Tonight’s James Beard awards honoured NYC-based chefs and restaurants almost exclusively. We all knew the food was better in the big apple. The prodigious awards are named after the late food writer, and is decided by a voting pool of over 400.  The winners will be very familiar if you watch top chef (or live like the rest of us wish we do).

Chef of the Year: Dan Barber

Famous for his “farm-to-table” cooking philosophy, and featured in top chef at his restaurant and farm Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate NY.  Nominees included Tom Collichio, Joe Andres and Paul Kahan.

Best New Restaurant: Momofuku Ko

Maybe you have heard about Momofuku because of the crazy online reservation system (and related craigslist madness) or the rabid following it has inspired, but this noodle-happy restaurant took top honours.

Other Awards:

Best Restaurant: Jean Georges, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Phil Suarez

Cookbook of the Year: Jennifer McLagan’s “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes”

Best Service: Daniel, Daniel Boulud

Best Restauranteur: Drew Nieporent

Best Wine Service: Le Bernardin

Rising Star Chef: Nate Appleman, San Francisco

Outstanding Pastry Chef: Gina DePalma, Babbo

Photo credit:

barber dish: ulterior epicure on Flickr, under CC-BY-NC license
momofuku dish: roboppy on Flickr, CC-BY-NC license