Chapel Hill showdown

Finalist nominations came out today for the James Beard Awards and Chapel Hill has two chefs in the Best Chef: Southeast group -- Andrea Reusing of Lantern and Bill Smith of Crook's Corner. They join Sean Brock of Charleston's McCrady's, plus two chefs from Georgia.

And the Beard awards almost always give me a chance to enjoy the work of Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, whose writing is eminently easier to stomach than her name and whose nominated "The Doughnut Gatherer" should bring you to tears. Best line from her other nomination, an excerpt from her wine book, has to be: "Try five different styles of Chardonnay, for instance, either over the course of a dinner party or during a wine-and-cheese gathering, and you’ll know more about Chardonnay than half the waiters in America." Check her out here.