Toledo native nominated for Beard award

3/28/2004

Bill Yosses has been nominated for a 2004 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards. The pastry chef of Citarella the Restaurant in New York City is one of five chefs or bakers who prepares desserts, pastries, or breads and who serves as a national standard bearer of excellence. The Toledo native was attending a dessert conference in California when he was notified of this honor. Mr. Yosses participated in the 2003 Taste of the Nation Toledo event. The winner will be announced at a gala May 10 in New York City.

In addition, the 2004 James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Awards for cookbooks published in 2003 will be announced that night. American Express Best Chefs in America awards will be given for chefs who have set new standards of excellence in their regions. For the Midwest region, Sandro Gamba of NoMi at the Park Hyatt, Paul Kahan of Blackbird, Michael Kornick of MK, and Tony Mantuanao of Spiaggia, all in Chicago, and Lucia Watson of Lucia's in Minneapolis are nominated.

Winners of all the awards, including those for restaurant design, graphics, and print and broadcast media, will be announced at the gala. The theme of the awards reception is "Sabor Latino: Latin Flavor"; Zarela Martinez (Zarela, NYC) and Aaron Sanchez (Paladar, NYC) will serve as executive chefs for the event.

Chad Hartson, owner of Ice Creations in Napolean, and Greg Butauski of Columbus, participated in the World Ice Art Championships March 3-5 in Fairbanks, Alaska, where they placed 8th out of 24 teams. Their entry, Bone Chilling Discovery, depicted the complete bone structure of the dinosaur Velociraptor. The finished sculpture was 10 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and 3 feet thick, and was made from a single block of ice. The ice used at the Ice Art Championships is harvested from O'Grady's Pond, which reaps more than 4 million pounds of ice.

The Henry County Arts Council is sponsoring the third annual Chocolate Fest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 24 at St. Paul Lutheran Church Trinity Center, 1075 Glenwood Ave., Napoleon. The event will feature chocolate cookies/brownies, cakes, pies, candies, beverages, and miscellaneous entries.

To enter the Chocolate Challenge recipe contest, you must provide 50 to 60 1-inch serving-size amounts. For information, contact the Henry County Arts Council at 125 West Washington St., Napoleon, Ohio 43545 or call the Arts Council at 419-592-2787. Deadline for entries is April 6. Admission is $5, or $15 per family of two adults and 3 children.

Environmental Defense has released new information to help consumers navigate the murky waters of choosing seafood that is both ecologically friendly and low in dangerous contaminants. A new layer of health advisories for fish high in contaminants such as mercury and PCBs has been added to the nonprofit's web-based Seafood Selector, which ranks fish by "eco-best" and "eco-worst." Visit www.environmentaldefense.org to view the list.

"There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of what are the safest fish, but consumers still should know what contaminants are in their food," said Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, Environmental Defense scientist. "Environmental Defense hopes this tool will help the many consumers who are eager to have more information on which to base their seafood purchases."

The online resource, Seafood Selector, now features information on contaminated fish. Environmental Defense research found that Wild Alaskan and most canned salmon, tilapia, catfish, sardines, anchovies, crawfish, and many clams are plentiful and appear to be low in contaminants and have few ecological drawbacks. The site lists contaminants information for fish, and consumption advice based on gender and age.