Advancing to the final round in the competition for James Beard Awards (the Oscars of the culinary profession), we have four superb chefs from Seattle. (Last month we published the list of semi-finalists over on Examiner.com, complete with pictures.)
The nominees for best chef, Pacific Northwest, are: Maria Hines of Tilth Restaurant in Wallingford, Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez of Harvest Vine in Madison Park and Txori in Belltown, Ethan Stowell of Union (downtown), Tavolata (Belltown), How to Cook a Wolf (Queen Anne), and Anchovies & Olives (Capitol Hill), Cathy Whims, Jason Wilson of Crush on East Madison. Cathy Whims of Nostrano in Portland rounds out the Northwest nominees.
Seattle's own Tom Douglas, the entrepreneur behind Dahlia Lounge, Café Sport, Lola's, Palace Kitchen and Serious Pie (not to mention Culinary Summer Camp and a raft of charitable events) is in the running for the second year for the honor of America's Outstanding Restaurateur. (That's Tom on the right; he's up against some heavy hitters: New York restaurant mogul Drew Nieporent and Richard Mehlman of Lettuce Entertain You.)
In the journalism category, Rebekah Denn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was nominated for feature writing (she won a couple of years ago as well; not that it helped her keep a job when the paper dumped the entire food section, a story for another time), and local scribe Laura Shapiro was nominated for her columns in Gourmet.
Back to the chefs! There's an opening at the Hunt Club, just off the comfortable lobby of the jewel-box Hotel Sorrento: a restaurant of understated elegance, paneled booths, dark leather banquettes. And a kitchen in search of an executive chef. So sound the bugles, it's going to be a real-life Top Chef competition! Life imitates the art of TV reality shows! "We thought it was a great opportunity to make the entire hiring process a little more interesting," says Sorrento GM Jeff Jobe. Wanna try out? Submit your resume and bio to thehunt@hotelsorrento.com by Friday, April 3rd. And be prepared to cook your ass off.
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