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Why Indiana's Top Chefs Have Never Won A James Beard Award

Update - March 24, 10:14 a.m.



None of the Indiana chefs were selected as finalists for the James Beard Award.



Here's the full list of finalists. Indiana competes in the Great Lakes region.



Original story:



When people in Bloomington want a top-rate dining experience, they usually head to David Tallent's eponymous restaurant just off the square.



Diners at Restaurant Tallent can treat themselves to rabbit boudin, mushroom risotto with truffle relish and, if they're feeling indulgent, butterscotch semifreddo with a glass of buttery chardonnay.



Bloomington diners aren't the only people who appreciate Tallent's hard work.



The chef has recently been named-along with Bloomington's Daniel Orr of FARM and Indianapolis' Greg Hardesty of Recess and Micah Frank of Black Market-as a semifinalist in the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards' "best chef" category.



While the average man on the street might not know the James Beard Awards, restaurant critics and food journalists talk about them all year long. They're sometimes called "the Oscars of food."



Winning a Beard award is a three-step process.



First, a group of 20 semifinalists is announced. After that, the field is narrowed down to the finalists, who, this year, are named March 24. The winners are announced at a ceremony May 4.



Although Indiana doesn't necessarily have a hard time being recognized-Tallent himself has been named as a semifinalist nine times-no chef from Indiana has ever won a James Beard award. Tallent says that has a lot to do with geography.



Central Indiana is out of the way for a lot of judges, and you can't exactly taste a menu over the phone.



"It's the effort," Tallent says."You've got to come to Bloomington, but maybe now there's two of us in Bloomington, it ups the chances a bit."



Chicago also poses a problem.



Indiana competes within the "Great Lakes" region. That means every year, chefs from Indiana go head-to-head against chefs from the world-class dining scene in Chicago, a real David-and-Goliath situation.



Liz Biro, who writes about food for the Indianapolis Star, has thought about this problem a lot.



"You have to ask yourself, people are given attention all the time, why don't they win?" she says.



Biro says the Chicago scene does pose a real threat to Indiana chefs.



"Chicago has a much larger market that's demanding these chef-driven restaurants," she says.



But when it comes to getting recognized, it really comes down to what people in Indiana want to eat.



"The market here may not always demand the quality of the kind of food the Beard scouts are looking for," Biro says. "Indianapolis is a big city with a small-town feel. People still love their comfort food, their down-home food. Restaurants have to be realistic and give people what they want."



Black Market chef Micah Frank points out, though, that the state's food scene is changing.



"Indianapolis was considered the chain capitol of the U.S.," says the Indiana native. "We were the main test market for Frito-Lays. Now, we've kind of gone back to the basics with these local producers, these farmers producing all of these artisan products that are uniquely Indiana."



Those amazing raw materials are what brought Bloomington native Tallent back to Indiana from the East Coast.



"I never dreamed we would be able to open a restaurant in Bloomington," Tallent says.



He changed his mind after a visit to the city's farmer's market during a visit back home.



"We went, and I was awestruck by the size of it and the variety of what was here," he remembers. "It was another lightbulb mental note: Bloomington is the perfect place to do that because of the amount of produce and the amount of farmers."



Frank and Tallent agree that whether or not the state takes home a James Beard award this year, that cornucopia of ingredients is what makes Indiana food special.



Anyway, winning isn't something they particularly think about.



"It's something I don't really focus on to be honest with you," Frank says. "I'm able to come to work every day pretty happy with what we do, and I really just focus on cooking on a daily basis and changing menus and trying to evolve."



Tallent has a similar mantra: "I just show up, do what I do, and keep trying to push myself and get things right," he says. "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it's still an honor to be one of the 20 best in the Midwest."



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