April 30--Chicago foodies, leave those selfie sticks at home.
Hundreds of celebrity chefs and culinary bold-face names are expected to attend the James Beard Foundation Awards Monday night, the first time Chicago has hosted the annual event that has been dubbed the "Oscars of the food world."
Though VIPs will be walking the red carpet in front of the Lyric Opera before the 6 p.m. ceremony, their fans likely won't be able to ogle or snap pics of them because of limited space outside the opera house. Instead, foodies who weren't able to snag a $500 ticket to the sold-out show are encouraged to use their iPhone or computer to watch the foundation's live broadcast of the festivities.
"There's just not a lot of room for general viewers" near the red carpet, said awards spokeswoman Mary Blanton Ogushwitz. "It will probably get a little crowded. The best view is probably online."
This will be the second time in days Chicago is hosting a major ceremony, but the public hoopla will differ. Thursday's NFL Draft includes an elaborate gold carpet on Michigan Avenue to welcome the football standouts and multiple street closures for festivities. The red carpet for the Beard awards, a longtime New York staple, is expected to draw celebrity chefs such as Ludo Lefebvre and Daniel Boulud; Chicago greats Rick Bayless, Paul Kahan, Grant Achatz and Mindy Segal; and rising culinary stars.
Not that any one may notice, except attendees and commuters. The Beard carpet will be on the sidewalk along Wacker Drive near Madison street, an area that is shrouded by the operahouse's columns. Though there will be no street closures, transit riders may find themselves hustling around the sidewalk commotion, which starts at 5 p.m.
Chicagoans should get used to this set-up. The Windy City is slated to host the Beard ceremony through 2017, under a deal recently announced by Mayor Emanuel.
New York has hosted the awards since they began in 1991. (A separate show for books, broadcast and journalism awards still occurs in New York.) The past few years, the main awards show has been held at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, which allowed for a different red-carpet experience, Blanton Ogushwitz said.
"The space we have outside the (Chicago) opera house is what we have to work with. To get everyone into the show in a timely and safe way we can't invite people to come and stand on the red carpet with us," Blanton Ogushwitz said. "Anyone can walk by and catch a glimpse for sure."
Blanton Ogushwitz said fans have other options besides the red carpet and the ceremony to spot their favorite chef. Multiple restaurants are hosting dinners and demos in the days before and after the awards show.
Otherwise, the foundation is offering live streams of the red carpet and the awards ceremony, as it has done in the past, but this is the first time it is using the Periscope app to broadcast the red carpet, Blanton Ogushwitz said. Anyone with an iPhone or computer can watch the Periscope feed.
Viewers may not be familiar with all the faces they see. For some chefs like Tanya Baker, executive chef of The Boarding House in River North, this will be their first time walking the red carpet.
"I'm pulling out the stops with an evening gown! I work in a kitchen 80 hours a week so any excuse to get dressed up is exciting!" Baker, who is up for a Beard award for rising star chef, said in an email.
Andrew Zimmerman, executive chef of Sepia in the West Loop and a Beard nominee for best chef, Great Lakes category, said he has walked the Beards red carpet two of the last three years but he's still not used to that type of spotlight.
"I don't usually get invited to these sorts of things as a guest ... usually they just want me to cook," Zimmerman said in an e-mail.
tswartz@tribpub.com
