Food & Wine would affect me more, but this is overwhelming.” (Appleman picked up the Food and Wine honor last month.)

Douglas Keane, of Healdsburg’s Cyrus, did not expect to win Best Chef in the Pacific region. “I had no preconceived thoughts about winning,” he said. “This is my third year here. It’s almost worse to win because you have to get up and talk. The last two years I’ve gotten nervous right before, and when they called someone else I’ve gone, ‘Whew.’”

From left: Nancy Oakes, Mary Milliken, Traci Des Jardines

Michael Pollan picked up an award for the book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, but was a no-show. Meanwhile, Yank Sing, the dim sum palace with two locations in the financial district, snagged an America’s Classic award, which recognizes, “small, regional restaurants, watering holes, shacks, lunch counters, and similar down-home eateries,” according to the foundation.

Boulevard lost out to Jean Georges in the best restaurant category, but Nancy Oakes was celebrating all the same, working the crowd with Traci Des Jardines and Boulevard chef de cuisine Ravi Kapur. She told us in an earlier interview that she had hoped Jean Georges and Babbo would split the New York vote, but had no luck there. “New York is a tough nut to crack,” Oakes said, smiling. “We all come here every year, but not everybody makes it to San Francisco.”

[Photos: Helen Rosner (Appleman) Adam Martin (Oakes, Milliken, Des Jardines)

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SF Chefs’ Mixed Night Out At The Beard Awards