The James Beard Award "long list" is out, and while it hardly guarantees any more Bay Area love than the awards saw fit to dole out last year (which was almost none), there are at least a dozen local chefs and restaurants in contention for shortlisting.

The nominations process at the James Beard Awards is a bit opaque, and it always involves a semifinalist stage in which some 20 contenders are named in every category. These lists will be pared down to about five per category in the coming months, and the "Oscars of the food world" will then take place on June 10 in Chicago.

Last year's list of finalists was very light on Bay Area honorees, and in the category of Best New Restaurant, there was but a single West Coast nominee, Kann in Portland — which went on to win the prize. When the awards were announced last spring, the Bay Area was shut out of every major category.

This time around, half of the long list for Best Chef: California is from the Bay — last year saw four out of five finalists come from SoCal. And bucking with tradition at the Beard Awards, previous nominees who didn't win aren't getting automatic rollovers, so SingleThread's Kyle and Katina Connaughton aren't on this year's long list.

Daly City's venerable Koi Palace appears for the first time in the Outstanding Restaurant category, but it's oddly the only Bay Area entry in that 20-member semifinalist list. Not a single local restaurant owner makes the Outstanding Restaurateur list this year, and Sylvan Mishima Brackett is the sole Bay Area chef in the Outstanding Chef category.

In the New Restaurant category we have Kiln in San Francisco — the new Hayes Valley restaurant from former Sons & Daughters chef John Wesley and General Manager Julianna Yang — and Chez Noir down in Carmel.

Emily Lim of Dabao Singapore — a delivery-only and catering outfit — is the sole SF nominee to make the long list for Emerging Chef. And former Tartine baker Kristina Costa got a long-list nod for her pastry work at Loquat — the Hayes Valley bakery-cafe that took over the former 20th Century Cafe space in late 2022.

Pacific Cocktail Haven made the list in the Outstanding Bar category. And while Lazy Bear's spot in the Outstanding Wine and Beverage Program category went to The Morris this year, Lazy Bear was long-listed in the Outstanding Hospitality program category instead.

See the full list of Bay Area semifinalists below, and the complete national list is here (it's long). The James Beard Foundation will be announcing the finalists on April 3.

Outstanding Chef (presented by Hilton)

• Sylvan Mishima Brackett, Rintaro, San Francisco, CA

Outstanding Restaurant (presented by Acqua Panna® Natural Spring Water)

• Koi Palace, Daly City, CA

Emerging Chef (presented by S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Mineral Water)

• Emily Lim, Dabao Singapore, San Francisco, CA

Best New Restaurant

• Chez Noir, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
• Kiln, San Francisco, CA

Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker

• Kristina Costa, Loquat, San Francisco, CA

Outstanding Hospitality (presented by American Airlines)

• Lazy Bear, San Francisco, CA

Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

• The Morris, San Francisco, CA

Outstanding Bar

• Pacific Cocktail Haven, San Francisco, CA

Best Chef: California

• C-Y Chia and Shane Stanbridge, Lion Dance Cafe, Oakland, CA
• Geoff Davis, Burdell, Oakland, CA
• Azalina Eusope, Azalina’s, San Francisco, CA
• Rogelio Garcia, Auro, Calistoga, CA
• Srijith “Sri” Gopinathan, Copra, San Francisco, CA
• Jeong-In Hwang, San Ho Won, San Francisco, CA
• Kristina Liedags Compton, Hilda and Jesse, San Francisco, CA
• Buu “Billy” Ngo, Kru, Sacramento, CA
• Laura Ozyilmaz and Sayat Ozyilmaz, Dalida, San Francisco, CA
• Finn Stern, Daytrip, Oakland, CA

They did not take home a James Beard Award the other night in Chicago, however baker Chad Robertson, pastry chef Liz Prueitt, and chef Sam Goinsalvos still got a nice honor this week as Tartine Manufactory was named one of Food & Wine's ten Restaurants of the Year. The splashy new restaurant was a finalist for the Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, it landed on SFist's lists of best new restaurants in December, on the Chronicle's Top 100 last week, and it's basically a shoe-in for Bon Appetit's annual list too, but that won't arrive until August.

Says Food & Wine Editor in Chief Nilou Motamed, "This year’s ... winners prove that there’s never been a better time to eat in America. The 2017 list showcases restaurants that are ambitious, innovative and generous to their communities. From an inspired sandwich spot to an all-day wine bar, a white-linen fine-dining experience to a linen factory-turned-bakery, we love how these restaurants are expanding our experience of eating out.”

This list follows shortly on the announcement of Food & Wine's prestigious Best New Chefs list, on which this year's SF honoree is Val Cantu, chef-owner at Californios.

Tartine Manufactory is of course that former linen factory, and it is of course much more than a bakery, with all-day food service, a full-service Cal-Med-inspired dinner menu by Goinsalvos, a wine bar, and house-made ice cream and pastry. Goinsalvos has a deft hand with vegetables and lets meat dishes shine with simple preparations — like a thick ribeye steak served with house-made steak sauce. But yes, it wouldn't be Tartine without fantastic bread.

Below, the full list of this year's Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year honorees.

Here’s Looking At You, Los Angeles - Chef Jonathan Whitener
June’s All Day, Austin - Sommelier June Rodil
Le Coucou, New York City - Chef Daniel Rose
Olmsted, Brooklyn - Chef Greg Baxtrom
Roister, Chicago - Chef Andrew Brochu
Rooster Soup Co., Philadelphia - Chefs Michael Solomonov and Erin O’Shea
Tartine Manufactory, San Francisco - Chef Sam Goinsalvos, Baker Chad Robertson and Pastry Chef Liz Prueitt
Turkey and the Wolf, New Orleans - Chef Mason Hereford
Tusk, Portland, OR - Chef Sam Smith
Waypoint, Cambridge, MA - Chef Michael Scelfo

Related: The 15 Best New SF Restaurants Of 2016

The James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurants and chefs were last night in Chicago — the media awards were all announced last week — and the big San Francisco winner of the evening was Benu executive chef Corey Lee, who took home the second James Beard price of his career. Lee has been nominated in the Best Chef: West category for his work at Benu for five years straight, and he previously won in the Rising Star category in 2006 when he was chef de cuisine at The French Laundry.

You can see the full list of 2017 winners here, and the other win for the Bay Area came in the restaurant design category, where SingleThread, the new fine dining destination in Healdsburg, won the prize for restaurants under 75 seats.

San Francisco did not, alas, win any of the big national prizes this year for outstanding restaurant, chef, bar program, or best new restaurant (we had two finalists in the latter category, Tartine Manufactory and In Situ, however). And Eater National notes that Quince was a heavily favored contender in the Outstanding Restaurant category, only to be bested by Rick Bayless's longtime Chicago restaurant Topolobampo.

Both Bar Agricole, which annual gets a nod in the Outstanding Bar Program category going back half a decade, and Belinda Leong and Michael Suas of B. Patisserie who were again nominated in the Outstanding Baker category, are now becoming the Susan Luccis of these awards.

And as was announced several months ago, La Taqueria was honored this year in the America's Classics category for legacy restaurants.

Among the media award winners last week, though, were a few more Bay Area names: Smuggler's Cove owner Martin Cate and wife Rebecca Cate won in the beverage category for books for Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, published in 2016; and SF-based Thrillist editor Kevin Alexander won in the journalism category for his profile of the New York Times restaurant critic, "Finding Pete Wells: A Search for America's Most Dangerous Restaurant Critic."

Related: Tartine Manufactory And In Situ Among Finalists For 2017 James Beard Awards

Responding to criticism about the list's usual lack of diversity, and starting last year, the San Francisco Chronicle took the annual Rising Star Chefs feature out of the hands of critic Michael Bauer and left the choices up to other members of paper's food department, including Jonathan Kauffman, Tara Duggan, and Paolo Lucchesi. They repeated that with this year's class, who were featured in Sunday's paper, and for the first time (I'm pretty sure ever) the list includes not a single white male. Also, notably, the rising stars have been plucked from places besides the more expected, lauded, and Michelin-starred kitchens of the Bay Area.

As the team explains, "These are changing times for the restaurant industry, which is going through its most significant upheaval in years, a perfect storm of rising costs, staff shortages, saturation and, to be honest, an industry-wide realization that things — business models, pay equity, general morality — need to change if a business is going to be truly sustainable." So, they say, this year's list reflects who they think are among the food scene's "thought leaders" and culinary talents, and they've scrapped the age limitations that have been used for this list in the past — this year's class simply has to have lead their own kitchen for less than five years.

And, also, not all of these chefs are actually running brick-and-mortar kitchens yet.

The 2017 Rising Star Chef class is Reem Assil of Oakland-based Arab food pop-up/farmers' market stand Reem's, whose brick-and-mortar bakery is set to open next month; Chris Kiyuna, chef-partner at The Perennial in the mid-Market neighborhood, whose resume includes Front Porch and Coi; Tu David Phu of Vietnamese pop-up Ăn, which he plans to open as a brick-and-mortar next year; Fernay McPherson, the chef behind roving soul food pop-up Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement; and Michelle Minori, the 30-year-old behind the pasta menu at Barzotto, one of a number of "fancier" fast-casual establishments that have taken root in the last few years in SF.

After announcing a list made up of entirely white male chefs back in 2010, Bauer and the Chronicle's food department have made conscious efforts to diversify things in recent years, particularly starting with their 2015 Rising Star class which was made up entirely of pastry chefs — a field that tends to be dominated by women, and indeed three of the five chefs that year were women.

And now that this list has been helping catapult careers for Bay Area chefs for over 25 years now, it's about time that things should look a lot more diverse.

Previously: Chronicle Names Six Rising Star Chefs, Including Aatxe's Ryan Pollnow and Californios' Val Cantu

It's time again for Food & Wine Magazine's annual list of the Best New Chefs in the country, an honor that ranks up there in the industry with the James Beard Awards and Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants list when it comes to career-making for up-and-coming chefs. And this year's San Francisco honoree is Val Cantu of two-year-old Mission spot Californios, as the magazine announced in a press release today. All ten honorees fly to New York for the annual party tomorrow, April 4 — they're flown in on a Monday because it's a traditional industry night off — and they'll all be featured in the mag's July issue, and at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June.

Cantu previously was named a Chronicle Rising Star in 2016, and Californios earned a Michelin star right out of the gate in its first year, 2015. Cantu specializes in incorporating Mexican flavors and influences into high-end, modern, California cuisine.

"This is our favorite time of year at FOOD & WINE, when we get to celebrate our latest class of Best New Chefs," says Editor-in-Chief Nilou Motamed. "For me, there’s a special thrill in getting to share the news with our winners — nothing beats that moment of surprise and pure joy, when they realize their careers are about to change forever."

Criteria for the honor include running one's own kitchen, as an executive chef, for less than five years, which sometimes leads to relatively seasoned talents getting the honor in the middle of their careers. Last year's honorees, for instance, included relatively new and self-taught Lazy Bear chef David Barzelay, and Ravi Kapur, who opened Liholiho Yacht Club in 2015, but had previously spent two years as executive chef at Prospect and eight years in the kitchen at Boulevard, ultimately as its chef de cuisine.

But a list past years' honorees is a who's-who of the national food scene, proving that this list does a lot to catapult chefs' careers, including people like, in recent years, Saison's Joshua Skenes, Benu's Corey Lee, Meadowood's Christopher Kostow, and, in years' past, Thomas Keller, Nancy Oakes, and Stuart Brioza.

"It’s no surprise that this year’s class has really pushed the envelope, reimagining what restaurant cooking means in 2017," says Motamed.

Here's the full online announcement of this year's class of 10, and closer to the release of the July issue each chef will get a full profile, with a few recipe highlights as well. Below, the complete list.

Jay Blackinton, Hogstone’s Wood Oven, Orcas Island, WA

Val Cantu, Californios, San Francisco

Peter Cho, Han Oak, Portland, OR

Nina Compton, Compère Lapin, New Orleans

Diego Galicia and Rico Torres, Mixtli, San Antonio

Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer, Kismet, Los Angeles

Jordan Kahn, Destroyer, Los Angeles

Angie Mar, The Beatrice Inn, New York

Yoshi Okai, Otoko, Austin

Noah Sandoval, Oriole, Chicago

Previously: Two SF Chefs, Ravi Kapur And David Barzelay, Named Food & Wine Best New Chefs
Go Eat This: Kanpachi Crudo at Californios

The short list is in, and among the finalists — i.e. the actual nominees — for this years James Beard Foundation Awards are a number of San Francisco players, once again doing the local scene proud in what are often called the Oscars of the food world. In the category of Best New Restaurant in the country are both In Situ and Tartine Manufactory, and in the category of Best Chef: West, which includes chefs from California, Nevada, and Hawaii, are Corey Lee (Benu, In Situ, Monsieur Benjamin), and Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn).

On the semi-finalist list in that latter category, as we learned last month, were also the likes of Saison's Joshua Skenes, Liholiho Yacht Club's Ravi Kapur, Juhu Beach Club's Preeti Mistry, and Mourad's Mourad Lahlou. And this also means that in the Best New Restaurant category, the fancy and highly ambitious SingleThread in Healdsburg got the snub.

But plenty more local names that are familiar to the Beard Awards once again made the cut, including David Kinch (Manresa) and Christopher Kostow (Meadowood) who were both honored in the Outstanding Chef category; Quince, which is a finalist in the national Outstanding Restaurant category; Bar Agricole, which got its annual nomination in the Outstanding Bar Program category; and Belinda Leong and Michael Suas of B. Patisserie, who were nominated in the Outstanding Baker category.

And SingleThread did eke out a nomination in the Restaurant Design category along with Leo's Oyster Bar, which are two of the three nominees in the "under 75 seats" category for design, meaning the Bay Area has a strong chance of winning in this category.

As was announced earlier, the Mission's La Taqueria is also among a group of legacy restaurants being honored this year in the American Classics category.

Also, beloved Hayes Valley Tiki cocktail spot Smuggler's Cove got a nod in the books realm, for Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, by Martin Cate with Rebecca Cate.

Good luck to all, and stay tuned for the results of the awards following the ceremony in Chicago on May 1.

Previously: La Taqueria Wins Honorary James Beard Award

The lengthy list of semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation Awards is out, and there's plenty for the Bay Area to root for in nearly every category of these so-called food world Oscars. The next step in the process is for an independent volunteer panel of more than 600 judges to pore over the list and pare it down, with a short list out March 15, and the big awards, in Chicago, to take place on May 1.

Do keep those fingers crossed, because San Franciscans were completely, ever-so-rudely snubbed last year — but not to be left out of the heaping praise for La Taqueria, the James Beard folks did go ahead with an honorary award for that establishment last month, so perhaps they're back to their senses?

A few observations about the long list before it's shortened: Eater points out that Sara Hauman and Melissa Chou have each been nominated for the second time this year, for Rising Chef and Pastry Chef of the year, which is new in that they're both now at Mister Jiu's. Meanwhile, Inside Scoop observes that three of the Best New Restaurant nominees are locals — In Situ, Tartine Manufactory, and Single Thread. Nopa is also nominated for Outstanding Restaurant, now that it's a decade old, and Daniel Patterson, David Kinch, and Christopher Kostow are up for Outstanding Chef. At the bottom is the Best Chefs West list, dedicated to the region, and perhaps a bit filled out with inclusions like the rather humble if well-respected El Molino Central in Sonoma.

Best New Restaurant
Bastion, Nashville
Drifters Wife, Portland, ME
Esker Grove at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The Federal, Atlanta
Flora Street Cafe, Dallas
Gwen, Los Angeles
Han Oak, Portland, OR
In Situ, San Francisco
Katoi, Detroit
KYU, Miami
Le Coucou, NYC
No Anchor, Seattle
Olmsted, Brooklyn, NY
Oriole, Chicago
Pineapple and Pearls, Washington, D.C.
Roister, Chicago
Saint Leo, Oxford, MS
Saté Kampar, Philadelphia
Senia, Honolulu
Shibumi, Los Angeles
SingleThread, Healdsburg, CA
Smyth, Chicago
SRV, Boston
Sweet Home Café at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Tartine Manufactory, San Francisco
Turkey and the Wolf, New Orleans
Upper Bar Ferdinand, Seattle

Outstanding Baker
Evan Andres, Columbia City Bakery, Seattle
Dianna Daoheung, Black Seed Bagels, NYC
Elizabeth Degener, Enfin Farms, Cape May, NJ
Evrim Dogu, Sub Rosa Bakery, Richmond, VA
Tova du Plessis, Essen Bakery, Philadelphia
Ken Forkish, Ken’s Artisan Bakery, Portland, OR
Mark Furstenberg, Bread Furst, Washington, D.C.
Michelle Gayer, Salty Tart, Minneapolis
Zachary Golper, Bien Cuit, Brooklyn, NY
Phoebe Lawless, Scratch, Durham, NC
Belinda Leong and Michel Suas, B. Patisserie, San Francisco
Lisa Ludwinski, Sister Pie, Detroit
Sarah O’Brien, Little Tart, Atlanta
Taylor Petrehn, 1900 Barker, Lawrence, KS
Alex Phaneuf and Or Amsalam, Lodge Bread Co., Los Angeles
Alison Pray, Standard Baking Co., Portland, ME
Zak Stern, Zak the Baker, Miami
Lionel Vatinet, La Farm Bakery, Cary, NC
Greg Wade, Publican Quality Bread, Chicago
Carlyle Watt, Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop, Anchorage, AK

Outstanding Bar Program
Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, New Orleans
The Baldwin Bar, Woburn, MA
Bar Agricole, San Francisco
Bar Goto, NYC
Canon, Seattle
Chesapeake & Maine, Rehoboth Beach, DE
Clyde Common, Portland, OR
Columbia Room, Washington, D.C.
Cure, New Orleans
The Dead Rabbit, NYC
The Esquire Tavern, San Antonio
Kimball House, Decatur, GA
Lost Lake, Chicago
Manifesto, Kansas City, MO
Martha, Philadelphia
Marvel Bar, Minneapolis
The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, Portland, ME
Standby, Detroit
The Varnish, Los Angeles

Outstanding Chef
Andrew Carmellini, Locanda Verde, NYC
Ashley Christensen, Poole’s Diner, Raleigh, NC
Matt Dillon, Sitka & Spruce, Seattle
Gabrielle Hamilton, Prune, NYC
David Kinch, Manresa, Los Gatos, CA
Christopher Kostow, The Restaurant at Meadowood, St. Helena, CA
Mark Ladner, Del Posto, NYC
Mike Lata, FIG, Charleston, SC
Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
Tony Mantuano, Spiaggia, Chicago
Carrie Nahabedian, Naha, Chicago
Daniel Patterson, LocoL, Los Angeles
Andrea Reusing, Lantern, Chapel Hill, NC
Alex Roberts, Restaurant Alma, Minneapolis
Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, OR
Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia
Ana Sortun, Oleana, Cambridge, MA
Fabio Trabocchi, Fiola, Washington, D.C.
Blaine Wetzel, Willows Inn on Lummi Island, Lummi Island, WA
Eric Ziebold, Kinship, Washington, D.C.

Outstanding Pastry Chef
Marc Aumont, Gabriel Kreuther, NYC
Melissa Chou, Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco
Kelly Fields, Willa Jean, New Orleans
Aya Fukai, Maple & Ash, Chicago
Meg Galus, Boka, Chicago
Megan Garrelts, Rye, Leawood, KS
Maggie Huff, FT33, Dallas
Maura Kilpatrick, Oleana, Cambridge, MA
Ilma Lopez, Piccolo, Portland, ME
Margarita Manzke, République, Los Angeles
Dolester Miles, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL
Nick Muncy, Coi, San Francisco
Kristen Murray, Måurice, Portland, OR
Ghaya Oliveira, Daniel, NYC
Pat O’Malley, Hungry Pigeon, Philadelphia
Casey Renee, Whitfield, Pittsburgh
Laura Sawicki, Launderette, Austin
Shannon Swindle, Craft, Los Angeles
Cynthia Wong, Butcher & Bee, Charleston, SC
Diane Yang, Spoon and Stable, Minneapolis

Outstanding Restaurant
Bluestem, Kansas City, MO
Cafe Juanita, Kirkland, WA
Chase’s Daily, Belfast, ME
Five & Ten, Athens, GA
Fore Street, Portland, ME
Frankies 457 Spuntino, Brooklyn, NY
Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, CO
Highlands Bar and Grill, Birmingham, AL
Jaleo, Washington, D.C.
La Casita Mexicana, Bell, CA
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Las Vegas
L’Etoile, Madison, WI
Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
Nopa, San Francisco
Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix
Quince, San Francisco
Rasika, Washington, D.C.
Sagami, Collingswood, NJ
The Spotted Pig, NYC
Topolobampo, Chicago

Outstanding Restaurateur
Ashok Bajaj, Knightsbridge Restaurant Group, Washington, D.C. (The Bombay Club, Rasika, The Oval Room, and others)
Paul and Joe Bartolotta, The Bartolotta Restaurants, Milwaukee (Ristorante Bartolotta, Harbor House, Lake Park Bistro, and others)
Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, Boka Restaurant Group, Chicago (Boka, Girl & the Goat, Momotaro, and others)
Gabriela Cámara, Cala, San Francisco
JoAnn Clevenger, Upperline, New Orleans
Sam Fox, Fox Restaurant Concepts, Phoenix (The Arrogant Butcher, Culinary Dropout, Olive & Ivy, and
others)
Ford Fry, Atlanta (The Optimist, St. Cecilia, State of Grace, and others)
Richard Gonzmart, Columbia Restaurant Group, Tampa, FL (The Columbia, Ulele, Goody Goody)
Garrett Harker, Boston (Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks, Island Creek Oyster Bar, Row 34, and others)
Eddie Hernandez and Mike Klank, Taqueria del Sol, Atlanta
Martha Hoover, Patachou Inc., Indianapolis (Café Patachou, Petite Chou Bistro, Napolese Artisanal Pizzeria, and others)
David Howard, Neighborhood Dining Group, Charleston, SC (Husk, McCrady’s, Minero, and others)
Ken Oringer, Boston (Uni, Toro, Coppa, and others)
Monique Siu, Portland, OR (Castagna and Café Castagna)
Stephen Starr, Starr Restaurants, Philadelphia (Le Coucou, Serpico, Upland, and others)
Ethan Stowell, Ethan Stowell Restaurants, Seattle (Staple & Fancy, Tavolàta, Anchovies & Olives, and others)
Caroline Styne, The Lucques Group, Los Angeles (Lucques, a.o.c., Tavern, and others)
Andrew Tarlow, Brooklyn, NY (Diner, Marlow & Sons, Reynard, and others)
Tracy Vaught, H Town Restaurant Group, Houston (Hugo’s, Caracol, Backstreet Cafe, and others)
Ellen Yin, High Street Hospitality Group, Philadelphia (Fork, High Street on Market, High Street on Hudson)

Outstanding Service
Aria, Atlanta
Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY
Boka, Chicago
Brigtsen’s, New Orleans
Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks, Boston
Fiola, Washington, D.C.
Galatoire’s Restaurant, New Orleans
Hugo’s, Houston
Marcel’s by Robert Wiedmaier, Washington, D.C.
Marché Moderne, Costa Mesa, CA
Marea, NYC
Mélisse, Santa Monica, CA
North Pond, Chicago
The Painted Lady Restaurant, Newberg, OR
Providence, Los Angeles
Saison, San Francisco
Spago, Beverly Hills, CA
Terra, St. Helena, CA
Woodberry Kitchen, Baltimore
Zahav, Philadelphia

Outstanding Wine Program
Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits, New Orleans
Benu, San Francisco
Canlis, Seattle
Charleston, Baltimore
Corkbuzz, NYC
Emeril’s New Orleans
Empire State South, Atlanta
FIG, Charleston, SC
FnB, Scottsdale, AZ
Jory at the Allison Inn & Spa, Newberg, OR
Komi, Washington, D.C.
Lotus of Siam, Las Vegas
Miller Union, Atlanta
O Ya, Boston
Press, St. Helena, CA
Rouge Tomate, NYC
Sepia, Chicago
Studio at Montage, Laguna Beach, CA
Vino, Honolulu
Wild Ginger, Seattle

Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional
Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall, High Wire Distilling Company, Charleston, SC
Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, DE
Wayne Carpenter, Skagit Valley Malting, Burlington, WA
Vinnie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
Diane Flynt, Foggy Ridge Cider, Dugspur, VA
Miljenko Grgich, Grgich Hills Estate, Rutherford, CA
Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, Evil Twin Brewing, Brooklyn, NY
Charles Joly, Crafthouse Cocktails, Chicago
Manfred Krankl, Sine Qua Non, Oak View, CA
Drew Kulsveen, Willett Distillery, Bardstown, KY
Jim Law, Linden Vineyards, Linden, VA
Ted Lemon, Littorai Wines, Sebastopol, CA
Greg Lorenz, SakéOne, Forest Grove, OR
Steve Matthiasson, Matthiasson Wines, Napa, CA
Steve McCarthy, Clear Creek Distillery, Portland, OR
Herman C. Mihalich and John S. Cooper, Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey, Bristol, PA
Aldo Sohm, Zalto Glass, NYC
Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME
Chris Weld, Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Sheffield, MA
Lance Winters, St. George Spirits, Alameda, CA

Rising Star Chef of the Year
Gabe Barker, Pizzeria Mercato, Carrboro, NC
Jay Blackinton, Hogstone’s Wood Oven, Orcas Island, WA
Camille Cogswell, Zahav, Philadelphia
Zachary Engel, Shaya, New Orleans
Sara Hauman, Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco
Becca Hegarty, The Café Carnegie, Pittsburgh
Jesse Ito, Royal Izakaya, Philadelphia
Bradley Kilgore, Alter, Miami
Elise Kornack, Take Root, Brooklyn, NY
Irene Li, Mei Mei, Boston
Maya Lovelace, Mae, Portland, OR
Tim Nicholson, The Boiler Room, Omaha, NE
David Park, Hanbun, Westmont, IL
Juan Pedrosa, Yvonne’s, Boston
Maximillian Petty, Eden Hill, Seattle
Matt Rudofker, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, NYC
Colin Shane, Arroyo Vino, Santa Fe
Ashley Shelton, Pastaria, Clayton, MO
Brian So, Spring, Marietta, GA
Cara Stadler, Tao Yuan, Brunswick, ME
Miles Thompson, Michael’s, Santa Monica, CA
Kevin Tien, Himitsu, Washington, D.C.
Jenner Tomaska, Next, Chicago
Shuai Wang, Short Grain, Charleston, S.C.
Martha Wiggins, Sylvain, New Orleans
Brady Williams, Canlis, Seattle
William Wright, Helen Greek Food and Wine, Houston

Best Chef: West (CA, HI, NV)
Wes Avila, Guerrilla Tacos, Los Angeles
Josef Centeno, Orsa & Winston, Los Angeles
Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles
Dominique Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Jeremy Fox, Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen, Santa Monica, CA
Christian Geideman, Ippuku, Berkeley, CA
Ravi Kapur, Liholiho Yacht Club, San Francisco
Mourad Lahlou, Mourad, San Francisco
Corey Lee, Benu, San Francisco
Ludo Lefebvre, Trois Mec, Los Angeles
Travis Lett, Gjelina, Venice, CA
Anthony Mangieri, Una Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
Preeti Mistry, Juhu Beach Club, Oakland, CA
Niki Nakayama, n/naka, Los Angeles
Bryant Ng, Cassia, Santa Monica, CA
Carlos Salgado, Taco María, Costa Mesa, CA
Joshua Skenes, Saison, San Francisco
James Syhabout, Hawker Fare, San Francisco
Karen Taylor, El Molino Central, Sonoma, CA
Kris Yenbamroong, Night Market + Song, Los Angeles

Related: La Taqueria Wins Honorary James Beard Award

Leading up to the big unveiling of their annual Best New Restaurants issue, Bon Appétit did what they did last year and first gave us a Top 50 last week, just so that restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton can give props to the many good new spots across the country that he encountered in this year's eating tour — and three SF restaurant are in the running, Tacos Cala (which also wins Best Taco), Lord Stanley, and The Perennial. Today we learn that the Best Design award goes to Leo's Oyster Bar here in SF as well, and owner Anna Weinberg (Marlowe, Park Tavern, The Cavalier) is surely pleased.

Like Weinberg's other restaurants, the design was done by Ken Fulk along with his associate Jon de la Cruz, and they took a relatively small, narrow space that was formerly home to Wexler's and gave it some retro tropical glamour. Per Bon App: "There are no bad seats or unflattering angles at this gorgeous oyster bar. Instead, there’s just you, your date, two glasses of Champagne, and a universe of rose-colored onyx bartops, vintage glassware, shell-shaped wall sconces, and tropical palm wallpaper. It’s a Mad Men set you get to drink in."

The restaurant was also featured, a couple months back, in Architectural Digest.

Congrats to the team, and now we look forward to seeing which of the three shortlisted SF restaurants above make the final ten, which we should know within a week or so — it likely will only be one, given that Knowlton gave so much love to San Francisco in 2015, and named both Rintaro and AL's Place to the top 10 last year — and called SF "the best food city in the country" — he's likely going to return to giving us just one nod for 2016, if any.

Leo's Oyster Bar - 568 Sacramento Street between Montgomery and Sansome - Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday to Saturday, with lunch and dinner hours explained here.

Previously: It's About Time: Bon Appétit Declares SF The Best Food City In The Country

Oakland-born hip-hop artist turned Broadway star Daveed Diggs took home the Tony Award Sunday night for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in the dual roles of the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton. In his acceptance speech — which was nearly upstaged by his crazy, patchwork-sleeved jacket — Diggs thanked his parents for always encouraging him to be in the arts, including a time that he did "a gymnastics routine in rainbow tights for a school show," as Bustle reports.

In the video above, backstage just after accepting his award, Diggs talks about how inclusive and diverse this Broadway season is. He also mentions his father and grandfather from Oakland, and how he brought parts of them into his broad and bombastic characterization of Thomas Jefferson. "I have always aspired to be my father," he says. "And I'm not. We're fundamentally very different but I try him on from time to time." He also says that the outfit he chose for the awards ceremony was much like something his dad would have worn back and the day. "And he looks so much better than me tonight it's ridiculous." He adds, "Getting to play a role where I get to take these things that I learned from just trying to walk around like my dad walks around has been so great."

Below, in a clip on the red carpet, Diggs talks about moving to New York from California when Hamilton rehearsals began in early 2015, and how he's blessed to feel accepted in the New York theater community now, which he says "is a real community" and is "alive and vibrant and full of so many wonderful people."

As he told the Wall Street Journal last summer just as Hamilton was moving to Broadway, he gave up on Broadway aspirations long ago, believing that he was probably not a Broadway-appropriate performer. "After years and years of not thinking about it, it showed up," he said. "My 13-year-old self is really excited. I’m cautiously optimistic."

Related: 'Hamilton' Comes To SF For Five Months Starting In March 2017, LA After

Every magazine gets their annual turn to declare their favorites among the nation's crop of new eateries, and this week we get Food & Wine's 2016 Restaurants Of the Year list, which features two Bay Area spots: Cala and Locol. Restaurant editor Kate Krader fell in love with Mexico City chef Gabriela Cámara's "sensational Mexican cooking" and "outstanding tacos" at Cala's back-alley taco stand, and she writes that she's "outrageously proud" of Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi's effort to bring quality, healthfulness, and value to fast food first with their Watts location of Locol, and with the second that just opened in Oakland.

Cala has won tons of praise already, including from the Chronicle's Michael Bauer, who gave the place three and a half stars out of the gate in November. Krader praises Cámara's use of local ingredients and creative spins on Mexican seafood, like trout tostadas with fried leeks, and abalone-and-oyster aguachile. And she calls out the fact that Cámara's hired a number of non-violent felons to staff the restaurant, noting that staffing has been an issue all over San Francisco and she felt like she wanted to give them jobs.

As for Locol, she loves that nothing on the original menu was over $6 (the bowls at the Oakland location are actually $7), and even if not everything was healthy (there are fried chicken nuggets, etc.), "the food at Locol feels good for you on many levels."

Related: Petit Crenn And The Perennial Land On GQ's Best New Restaurants
Michael Bauer Drops Gialina, AQ From Top 100, Adds Petit Crenn, Trestle, And 17 More

The "Oscars of the Food World" happened last night as the chef and restaurant portion of the annual James Beard Foundation Awards took place in Chicago — on the traditional night off for chefs, a Monday. And while San Francisco was honored with a number of spots and talented people making the list of finalists this year, it was Los Angeles's turn to sweep the awards in many of these categories — this despite the fact that SF has been consistently named the best food city in the country over the last couple of years, as Eater is quick to point out.

As noted earlier, Liholiho Yacht Club was nominated in the Best New Restaurant category, but that prize went to chef Alon Shaya's Shaya in New Orleans. State Bird Provisions took home this award a couple years ago, and its chefs, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krazinski won in the Best Chef: West category in 2015.

Beating out our own Michael Tusk of Quince, longtime LA chef Suzanne Goin of the restaurants Lucques and A.O.C. took home the Outstanding Chef prize.

And in the Best Chef: West category, which typically oscillates between SF and LA winners, multi-year nominees Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, co-chefs at Animal, Son of a Gun, and Jon & Vinny's, took home the prize this time, beating out SF's Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn), Matt Accarrino (SPQR), and Corey Lee (Benu).

Dahlia Narvaez, of LA's Osteria Mozza, also took home the award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, a category in which SF had no finalists this year.

The big prize for Outstanding Restaurant in the nation, which in recent years has gone to Boulevard and Slanted Door in SF, went to Alinea in Chicago this time around.

Despite multiple years getting nominated in the Outstanding Bar Program category, Bar Agricole lost out this year to Brooklyn's Maison Premiere.

The James Beard Awards are, much like the Oscars, an insular and political affair in which, unlike at the Oscars, finalists/nominees tend to be re-nominated year after year until they win — and cities that haven't gotten enough love in recent years, like LA, will see their fortunes turn all at once, as they did this year. So chances are SF will once again have a fine showing next year, and we just had to give this one to LA.

If you're a traveling foodinista and want to see all the awards, the full list is here.

Previously: Liholiho Yacht Club Tops SF Finalists For 2016 James Beard Awards

See how The Chronicle’s 2016 Rising Star Chefs shape the Bay Area’s dining scene.https://t.co/SqGOBx13G2 pic.twitter.com/VyMPaojLdG

— SFChronicle (@sfchronicle) March 31, 2016

It's time again for the Chronicle's own list of Rising Stars in the Bay Area culinary scene, a list which often presages bigger national honors like James Beard Awards, and Food & Wine's annual Best New Chef list. This year's list, published today in the Chronicle, includes six chefs, and knowing that he's faced criticism in the past when the list has been all-male and heavily white, Michael Bauer looks to have turned over the task to others in the food department, including Paolo Lucchesi and Jonathan Kauffman. This year's list is successfully diverse, including two female chefs — even though one is technically not working in a currently open restaurant.

From left to right in the above photo: Geoffrey Lee of Ju-Ni, Val Cantu of Californios, Laura Meyer of Tony's Pizza Napoletana, Pierre Tumlin of Hog & Rocks, Ryan Pollnow of Aatxe, and Sara Hauman of the upcoming Mister Jiu's, formerly of Huxley.

Says second-generation SF native Lee about opening Ju-Ni, his first solo sushi restaurant — which just opened in February and, notably, hasn't gotten a full Chronicle review yet from Bauer — "I believe thoroughly that I know what I’m doing. And I’m really, really excited to open in my hometown." Lee trained at Tsurugis in San Luis Obispo and at Sushi Ran in Sausalito.

The paper notes that Meyer has been serving as head chef at Tony's in recent years, after working for Tony Gemignani for the last 11 years, starting when she was 16 at his Castro Valley pizzeria, and now running the show as Gemiganani spends more time traveling the world participating in competitions, etc.

Tumlin, meanwhile, has only been running the kitchen at Hog & Rocks since December, but is introducing some haute elements to the menu, like a Bolognese made with sweetbreads and served with horseradish breadcrumbs; and an asparagus salad with avocado-tofu purée.

Cantu, who got his first cooking job in Texas and who's family owns a Mexican restaurant there, has been widely praised for his subtly Mexican-influenced take on a tasting menu experience. Pollnow has also won plenty of praise since the opening of tapas-focused Aatxe last year, including mentions in Bon Appetit and elsewhere. And Hauman, while she's left the post that got her first noticed at the tiny Tenderloin spot Huxley, nonetheless made it on the James Beard Award semifinalist list this year for Rising Star — likely due to Michael Bauer's own cheerleading.

Now, Mr. Bauer is in the home stretch of revising his annual Top 100, which we can expect to appear in the paper in about a month.

The James Beard Award finalists were just announced yesterday — following last month's announcements of the semi-finalists or "long list" — and low and behold, Liholiho Yacht Club will be competing with four other restaurant for the title of Best New Restaurant in the country. Also among the nominees are SPQR's Matthew Accarrino, Benu's Corey Lee, and Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn) who will all by vying for Best Chef in the West; Craftsman & Wolves pastry chef William Werner who's nominated again for Outstanding Baker along with B. Patisserie's Belinda Leong and Michel Suas; local chef-restaurateurs Michael Mina and Cindy Pawlcyn who are both up for the Outstanding Restaurateur honor; Quince's Michael Tusk who's nominated for Oustanding Chef in the country; and Bar Agricole which is an annual contender for Oustanding Bar Program, though it has yet to take home the honor.

As is typical with these awards, dubbed "Oscars of the food world," chefs are often nominated multiple years in a row until they win, and the same is true of restaurants. San Francisco has won in the national category of Outstanding Restaurant in two of the last four years, with Slanted Door winning in 2015, and Boulevard winning in 2012. SF has also beat out LA in the Best Chef: West category the past two years with Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of State Bird Provisions and The Progress taking it in 2015, and Coi chef-owner Daniel Patterson taking it in 2014 — indicating, from a political standpoint, that an LA chef like Jeremy Fox (formerly of Napa's Ubuntu) or multi-year nominee Michael Cimarusti is most likely next in line.

Similarly, SF's A16 took home the prize for Outstanding Wine Program in 2015, so even though we boast some some pretty incredible wine programs across the Bay Area, we were shut out of the short-list this year. (See all of last year's winners here.)

The awards will take place in Chicago for the second year in a row, on May 2, and likely all of the nominated chefs you see below along with nominating committee member and SF Chronicle critic Michael Bauer will all be there.

Below, for reference in your foodinista travels, the full list of this year's nominees, with SF ones in bold. You can find the book, TV, and media finalists here.

Best New Restaurant
Death & Taxes, Raleigh, N.C.
Launderette, Austin
Liholiho Yacht Club, San Francisco
Shaya, New Orleans
Staplehouse, Atlanta
Wildair, NYC

Outstanding Baker
Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery + Café, Boston
Mark Furstenberg, Bread Furst, Washington, D.C.
Zachary Golper, Bien Cuit, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Belinda Leong and Michel Suas, B. Patisserie, San Francisco
William Werner, Craftsman and Wolves, San Francisco

Outstanding Bar Program
Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, New Orleans
Bar Agricole, San Francisco
Clyde Common, Portland, O.R.
Cure, New Orleans
Maison Premiere, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Outstanding Chef
Sean Brock, Husk, Nashville
Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles
Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia
Michael Tusk, Quince, San Francisco

Outstanding Pastry Chef
Meg Galus, Boka, Chicago
Maura Kilpatrick, Oleana, Cambridge, MA
Dolester Miles, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL
Dahlia Narvaez, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles
Ghaya Oliveira, Daniel, NYC
Jennifer Yee, Lafayette, NYC

Outstanding Restaurant
Alinea, Chicago
Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, C.O.
Highlands Bar and Grill, Birmingham, A.L.
Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
The Spotted Pig, NYC

Outstanding Restaurateur
Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, Boka Restaurant Group, Chicago (Boka, Girl & the Goat, Momotaro, Swift & Sons, and others)
Ken Friedman, NYC (The Spotted Pig, The Breslin, Tosca Café)
Michael Mina, Mina Restaurants, San Francisco (Michael Mina, Bourbon Steak, RN74, and others)
Cindy Pawlcyn, Napa, C.A. (Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Cindy's Waterfront at the Monterey Bay Aquarium)
Stephen Starr, Starr Restaurants, Philadelphia (Serpico, the Dandelion, Talula's Garden, and others)

Outstanding Service
Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, N.Y.
Eleven Madison Park, NYC
North Pond, Chicago
Quince, San Francisco
Topolobampo, Chicago

Outstanding Wine Program
Bern’s Steakhouse, Tampa, F.L.
Canlis, Seattle
Commander’s Palace, New Orleans
FIG, Charleston, S.C.
Sepia, Chicago

Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional
Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, D.E.
Ron Cooper, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Ranchos de Taos, N.M.
Miljenko Grgich, Grgich Hills Estate, Rutherford, C.A.
Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, M.E.
Harlen Wheatley Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, K.Y.

Rising Star Chef of the Year
Alex Bois, High Street on Market, Philadelphia
Angela Dimayuga, Mission Chinese Food, NYC
Grae Nonas, Olamaie, Austin
Matt Rudofker, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, NYC
Daniela Soto-Innes, Cosme, NYC
Jenner Tomaska, Next, Chicago

Best Chef: West (CA, HI, NV)
Matthew Accarrino, SPQR, San Francisco
Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles
Dominique Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Jeremy Fox, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, C.A.
Corey Lee, Benu, San Francisco
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Animal, Los Angeles

Best Chef: Great Lakes (I.L., I.N., M.I., O.H.)
Abraham Conlon, Fat Rice, Chicago
Curtis Duffy, Grace, Chicago
Lee Wolen, Boka, Chicago
Erling Wu-Bower, Nico Osteria, Chicago
Andrew Zimmerman, Sepia, Chicago

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., D.E., M.D., N.J., P.A., V.A.)
Peter Chang, Peter Chang, Arlington, V.A.
Eli Kulp, Fork, Philadelphia
Rich Landau, Vedge, Philadelphia
Aaron Silverman, Rose’s Luxury, Washington, D.C.
Greg Vernick, Vernick Food & Drink, Philadelphia
Cindy Wolf, Charleston, Baltimore

Best Chef: Midwest (I.A., K.S., M.N., M.O., N.E., N.D., S.D., W.I.)
Paul Berglund, The Bachelor Farmer, Minneapolis
Justin Carlisle, Ardent, Milwaukee
Kevin Nashan, Sidney Street Café, St. Louis
Lenny Russo, Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market, St. Paul, M.N.
Kevin Willmann, Farmhaus, St. Louis

Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)
Marco Canora, Hearth
Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, Carbone
Anita Lo, Annisa
Jonathan Waxman, Barbuto
Jody Williams, Buvette

Best Chef: Northeast (C.T., M.A., M.E., M.H., N.Y. STATE, R.I., V.T.)
Karen Akunowicz, Myers + Chang, Boston
Brian Hill, Francine, Camden, M.E.
Zak Pelaccio, Fish & Game, Hudson, N.Y.
Susan Regis, Shepard, Cambridge, M.A.
Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor Eventide Oyster Co., Portland, M.E.

Best Chef: Northwest (A.K., I.D., M.T., O.R., W.A., W.Y.)
Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, Ox, Portland, O.R.
Mike Easton, Il Corvo Pasta, Seattle
Renee Erickson, The Whale Wins, Seattle
Justin Woodward, Castagna, Portland, O.R.
Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, Joule, Seattle

Best Chef: South (A.L., A.R., F.L., L.A., M.S., P.R.)
Vishwesh Bhatt, Snackbar, Oxford, M.S.
Justin Devillier, La Petite Grocery, New Orleans
Jose Enrique, Jose Enrique, San Juan, P.R.
Slade Rushing, Brennan’s, New Orleans
Isaac Toups, Toups’ Meatery, New Orleans

Best Chef: Southeast (G.A., K.Y., N.C., S.C., T.N., W.V.)
Kevin Gillespie, Gunshow, Atlanta
Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, K.Y.
Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta
Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Memphis
Tandy Wilson, City House, Nashville

Best Chef: Southwest (A.Z., C.O., N.M., O.K., T.X., U.T.)
Bryce Gilmore, Barley Swine, Austin
Steve McHugh, Cured, San Antonio
Hugo Ortega, Caracol, Houston
Alex Seidel, Fruition, Denver
Justin Yu, Oxheart, Houston

In the meantime, go get yourself a beef tongue steam bun before Liholiho gets any more popular with tourists.

Beautiful #GetJag regram from the wonderful @hillarydixler Mahalo for coming in 💙

A photo posted by LYC #GetJag (@liholihoyachtclub) on Mar 12, 2016 at 8:23pm PST

You don't get to where I am in life* without meeting a few famous actors. Some are a charming surprise, some are clearly crazy, and some of them seem a lot like you or me. But none of them should be confused with their characters, right? That said, the LAST actor I'd want mad at me is Robert De Niro. Even though he's old (72) and only pretended to be Travis Bickle, he still rocks an air of menace. And if you don't believe me, ask the San Francisco tech CEO De Niro ripped into Wednesday.

It all went down at the Wall Street Journal Magazine Innovator Awards, which was apparently a party at New York's MoMa intended to celebrate and award rich, famous, fancy people things. Whatever. That's not the point.

Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of photo service Flickr and co-founder and CEO of glorified intra-office group IM thingie Slack was there to be honored with the event's "Technology Innovator" award, which meant he had to give a speech in front of all the aforementioned rich, famous, fancy people.

Per Page Six, Butterfield began by saying “We are a long way from San Francisco,” as he noted the “supermodels and movie stars” in the audience. (WHAT STUART ARE WE NOT HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?)

He then, Page Six reports, "joked he was receiving the 'nerd award."

I gotta say, one way to seem like less of a nerd is to avoid gawping at supermodels and movie stars! Sadly, I was not there to advise Butterfield, who then pointed at Robert De Niro, and said “I watched Godfather II on the plane...when you killed Don Fanucci, I liked that.”

Oh, god, poor Stewart! We all say goofy things when we're nervous, right? Though, when most of us know well in advance — to be clear, this award was not a surprise — that we will be addressing a group we prepare something, don't we?

Like his character in Cape Fear, De Niro wasn't ready to forgive Butterfield's presumably extemporaneous remarks. He was next on the stage, and he had some harsh words for the SoMa tech guy:

“Whoever the last speaker was...I thought you were a bit condescending to us actors/celebrities. I’m gonna go on record with you just to say that. And I don’t give a fuck who you are.”

Sorry, just drifted off for like five minutes imagining De Niro using Slack. (It was actually pretty funny!) Anyway, after the actor had vented his spleen, he reportedly delivered a lovely speech honoring Angelina Jolie (their "Entertainment/Film Innovator") and restrained himself from kicking Butterfield's ass in the parking lot.

*lying in bed with three dogs as I type a blog post.

A month ago we had the so-called "long list" of semi-finalists for this year's "Oscars of the food world," a.k.a. The James Beard Foundation Awards. And today we bring you the short list of actual nominees, in which San Francisco's been blackballed from two of the big national categories for the first time in quite a while.

The three-month-old State Bird sister restaurant The Progress made it onto the short list in the Best New Restaurant category, beating out the other listed semi-finalist, Lazy Bear — although however great The Progress may be, it stands little chance of winning given that chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski won in this category just two years ago for State Bird Provisions, and the politics of these awards work similarly to the Oscars that way. (Eater National has a pretty fun set of charts showing which cities have taken home which awards over the years, and New York trumps all given that a) the event traditionally takes place there, though this year it's going to Chicago, and b) much of the voting block of over 500 are previous winners, many of whom came from New York.)

And San Francisco, having been in the spotlight in some of the major categories for a couple of years running, is missing completely from the national categories of Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Chef, but SF took the Outstanding Restaurant category twice in the last three years, for Boulevard in 2012, and for Slanted Door in 2014. Again, politics.

SF beats out LA 3 to 2 in the Best Chef: West category (which Coi chef Daniel Patterson took home last year), with nominees Corey Lee (Benu), Matthew Accarrino (SPQR), and another nomination for Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, who graduated to this category last year.

Also somewhat unique to these awards is that once you have been nominated in a given category, you tend to be re-nominated every year until you win — see the example of Boulevard, which was nominated seven years in a row before taking home the Outstanding Restaurant prize, and Daniel Patterson, who was nominated six times before winning.

And also of note, Manresa chef de cuisine Jessica Largey is nominated in the Rising Star category, Quince gets another nomination for Outstanding Service, and the bakers behind Craftsman & Wolves (William Werner) and b. patisserie (Belinda Leong and Michael Suas) are nominated in the Outstanding Baker category.

Inside Scoop has the complete list of nominees, including those in the broadcast, cookbook, and journalism categories. Below are the chef and restaurant nominees. Winners will be announced on May 4, 2015 at a ceremony in Chicago.

The 2015 Restaurant and Chef Award Nominees

Best New Restaurant

Bâtard, NYC
Central Provisions, Portland, ME
Cosme, NYC
Parachute, Chicago
Petit Trois, Los Angeles
The Progress, San Francisco
Spoon and Stable, Minneapolis

Best Chef: West

Matthew Accarrino, SPQR, San Francisco
Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, State Bird Provisions, San Francisco
Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles
Corey Lee, Benu, San Francisco
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Animal, Los Angeles

Outstanding Chef

Michael Anthony, Gramercy Tavern, NYC
Sean Brock, Husk, Charleston, SC
Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles
Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
Marc Vetri, Vetri, Philadelphia

Outstanding Restaurant

Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY
Highlands Bar and Grill, Birmingham, AL
Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
Per Se, NYC
The Spotted Pig, NYC

Outstanding Baker

Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery + Cafe, Boston
Mark Furstenberg, Bread Furst, Washington, D.C.
Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, NYC
Belinda Leong and Michel Suas, B. Patisserie, San Francisco
William Werner, Craftsman and Wolves, San Francisco

Outstanding Bar Program

Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, New Orleans
Bar Agricole, San Francisco
Maison Premiere, Brooklyn, NY
Trick Dog, San Francisco
The Violet Hour, Chicago

Outstanding Pastry Chef

Dana Cree, Blackbird, Chicago
Maura Kilpatrick, Oleana, Cambridge, MA
Dahlia Narvaez, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles
Ghaya Oliveira, Daniel, NYC
Christina Tosi, Momofuku, NYC

Outstanding Restaurateur

JoAnn Clevenger, Upperline, New Orleans
Donnie Madia, One Off Hospitality Group, Chicago (Blackbird, Avec, The Publican, and others)
Michael Mina, Mina Group, San Francisco (Michael Mina, RN74, Bourbon Steak, and others)
Cindy Pawlcyn, Napa, CA (Mustards Grill, Cindy’s Back Street Kitchen, and Cindy’s Waterfront at the Monterey Bay Aquarium)
Stephen Starr, Starr Restaurants, Philadelphia (The Dandelion, Talula’s Garden, Serpico, and others)

Outstanding Service

The Barn at Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN
Marea, NYC
Quince, San Francisco
Restaurant August, New Orleans
Topolobampo, Chicago

Outstanding Wine Program

A16, San Francisco
Bern’s Steak House, Tampa, FL
FIG, Charleston, SC
McCrady’s, Charleston, SC
Spago, Beverly Hills, CA

Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional

Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, DE
Ron Cooper, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Ranchos de Taos, NM
Ted Lemon, Littorai Wines, Sebastopol, CA
Rajat Parr, Mina Group, San Francisco
Harlen Wheatley, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY

Rising Star Chef of the Year

Tanya Baker, Boarding House, Chicago
Alex Bois, High Street on Market, Philadelphia
Erik Bruner-Yang, Toki Underground, Washington, D.C.
Jessica Largey, Manresa, Los Gatos, CA
Cara Stadler, Tao Yuan, Brunswick, ME
Ari Taymor, Alma, Los Angeles

Best Chef: Great Lakes

Curtis Duffy, Grace, Chicago
Jonathon Sawyer, The Greenhouse Tavern, Cleveland
Paul Virant, Vie, Western Springs, IL
Erling Wu-Bower, Nico Osteria, Chicago
Andrew Zimmerman, Sepia, Chicago

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic

Joe Cicala, Le Virtù, Philadelphia
Spike Gjerde, Woodberry Kitchen, Baltimore
Rich Landau, Vedge, Philadelphia
Greg Vernick, Vernick Food & Drink, Philadelphia
Cindy Wolf, Charleston, Baltimore

Best Chef: Midwest

Paul Berglund, The Bachelor Farmer, Minneapolis
Justin Carlisle, Ardent, Milwaukee
Gerard Craft, Niche, Clayton, MO
Michelle Gayer, Salty Tart, Minneapolis
Lenny Russo, Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market, St. Paul, MN

Best Chef: Northeast

Karen Akunowicz, Myers + Chang, Boston
Barry Maiden, Hungry Mother, Cambridge, MA
Masa Miyake, Miyake, Portland, ME
Cassie Piuma, Sarma, Somerville, MA
Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley, Eventide Oyster Co., Portland, ME

Best Chef: Northwest

Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, Ox, Portland, OR
Renee Erickson, The Whale Wins, Seattle
Blaine Wetzel, The Willows Inn on Lummi Island, Lummi Island, WA
Justin Woodward, Castagna, Portland, OR
Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, Joule, Seattle

Best Chef: NYC

Marco Canora, Hearth
Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, Carbone
Mark Ladner, Del Posto
Anita Lo, Annisa
Ignacio Mattos, Estela
Jonathan Waxman, Barbuto

Best Chef: South

Vishwesh Bhatt, Snackbar, Oxford, MS
Justin Devillier, La Petite Grocery, New Orleans
Jose Enrique, Jose Enrique, San Juan, PR
Slade Rushing, Brennan’s, New Orleans
Alon Shaya, Domenica, New Orleans

Best Chef: Southeast

John Fleer, Rhubarb, Asheville, NC
Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, KY
Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta
Jason Stanhope, FIG, Charleston, SC
Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Memphis
Tandy Wilson, City House, Nashville

Best Chef: Southwest

Kevin Binkley, Binkley’s, Cave Creek, AZ
Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue, Austin
Bryce Gilmore, Barley Swine, Austin
Hugo Ortega, Hugo’s, Houston
Martín Rios, Restaurant Martín, Santa Fe
Justin Yu, Oxheart, Houston

Previously: Daniel Patterson, Slanted Door Win Big At James Beard Awards