James Beard nominations announced

And with 62 separate award categories (that even tops the L.A. Press Club), there are only five L.A. nominees. Did I read that correctly? Heck, Flagstaff probably did better. It was nice to see Los Angeles Magazine get two nominations - one for Patric Kuh's reviews and one for Jesse Katz's October piece on L.A.'s taco trucks. Aside from that, Wolfgang Puck's Cut at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was nominated for best new restaurant, Spago's Lee Hefter was nominated for outstanding chef, and NY design firm Memo Productions was nominated for its work at Pizzeria Mozza. And that's it, folks. NY dominated, as usual, with SF and Chicago getting a fair amount of notice. The awards ceremony will be in NY on May 7. News release Full list