Enough already. Can they stop nominating Sharon Hage of York Street for a Beard Award (the chef equivalent of the Oscars)? Because pretty much every year this decade, she has been nominated for best chef in America, southwest region, and not won. It’s getting silly. And it’s wrong.
The winner this year was Nobuo Fukuda of Sea Saw in Scottsdale, Ariz., which is, as near as I can tell, a Japanese seafood restaurant. In Arizona. No doubt it’s good. But so is York Street, and Hage deserves to win. At least once. Why she hasn’t is inexplicable. How difficult is her task? I actually bribed one of the Beard judges one time — took him to dinner at York Street, because he had never been, and I paid for it. Obviously, it didn’t help.
So, Sharon, for what it’s worth, there are a bunch of us who think you got shafted. Again. Nuts to the Beard people. What do they know anyway?
