Awards Season Starts Early for Bocuse, Boulud, Keller

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• Drew Nieporent and Paul Bocuse, 25 years ago and today
• Boulud and his award via @ericripert
• French Legion of Honor event
• French Legion of Honor event
• French Legion of Honor event

Restaurant world award season is officially in full swing. On Monday, Time Out will hold their Eat Out Awards, on Tuesday Food & Wine will announce their Best New Chefs, and in four weeks the James Beard Foundation will host their grand awards show and gala. But yesterday was quite the day for accolades too. In the morning, at an event at Per Se, the France Légion d'honneur named chef Thomas Keller Chevalier for his work in promoting French cuisine in America. Paul Bocuse handed out the award, Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse spoke, the French ambassador was there, and a lovely time was had by all.

But there was more patting on the back to be done! Last night, at an event at the Culinary Institute of America, the school named Boulud "Chef of the Year" and Bocuse "Chef of the Century." CIA's president called Bocuse "the first celebrity chef of the modern era." So he's the one to blame.
· French cooking guru Bocuse is 'chef of century' [AFP]
· Thomas Keller Receives French Legion of Honor Medal [~E~]