The G Manifesto

James Beard Foundation Awards Nominees for 2009

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

Finalists for the James Beard Foundation were named Monday: http://www.jbfawards.com/nominees.html. Winners are announced on May 4th at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

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The only ones I really pay attention to are the Restaurant and Chef Awards.

Here they are with my comments and picks below in Bold.

Restaurant and Chef Awards

OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR AWARD

Tom Douglas
Tom Douglas Restaurants
Seattle

Keith McNally
Balthazar, Lucky Strike, Morandi, Pastis, Pravda, and Schiller’s Liquor Bar
NYC

Richard Melman
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises
Chicago

Drew Nieporent
Myriad Restaurant Group
NYC

Stephen Starr
Starr Restaurants
Philadelphia

Keith McNally in a landslide. Sure Stephen Starr’s Morimoto is dope, but Balthazar is one of the illest restaurants in the USA.

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

OUTSTANDING CHEF AWARD

José Andrés
Minibar
Washington, D.C.

Dan Barber
Blue Hill
NYC

Tom Colicchio
Craft
NYC

Suzanne Goin
Lucques
Los Angeles

Paul Kahan
Blackbird
Chicago

Either Paul Kahan or José Andrés. Suzanne Goin’s Lucques I thought was an airball. Blackbird is mindblowing, but if I have to choose, its going to be Ferran Adrià’s understudy, José Andrés. The Spanish just can’t be touched right now. And that goes for Chefs and International Playboys.

OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT AWARD

Babbo
NYC
Chef/Owner: Mario Batali
Owner: Joe Bastianich

Boulevard
San Francisco
Chef/Owner: Nancy Oakes
Owner: Pat Kuleto

Fore Street
Portland, ME
Chef/Owner: Sam Hayward
Owner: Victor Leon and Dana Street

Highlands Bar & Grill
Birmingham, AL
Chef/Owner: Frank Stitt

Jean Georges
NYC
Chef/Owner: Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Owner: Phil Suarez

I am down with Jean Georges, but its a toss up between Boulevard and Babbo. If I have to pick one, I give it to Boulevard by a nose (I swooped too many super fly Sophito Girls out of there, so its hard for me to go against). Never been to Portland, ME or Birmingham, AL so I can’t comment on those two.

Mighty Show Stoppers – Hippy Skippy Moon Strut

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR AWARD

Nate Appleman
A16
San Francisco

Sean Brock
McCrady’s
Charleston, SC

Johnny Monis
Komi
Washington, D.C.

Gabriel Rucker
Le Pigeon
Portland, OR

Michael Solomonov
Zahav
Philadelphia

Sue Zemanick
Gautreau’s
New Orleans

Either Sue Zemanick’s Gautreau’s or Nate Appleman’s A16. I have heard tons of good things about Nate Appleman’s cooking from my peers and I enjoyed it myself, but Sue Zemanick’s Veal Chop with an fly New Orleans Exotic Dancer put it on top for me.

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
Los Angeles
Chef/Owner: José Andrés
Owners: SBE

Corton
NYC
Chef/Owner: Paul Liebrandt
Owner: Drew Nieporent

L2O
Chicago
Chef: Laurent Gras
Owner: Richard Melman

Momofuku Ko
NYC
Chef/Owner: David Chang

Scarpetta
NYC
Chef/Owner: Scott Conant

Staying away from this one. Need to do more case studies on Momofuku Ko, The Bazaar by José Andrés, L2O and Corton.

OUTSTANDING PASTRY CHEF AWARD

Gina DePalma
Babbo
NYC

Kamel Guechida
Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas

Pichet Ong
P*ong
NYC

Nicole Plue
Redd
Yountville, CA

Mindy Segal
Mindy’s HotChocolate
Chicago

I can appreciate the art, but who cares about Pastries?

OUTSTANDING WINE SERVICE AWARD

Bin 36
Chicago
Wine Director: Brian Duncan

Blackberry Farm
Walland, TN
Wine Director: Andy Chabot

Le Bernardin
NYC
Wine Director: Aldo Sohm

Patina
Los Angeles
Wine Director: Eric Espuny

Picasso at Bellagio
Las Vegas
Wine Director: Robert Smith

Either Aldo Sohm from Le Bernardin (the only place in the US I will eat seafood on a Monday) or Robert Smith from Picasso at Bellagio. I still think this award should go to Mark Slater of Citronelle.

Living Funk – Silver Black Summer Day

OUTSTANDING WINE AND SPIRITS PROFESSIONAL AWARD

Dale DeGroff
Dale DeGroff Co., Inc.
NYC

Merry Edwards
Merry Edwards Wines
Sebastopol, CA

Garrett Oliver
The Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn, NY

John Shafer and Doug Shafer
Shafer Vineyards
Napa, CA

Julian P. Van Winkle, III
Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery
Louisville, KY

What’s this award for again?

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD

Daniel
NYC
Owners: Daniel Boulud and Joel Smilow

Emeril’s New Orleans
New Orleans
Owner: Emeril Lagasse

La Grenouille
NYC
Owners: Charles Masson and Giséle Masson

Spiaggia
Chicago
Owner: Levy Restaurants

Vetri
Philadelphia
Owners: Marc Vetri and Jeff Benjamin

Spiaggia hands down off this list. My true choice would be Galatoires Restaurant New Orleans.

BEST CHEFS IN AMERICA

Best Chef: Pacific (CA, HI)

Jeremy Fox
Ubuntu
Napa, CA

Douglas Keane
Cyrus
Healdsburg, CA

Loretta Keller
Coco500
San Francisco

David Kinch
Manresa
Los Gatos, CA

Daniel Patterson
Coi
San Francisco

Daniel Patterson of Coi. Never been to Healdsburg, CA.

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)

Cathal Armstrong
Restaurant Eve
Alexandria, VA

Jose Garces
Amada
Philadelphia

Peter Pastan
Obelisk
Washington, D.C.

Maricel Presilla
Cucharamama
Hoboken, NJ

Vikram Sunderam
Rasika
Washington, D.C.

Peter Pastan, Obelisk. He has been at it long enough. Any place in Alexandria, VA is automatically disqualified.

Best Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)

Isaac Becker
112 Eatery
Minneapolis

Gerard Craft
Niche
St. Louis, MO

Colby Garrelts
Bluestem
Kansas City, MO

Tim McKee
La Belle Vie
Minneapolis

Alexander Roberts
Restaurant Alma
Minneapolis

Not even sure I have been to any of these states unless I was “passing thru” during my “distribution” days. And even then, I am pretty sure I took a more southern route.

Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)

Koren Grieveson
Avec
Chicago

Arun Sampanthavivat
Arun’s
Chicago

Bruce Sherman
North Pond
Chicago

Michael Symon
Lola
Cleveland

Alex Young
Zingerman’s Roadhouse
Ann Arbor, MI

Koren Grieveson of Avec. Where the heck is Shawn McClain of Spring?

Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)

Michael Anthony
Gramercy Tavern

Terrance Brennan
Picholine

Wylie Dufresne
WD-50

Gabrielle Hamilton
Prune

Gabriel Kreuther
The Modern

Wylie Dufresne. Because he is so trippy. Just playing.

Best Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT)

Rob Evans
Hugo’s
Portland, ME

Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier
Arrows
Ogunquit, ME

Michael Leviton
Lumiére
West Newton, MA

Tony Maws
Craigie on Main
Cambridge, MA

Marc Orfaly
Pigalle
Boston

Never been to any of those spots or even those states in the last year. Although I am intrigued by Pigalle.

Best Chef: Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)

Maria Hines
Tilth
Seattle

Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez
The Harvest Vine
Seattle

Ethan Stowell
Union
Seattle

Cathy Whims
Nostrana
Portland, OR

Jason Wilson
Crush
Seattle

Didn’t go to the great Northwest last year.

Best Chef: Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)

Hugh Acheson
Five and Ten
Athens, GA

Linton Hopkins
Restaurant Eugene
Atlanta

Mike Lata
Fig
Charleston, SC

Bill Smith
Crook’s Corner
Chapel Hill, NC

Bob Waggoner
Charleston Grill
Charleston, SC

Lets say Linton Hopkins’ Restaurant Eugene just because I heard good things from one of my old running partners who seems to frequent The Home of The Pimps, Players and Money Makers.

Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – If It Ain’t Funky (1979)

Best Chef: Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, NV, OK, TX, UT)

Paul Bartolotta
Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas

Sharon Hage
York Street
Dallas

Ryan Hardy
Montagna at the Little Nell
Aspen, CO

Claude Le Tohic
Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas

Andrew Weissman
Le Rêve
San Antonio

I have dug Paul Bartolotta’s joint since it first opened. Many great meals and nights there. Defeated a very heavy media-hyped up Professional Poker Player/ Playboy there too. Straight Peeled him for his girl right at the bar even before I finished my tuna carpaccio.

Best Chef: South (AL, AR, FL, LA, MS)

Zach Bell
Café Boulud at the Brazilian Court
Palm Beach, FL

John Currence
City Grocery
Oxford, MS

John Harris
Lilette
New Orleans

Douglas Rodriguez
Ola
Miami Beach, FL

Michael Schwartz
Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
Miami

I have actually wanted to go to City Grocery for a long time, I just never seem to find myself in Oxford, MS. Pick either Lilette or The Savoy housed Ola. Rodriguez is The G on nouveau Latino and Cubano cuisine.

Click Here for The James Beard Cookbook

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

Sly & The Family Stone – Underdog

Style Wars: Banksy Piece Vandalized

Click Here to Buy Banksy’s Wall and Piece

Click Here to Buy Style Wars

A graffiti artist has vandalised a Banksy image in Hendon in an apparent show of disdain towards his fellow spray painter.

Less than a month after the painting appeared on the wall of a substation at the junction with the A1 and the A406 North Circular Road, it has been defaced by another urban artist.

Before being targeted, the image depicted a boy seemingly marking the wall of a power station with the words “Last Graffiti Before Motorway”.

But over the weekend someone painted the word “PRICE-LESS” across the wall, with one national paper yesterday running pictures of him in action.

Click Here to Buy Banksy’s Wall and Piece

Some have suggested it is a protest by another artist who may believe Banksy has forgotten the “true meaning” of urban art following his success.

Click Here to Buy Style Wars

Members of the Banksy Forum website, which follows the artist’s work, have condemned the art attack, with one member saying the perpetrator is “jealous, and bitter”.

Another man, who calls himself buddings, responded to suggestions Banksy only carries out work for financial gain, by writing: “I don’t get this at all.

“Banksy wasn’t paid to do it, he wasn’t hoping someone would sell the wall. Banksy could have done the same image on a canvas from the comfort of his studio for a massive amount of money but instead goes out in the middle of the night and gives London a little gift.”

He added: “How the hell does this remind Banksy of what urban art is all about?“

Forum member happy shopper said: “Obviously done by an idiot with no style at all.”

Source

This kind of stuff has been going on since the beginning of Graffiti. For modern times proof, check Style Wars (one of my favorite all time movies).

Sure it was a wack throw up, but Banksy knows The Game.

Click Here to Buy Banksy’s Wall and Piece

Click Here to Buy Style Wars

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

Reks – Cry Baby [Prod. Statik Selektah] (samples: willie hutch – she’s just doing her thing)

Bboys of Style Wars

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera

Click Here for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

I think I am going to hook one of these Canon Cameras. With the Down Economy, there are just too many girls willing to take their clothes off these days.

Click Here for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Compact, lightweight with environmental protection, EOS 5D successor boasts a newly designed Canon CMOS sensor, with ISO sensitivity up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions. The new DIGIC 4 processor combines with the improved CMOS sensor to deliver medium format territory image quality at 3.9 frames per second, for up to 310 frames.

Triggered from Live View Mode, HD video capture allows users to shoot uninterrupted at full 1080 resolution at 30fps — for amazing quality footage with outstanding levels of detail and realism.

Click Here for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

The integration of HD movie capability into a high-end 21.1-megapixel camera opens a multitude of new possibilities for photojournalists and news photographers. With its full-frame CMOS sensor and outstanding ISO performance, the EOS 5D Mark II will appeal to any photographer in search of the finest camera equipment available — from studio and wedding to nature and travel photographers.

Source about Canon Cameras

Down Economies are great for making money and pursuing hobbies.

And swooping Girls.

Click Here for Why I love a Down Economy?

Click Here for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

Wale ft. Young Chris & Tre – Night Life

Peter Schiff: The Crisis Just Begun

Buy Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse by Peter Schiff

BuyThe Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down by Peter Schiff

Good video on by Peter Schiff and Aaron Task:

The Mother of All Bells

There is an old adage on Wall Street that no one rings a bell at major market tops or bottoms. That may be true in normal times, but as many have noticed, we are now completely through the looking glass. In this parallel reality, Ben Bernanke has just rung the loudest bell ever heard in the foreign exchange and government debt markets. Investors who ignore the clanging do so at their own peril. The bell’s reverberations will be felt by everyday Americans, whose lives are about to change in ways few can imagine. While nearly every facet of America’s economy has been devastated over the past six months, our national currency has thus far skipped through the carnage with nary a scratch. Ironically, the U.S dollar has been the beneficiary of the global economic crises which the United States set in motion. As a result, our economy has thus far been spared the full force of the storm.

This week the Federal Reserve finally made clear what should have been obvious for some time – the only weapon that the Fed is willing to use to fight the economic downturn is a continuing torrent of pure, undiluted, inflation. The announcement should be seen as a game changer that redirects the fury of the financial storm directly onto our shores.

In its statement, the Fed announced its intention to purchase an additional $1 trillion worth of U.S. treasury and agency debt. The purchases, of course, will be made with money created out of thin air through the Fed’s printing presses. Few can doubt that they will persist with these operations until the economy returns to its former health. Whether or not this can ever be accomplished with a printing press alone has never been seriously considered. Bernanke himself admits that we are in uncharted waters, with no map or compass, just simply a hope that more dollars are the answer.

Rather than solving our problems, more inflation will only add to the crisis. Falling asset prices, the credit crunch, declining consumer spending, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and layoffs are all part of the necessary rebalancing of our economy. These wrenching movements, however painful, are the market’s attempts to resolve the serious problems at the root of our bubble economy. Attempts to literally paper-over these problems will lead to disaster.

Continue Reading

Buy Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse by Peter Schiff

BuyThe Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down by Peter Schiff

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

Blahzay Blahzay – Danger

Stripping Up, Economy Down

Click Here to Download The G Manifesto’s Free Gentleman’s Club Report (pdf)

Click Here 007 Lifestyle – Living Like James Bond!

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago’s Pink Monkey gentleman’s club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

(Click Here for The Top Ten Strip Club Mistakes)

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they’re seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

“You’re seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things,” said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City’s Sin City gentleman’s club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn’t always a smooth one — from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

“It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you’re the one who’s naked,” Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires “a thick skin.”

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn’t rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

“Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone,” said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. “Once you make an adult film, it never goes away.”

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and “it’s easy, it’s fun and all of us girls … look out for each other,” Brown said.

In this economy, “desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable,” said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who’s had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

Continue Reading

I predicted this a while ago.

Even female lawyers are Exotic Dancing.

If you want to swoop Exotic Dancers read these:

Manifesto Destiny: The Gentleman’s Club

Manifesto Destiny II: Innovative Gentleman’s Club Concepts

The Gentleman’s Club Theorem AKA The Local Bar Theorem

Advanced move for Picking up Exotic Dancers

Click Here to Download The G Manifesto’s Free Gentleman’s Club Report (pdf)

Click Here 007 Lifestyle – Living Like James Bond!

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

shalamar-make that move

Shalamar Make That Move 1980