Top Chef Stephanie Izard Wins a James Beard Award!

Last night, the James Beard Foundation held their annual culinary awards, and, well, we're all kvelling this morning. Top Chef Season 4 winner, Stephanie Izard, won Best Chef: Great Lakes for her Chicago restaurant Girl & the Goat. 

I actually finally made it to Girl & the Goat a couple weeks ago on a trip to Chicago, so I just thought I'd share some of my food porn with you... if that's OK.

Here are the "Ham Frites" with smoked tomato aioli and cheddar beer sauce. These were gone pretty quickly.

And here's the crisp braised pork shank with grilled spring onion kimchee, buttermilk dressing, and naan. That red sauce is Stephanie's "Chee" sauce, or "crack" as I liked to call it, which can be purchased across the street at Little Goat. I bought three bottles (and I only bought that few because I knew I could buy more online!)

These are only two dishes of too many to mention consumed that night. Anyway, all I'm saying is is that Stephanie's win is very well-deserved!

It's also more than worth mentioning that Top Chef judge Emeril Lagasse was also honored with Humanitarian of the Year, which honestly couldn't happen to a nicer man. Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson also won the James Beard Writing and Literature award for his book, Yes, Chef: A Memoir. Congrats to everyone!

Wish Stephanie, Emeril, and Marcus a big "Mazel" in the Comments section below!