A Firm Middle Finger: Thoughts on the Beard Foundation Awards and Why We Are Not on Their Radar
Well it would appear that the otherwise great James Beard Foundation (you don’t write, you don’t call), have announced their awards for the year Monday night.
And, like all other years since 2004, the City of the Ciudad got shafted at their awards ceremony. Fine. Good.
That’s fine. For what we do here, isn’t on your radar. The high end chef has a hard time here. We are not a town of monocultures, of big white men cooking big white food for big white people. We are, instead the tropics. A rainforest of diversity with elaborate waggle dances going on.
Take for an example the truck culture we have here in Southern California. We kind of take it for granted now, but the thought of gourmet catering trucks specializing in a food is still a revolutionary idea. No insular high end restaurant (or storefront even) could have originally supported say, Korean BBQ tacos, or dosas, or empanadas, but here in the City of the Ciudad, they are here, in fact, just a Twitter feed away.
Oh and if you live in the United States, we still make a good chunk of the food that you eat, and the beverages you drink.
Related to that we have been the foot soldiers for year round CSAs and even the dreaded farmers markets.
And related to all that, can I mention the recent Artisanal LA festival that went on? There were a lot of great folk there. Jolokia Ghost Pepper in a Grinder from All Spice Café. Hooch from the Greenbar Collective. Creme Caramel LA. Good. Eagle Rock Brewery. Mystic Pizza L.A. Winnetka Farms. On and on. Each stall filled with people who are carefully and independently thinking about food, and not looking for someone on high to say what is good, and what is important.
So yeah. Fine. Here’s a firm middle finger. We’ll just keep making the food and drink that you will be eating in a few years time.
It’s sheer craziness on their part, ignoring the vitality & innovation that occurs in your region. One of my tutors at catering college was from Southern California, & she was fiercely proud of the area & its multiculturalism. It’s influences enrich a culture, whether they choose to acknowledge the fact or not..