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Friday, February 13, 2009
Bern's, Zack Gross of Z Grille, and Derek Barnes of Derek's Culinary Casual make semifinals for Beard Awards
Posted by Brian Ries on Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Traditionally, smaller cities and less atypical chefs rarely make the Beard Foundation's short list for their annual restaurant awards. This year, that seems to have abated a bit.
Bern's Steak House has made the grade for Outstanding Restaurant -- a national award that includes mostly established, big name restaurants. But they also picked Zack Gross of Z Grille as one of twenty people on the shortlist for Best Chef: South Region. A beard judge must have sampled his Dr. Pepper ribs or Butterfinger egg roll.
Sarasota also has a name on the list -- Derek Barnes of Derek's Culinary Casual. It's a well-deserved honor for a chef who's blazed a trail towards more innovating cooking in the area for years.
Congrats to all of them.
Check out the entire list after the break:
Comments (3)
Showing 1-3 of 3
I'm glad to see the JBF also chooses restaurants in out of the way places, not just the huge metropolitan areas... who knew Des Moines had a culinary scene? Of course, I imagine people are saying that same thing about Tampa...doh!
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Z-Grille hardly deserves a Beard award for anything. It is a decent place and Zack Gross is obviously a hardworking guy, but not "Beard" worthy by any means. No one in Tampa Bay is, as there is a real restaurant/chef drought. Derek Barnes is truly a great chef though, and he shines even from that sketchy little area from which his restaurant hails!
That's ridiculous to claim a chef/restaurant drought in Tampa Bay. What about Chris Ponte, or celebrated Tom Pritchard? BT Nguyen-Batley and John Harris? Eric Neri hosted Masaharu Morimoto among others at TB Wine and Food Festival last year and will likely do the same this year. Surely you jest. Chef Marty Blitz has in fact been named a rising star by the very same foundation. Meanwhile, lest we forget Smoke on Platt and Grille One Sixteen have both been added to Florida Trend's Golden Spoon. I'm from Boston and perhaps the area doesn't have restaurants like O Ya and L'Espalier; Tampa Bay is growing as a culinary destination, and its foundation is already strong. I do think we could use a few more dessert stops like Harry Waugh's, and I'm hoping William Dean continues to develop exquisite truffles.
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