Food and the people who write about it

The 2008 James Beard Foundation award winners were announced this past weekend, and as always, JBF has the results updated on the website super fast. (A side note: They've done a complete redesign of their site since I had last visited. My recollection is that the navigation has improved, but even more striking is that the appearance has dramatically changed. A bold look without too much Flash.)

Greg Patent's latest book, A Baker's Odyssey (which I wrote about here), was a finalist in the 'Baking and Dessert' category, although the winner in that category went to Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor (which I know nothing about, but it sounds like good idea).

Heidi Swanson, the author of one of the food blogs I follow, '101 Cookbooks', was a finalist in the 'Healthy Focus' category for her cookbook Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking. It's not just the site's recipes that entice -- her food photos are gorgeous.

No Hawaiians were nominated for Best Chef in the Pacific region (all finalists were in California), but the Best Chef for the Southwest region (I'd be interested in hearing how they decided on their regions) is Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder. This note-worthy chef is not in Aspen, or even Denver, but in little ol' Boulder. I love it. I haven't dined there, myself, but we've heard good things about it. Maybe I'll get there on one of my future visits. (Question to The Folks: Have you eaten there?)

And the ever-reliable Epicurious.com -- a site I couldn't cook without -- won for 'Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition.' (Nice concise description for that category, eh?)

And a personal recommendation:
Another of my own favorite recipe blogs is 'Simply Recipes.' I diligently forward any ice cream recipes to Sister (who has a machine) and have promised to send all of this summer's zucchini recipes to The Folks in anticipation of their annual squashy bounty. (Sister reports that the Strawberry Frozen Yogurt -- made with fresh berries from their local farmers' market -- was a big success at a recent gathering.)

P.S. Upon further exploration, I see that the JBF site is still under construction, so not all functions are up yet. A work in progress.

P.P.S. Sorry about the double post (those of you who get this via feed). Stupid Ctrl key so close to the Shift key....!