Meet Your Beard Nominees: Michael Schwartz
The James Beard Awards, the biggest awards in the food world, will be announced on Monday and three South Florida chefs are nominated in the "Best Chef, South" category: Zach Bell of Cafe Boulud, Douglas Rodriguez of Ola, and Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. We'll be catching up with the three nominees over the next few days before the awards ceremony. First up, Michael Schwartz.
Congratulations on your nomination! What does the nomination mean to you?
You know, it's always really nice when someone else recognizes something that you are doing that you feel good about. When the restaurant's busy and guests really love the food, that's really great. But when you're recognized by your peers, that's something that's even more important in terms of personal accomplishment.
Who do you think is your biggest competition in the category? What attributes do they have that you don't?
I can only say that two of the other candidates I know and respect. But the other two, I only know what I've read and what I've heard. The only thing I know for sure is that anyone that's in that category has to be a pretty damn good cook.
If you win, how do you plan to celebrate?
For me, going to the awards presentation and the dinner is a celebration. We're going to go up and have a great time, no matter what, to celebrate just being nominated. I'm happy to just be in that category. There's no losers.
Which restaurants will you be checking out while in New York?
We're going to go eat in as many restaurants as we can. We have reservations at some restaurants: Corton, Esca, Prune, Minetta Tavern. I can't believe I got a reservation there actually. But those are the places that we want to check out.
Where are you eating out in South Florida these days?
Anywhere Michelle's cooking. We like to go to Red Light. I love what my friend Sam Gorenstein's doing at BLT Steak. We don't eat out too much. A lot of the time when we do it's with the kids, which affects our choices and experiences. We take the kids everywhere, and they eat what we eat, but it's never just a quick bite with them.
Photo: Jim Fairman, courtesy of Brustman Carrino Public Relations
Comments
Prune is my favorite restaurant in NYC, I'd love to hear what MS thinks of it.
Posted by: gail shepherd | April 30, 2009 04:43 PM