JBF Announces Restaurant And Chef Semifinalists

The 2013 James Beard Foundation award semifinalists were announced today; four of them are from Maine. Fore Street in Portland is once again on the list for Outstanding Restaurant, a category it has appeared in four previous times; it was a finalist in 2010 and chef/owner Sam Hayward was the first Maine chef to win a JBF award in 2004. Best Chef: Northeast semifinalists include Melissa Kelly of Primo in Rockland; Brian Hill of Francine Bistro in Camden and Krista Kern Desjarlais of Bresca in Portland. Kelly won the category in 1999 (when she was at Old Chatham Sheepherding Co.in New York State); she was also a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in 2011 and 2012. This is the fourth consecutive year Desjarlais and Hill have been semifinalists in the Best Chef: Northeast category. The JBF will announce the finalists on Monday, March 18; winners will then be announced at the James Beard Foundation Awards on May 6 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. If you don't want to fuss with the PDF on the JBF website, Eater National has the full list.