The Feed: March 19, 2014

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

James Beard Foundation: “The Complete 2014 JBF Nominees.”
The Oscars of the food world are upon us: the 2014 James Beard Foundation Awards nominees were announced yesterday. What caught my eye:

• The Washington Post. My hometown paper snagged three nominations. I was especially gratified to see Tamar Haspel honored for her Unearthed column in the Food section, one of the most consistently interesting writers who points out that when it comes to food, not all is cut and dry, the truth is often a bit messy. Also nominated were Eli Saslow for a story on food stamps and Monica Hesse for a humorous piece on Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook.
• Washingtonian. The D.C.-area magazine snagged a nomination for Todd Kliman and Ann Limpert’s coverage in the publication’s food section, “Taste,” in the Food Coverage in a General-Interest Publication category. It also includes the Wall Street Journal’s coverage in its “Off Duty” section—which I’ve really been appreciating lately—and the Food & Wine section of The San Francisco Chronicle, which ceased to be a standalone section recently.
• Individual Food Blogs. Elissa Altman is this year’s veteran, having won the award in 2012 for her site, Poor Man’s Feast, as well as snagging a nomination in 2011. Michael Procopio’s Food for the Thoughtless snags a nomination. Check out his piece on the Brown Russian cocktail. Lisa Fein rounds out the trio with Homesick Texan.
• Blue Hill NYC. The restaurant that won last year’s award for Best Restaurant is a return nominee this year for Best Service. We were certainly treated well when we ate there last summer. 
• Salt Sugar Fat. Michael Moss’s book, which I enjoyed reading last year, is a nominee in the Writing and Literature category, along with A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure and Discovery on the Road, edited by James Oseland, and Provence, 1970: M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste, by Luke Barr.
• Lucky Peach. The offbeat David Chang and Peter Meehan food journal, which I always enjoy reading, snagged an amazing seven nominations across multiple media categories. 
• Christina Tosi. Sure, Dominique Ansel, inventor of the cronut, is also nominated for Pastry Chef this year, but I’m putting my support behind Momofuku's head confectioner Tosi, who’s been a big inspiration for me in recent years.
• Clyde Common. Snagged an Outstanding Bar Program nomination. Kudos to Jeffrey Morgenthaler. 
• Best Chef – Mid Atlantic. Vikram Sunderam of Rasika is the sole Washington, D.C. nominee in this category this year, which also includes Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve (Alexandria, Va.), Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen (Baltimore, Md.), Brad Spence of  Amis (Philadelphia) and Cindy Wolf of Charleston (Baltimore).

Washington Post: “Rammy Awards change judging process, but is this the right recipe for legitimacy?,” by Tim Carman.
While the James Beard Awards nominations drew lots of buzz this week, closer to home, Carman writes about how the Rammy Awards, D.C.’s local version of the Beard Awards put on by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, has made some changes to improve its respectability. My vote for how they could improve their respectability? Maintain their website. The nominees were announced Tuesday, but as of 9 p.m. Tuesday night, the nominees section of the Rammys website is “TBA” while the Post has the list. [Update: I think the event may have been going on last night and the Post got an advance list; nonetheless, I still think the Rammy website could be more user friendly.]

Washington Post: “Cauliflower gets chicken-fried for a vegetarian take on a Texas classic,” by Joe Yonan.
“Chicken-Fried Cauliflower?! Yonan’s taking this vegetarian thing too far.” Five bucks somebody says that in the Post’s Free Range chat tomorrow. My take? The recipe sounds awesome, especially the part about making it smoky. Yum.

NPR: “Top 5 Ways Asparagus, A Rite Of Spring, Can Still Surprise,” by Dan Charles.
I’m so ready for spring, and just because I want it to warm up. I’m ready for spring cooking and asparagus typifies spring produce for me more than any other vegetable. Charles offers a fun list of trivia about the curious green stalk.

New York Times: “An Inspired Lunch Puts Brunch to Shame,” by David Tanis.
Tanis, a Beard Award nominee this week for his cookbook, One Good Dish, makes a good case for skipping brunch and going straight to lunch.

Fast Company, “How Chipotle Changed American Fast Food Forever,” by Denise Lee Yohn.
Begun in 1993, there are now over 1,400 Chipotle restaurants in the U.S. Yohn chronicles how founder and CEO Steve Ells got his start and grew the restaurant into the leader of “fast casual.”

University of Maryland Spoon Unversity: “Top 5 Most Underrated Ingredients,” by Shawn Eliav.
I came across Spoon University this week, because an article in it used one of my photos. It’s an online food journal produced by University of Maryland students. How cool! And who doesn’t enjoy a good food listicle, like Eliav’s ingredient list. It’s hard to imagine any thinking these are underrated ingredients though—I consider most of them essential.