Gerard Craft of the Niche family of restaurants, Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus, Josh Galliano of Monarch and Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe have been named semifinalists for Best Chef/Midwest in the 2012 James Beard Awards. Salt restaurant in the Central West End is a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category.
The other semifinalists in the Midwest category are:
- M.J. Adams, The Corn Exchange, Rapid City, SD
- Justin Aprahamian, Sanford, Milwaukee
- Mike Brown and James Winberg, Travail Kitchen and Amusements, Robbinsdale, MN
- Steven Brown, Tilia, Minneapolis
- Doug Flicker, Piccolo, Minneapolis
- Colby Garrelts, Bluestem, Kansas City, MO
- Ted Habiger, Room 39, Kansas City, MO
- Jan Kelly, Meritage, Milwaukee
- Russell Klein, Meritage, St. Paul, MN
- Paul Kulik, The Boiler Room, Omaha, NE
- Stephen Logsdon, Lucca, Des Moines, IA
- Tory Miller, L'Etoile, Madison, WI
- Shinji Muramoto, Restaurant Muramoto, Madison, WI
- Lenny Russo, Heartland Restaurant & Farm DirectMarket, St. Paul, MN
- Dan Van Rite, Hinterland, Milwaukee
- Stewart Woodman, Heidi's, Minneapolis
The James Beard Awards are frequently described as the Academy Awards of the food world. A nationwide panel of judges will choose five finalists in each category, who will be announced March 19 at a news conference in Las Vegas. The awards will be presented May 7 in New York City.
