St. Louis Chefs Shut Out of James Beard Award Finalists, Feast Magazine Nominated

The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for its 2011 awards this afternoon. St. Louis boasted three semifinalists in the category of "Best Chef: Midwest" -- Gerard Craft of Niche, Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Café and Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus -- but none of the three were named finalists.

The five finalists for "Best Chef: Midwest" are Justin Aprahamian of Sanford in Milwaukee, Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery in Minneapolis, Colby Garrelts of Bluestem in Kansas City, Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison and Lenny Russo of Heartland in St. Paul.

Glenn Bardgett of Annie Gunn's, a semifinalist for "Outstanding Wine Service," a national category, also didn't make the final round.

However, St. Louis did receive one nomination today: Cassandra Vires is one of three finalists in the "Cooking/Recipes/Instructional" category of the journalism awards for her work in Feast magazine.