ACHATZ WINS BEARD HONOR AS MOST OUTSTANDING CHEF
By Lisa Donovan

Chicago Sun-Times
995445,CST-NWS-beard09.article
June 9 2008
IL

Chicago’s own Grant Achatz, of the cutting-edge restaurant Alinea
in Lincoln Park, won the national James Beard Foundation award for
outstanding chef.

Taking home one of the food industry’s top prizes comes within the last
12 months when the 30-plus year-old chef announced he had late-stage
oral cancer. Now in remission, he has gained back all the weight he
lost, he said recently.

Carrie Nahabedian, chef and co-owner of River North eatery Naha,
was also among the winners at Sunday’s night’s award ceremony in New
York City.

Nahabedian, nominated three times now, won in the category "Best
Chef Great Lakes," which included finalists from Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan and Ohio, according to the Web sites for the James Beard
Awards as well as Naha, 500 N. Clark St. Nahabedian beat fellow Chicago
nominees Graham Elliot Bowls of Avenues In The Peninsula Chicago,
108 E. Superior, and Bruce Sherman of North Pond, 2610 N. Cannon Drive.

The restaurant’s Web site describes Nahabedian’s cooking style as
one that draws from her "Armenian roots" and her time as a chef
in California.