McKee (and Mpls.) wins the James Beard Award

McKee (and Mpls.) wins the James Beard Award Something tells me that Tim McKee would prefer to spend the rest of his career running a McDonald's franchise over giving a speech in front of 1,500 people in New York City. At Monday evening's James Beard Foundation Awards, the chef and co-owner of La Belle Vie (as well as Solera, Barrio, Smalley's Barbeque and Pirate Bar and the newly installed creative force behind the Guthrie Theater's dining operations) stepped to the podium, looked out at the black-tie crowd and said, "This is intimidating."

It didn't help that presenter Todd English flubbed McKee's name (the Boston chef didn't even attempt to pronounce Arun Sampanthavivat, the Chicagoan competing in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category), or, as McKee later told me, that his hands were shaking so hard he couldn't read his notes.

"It's overwhelming to be in front of the people that I've modeled my career after," he told the crowd at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, gathered for the food world's equivalent of the Academy Awards. Then, in true modest Midwestern fashion, McKee thanked the crews at his restaurants, his wife, Amy, and their children. It was a lovely, heartfelt speech, and then, in what must have been a relief for the spotlight-shy chef, it was over.

McKee, previously nominated in 2007 and 2008, made Minnesota history as the state's first chef to bring home the Beard's Best Chef: Midwest award. "This is great for Minneapolis," he told the crowd, and then graciously acknowledged his fellow Minnesota nominees, Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma and Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery. Sweet.

More on the Beard awards

Next to McKee's win, another highlight was when director Nora Ephron introduced a hilarious two-minute clip of her upcoming film "Julie & Julia," featuring what appears to be a priceless performance by Meryl Streep as Julia Child (and Stanley Tucci as her husband Paul). Can't wait to see it when the movie hits multiplexes in August.

New York City restaurateur Drew Nieporent (Outstanding Restaurateur winner) got the evening's biggest laugh when he paused for a moment, took out his PDA and said, "Wait, I'm Twittering. No, I'm not, don't you hate that [expletive deleted]?"

New Orleans restaurateur Ella Brennan (Commander's Palace) was the night's biggest charmer. "I didn't know they gave awards for fun," she said when she was handed the Lifetime Achievement Award. "I've always said, if you have to work, you can't do any better than the restaurant business."

Lucia Watson cooks for media

The evening's theme was "Women in Food," and while no Minnesota chefs were cooking at the postawards gala (Lucia Watson of Lucia's Restaurant was one of the pros presiding over the previous evening's media awards dinner), the Midwest was well represented by Debbie Gold of the American Restaurant and Danica Pollard of Lidia's Kansas City (both in Kansas City), Carrie Nahabedian of Naha and Jennifer Petrusky of Charlie Trotter's (both in Chicago) and Jennifer Coco of the Flatiron Cafe (Omaha).

It was easy to rub shoulders with a heady list of culinary celebs, including Rick Bayless, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali and winner Jean-Georges Vongerichten (his Jean Georges in New York City was named Outstanding Restaurant).

In my mind, though, the happiest sight of the night was spotting a beaming McKee in the standing-room-only crowd, with the Beard's orange-ribboned medallion around his neck. Congratulations.

RICK NELSON