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James Beard Foundation awards finalists named

—Phil Vettel

February 14, 2009

The James Beard Foundation released its list of semifinalists for its 2009 Restaurant and Chef Awards, and there was good news for many Chicago-area chefs.

Jean Joho and Paul Kahan were nominated in the outstanding chef category (won in past years by such Chicago names as Charlie Trotter, Rick Bayless and last year's winner, Grant Achatz), and their respective restaurants, Everest and Blackbird, were nominated in the outstanding restaurant category.

For the fifth straight year, Rich Melman was nominated in the outstanding restaurateur category, and his latest restaurant, the four-star L2O in Lincoln Park, was nominated for the best new restaurant Award.

The best chef: Great Lakes category included 11 Chicago-area nominees: Suzy Crofton of Crofton on Wells, Christophe David of NoMI, Curtis Duffy of Avenues, Kendal Duque of Sepia, Koren Grieveson of Avec, Michael Maddox of Le Titi de Paris (Arlington Heights), Martial Noguier of Café des Architectes, Arun Sampanthavivat of Arun's, Bruce Sherman of North Pond, Giuseppe Tentori of Boka and Paul Virant of Vie (Western Springs).

More than 400 judges will vote on the semifinalists, winnowing the list down to five nominees per category. Those finalists will be announced March 23 at a special event at Frontera Grill. Another round of voting will produce the winners, whose names will be announced May 4 at the Beard Foundation's awards ceremony and gala reception in New York.

A complete list of semifinalists is posted on jamesbeard.org/awards.