Alabamians once again nominated for awards at ‘The Oscars of Food’

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March 20, 2014

Several Alabamians are once again nominated as finalists for this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, commonly referred to as “The Oscars of Food.”

Highlands Bar & Grill is nominated for Outstanding Restaurant, and Cooking Light, which is published by Alabama-based Southern Progress Corp., is nominated for two awards in the journalism category.

“Covering all aspects of the industry — from chefs and restaurateurs to cookbook authors and food journalists to restaurant designers and architects and more — the Beard Awards are the highest honor for food and beverage professionals working in North America,” the James Beard Foundation explains on their website. “The awards are presented each spring at Lincoln Center (in New York City).”

Birmingham’s culinary scene has had an incredible three-decade run that started with the opening of Frank Stitt’s Highlands Bar & Grill in 1982.

The New York Times perfectly summed up the Highlands’ “Southern cuisine married to French technique” in a profile that appeared in the Times’ Sunday edition in October of last year:

The Highlands is one of a very few American restaurants that has managed to age with no discernible loss of quality in service, food or atmosphere. If you are from Birmingham and under 50, the Highlands has been the city’s best restaurant for your entire adult life.

But Stitt’s greatest gift to the city may not be the restaurant for which he is best known, but rather the ever-growing family tree of chefs who have studied under him before launching their own successful Birmingham establishments.

Perhaps most notably, Stitt’s former sous chef Chris Hastings, who now owns Hot and Hot Fish Club, won Food Network’s Iron Chef last year.

According to the most recent Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau report, dining has for the first time past shopping as the top expenditure for tourists visiting The Magic City. Tourists spent over $430 million on dining last year.

The Birmingham Business Journal recently designed an interesting “Magic City Food Family Tree” infographic. You can check it out below.

This year’s James Beard Foundation Awards are set to take place the first weekend in May.

(Click to enlarge)