Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia and MilkWood, and Kathy Cary of Lilly’s, have both been named finalists in this year’s James Beard Foundation awards in the category of Best Chef in the Southeast. There are three others finalists from restaurants in other cities in the Southeast vying for the distinction.
The Southeast category includes restaurants in Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Louisville is the only city in that category with two nominees.
Another Louisville connection in the finalists listings is Adam Sachs, who is editor of Tasting Table, an on-line food site, and a columnist for Bon Appétit. It is his “Obsessivore” column that won him the nomination this year. Last year he won the magazine writing award for his food article in “Travel+Leisure,” which profiled trendy Danish chef René Redzipi, and his Copenhagen restaurant Noma.
In a recent “Obsessivore” column, Sachs relates how he went whole hog, so to speak, and installed a wood-burning grill in the kitchen of his Brooklyn brownstone. Sachs returned to his hometown last spring to judge the chefs’ entries in the Bacon Ball, sponsored by the Louisville Visual Arts Association. He gave the title of Bacon King to Levon Wallace of Proof on Main.
