Who's Got a Beard (Award)?

​Friday night was the first of the James Beard Foundation's two national awards galas this year. This one celebrated the media, with awards given out for television shows, print and online journalism, and cookbooks. There were upsets (Jonathan Gold only took home one one of the three awards he was nominated for!) and nonsurprises (@RuthBourdain won in the Best Humor category!).

The Bay Area sent numerous food writers to New York for the awards, and a few of them walked away with medals:

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking was inducted into the foundation's Cookbook Hall of Fame. This 1984 book about the chemistry of cooking (revised and expanded in 2004) isn't just a fantastic read, it helped spur the development of what some people call molecular gastronomy and what others call modernist cuisine.

Jordan Mackay and Michael Mina Group wine director Rajat Parr captured the Beverage category award for their Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World's Top Wine Professionals.

The Edible Communities network of magazines, which include Edible San Francisco and Edible East Bay, won Publication of the Year.

And our very own Chronicle won Food Section of a General Interest Publication, with Miriam Morgan and Jon Bonné taking honors for editing.

Congratulations to all! The restaurant and chef awards are being held tonight, and the results will be shot up into the Twittercloud as they're presented. You can follow your favorite chefs to learn whether they won, or just sit at home with a snifter of brandy, clicking "refresh" on the James Beard Foundation's Twitter feed, @beardfoundation.