Beard Predictions: Best Chef New York City

Tonight, some of the country's best chefs and restaurant professionals will gather at Lincoln Center for the James Beard Awards. It's the Oscars/Grammys/Espys/Teen Spirit Awards of the food world. There will be red carpet walks, a press room full of champers, and a lot of anxious chefs waiting to hear their names called. And after that, there will be keg stands.

To lead up to the event tonight, Eater is running some preliminary polls for the categories in which New Yorkers figure heavily, asking readers who should win. In the category of Best Chef NYC, Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern is up against April Bloomfield (The John Dory, The Breslin, The Spotted Pig), Wylie Dufresne (wd~50), Mark Ladner (Del Posto), and Michael White (Ai Fiori, Marea, Osteria Morini). Oddly enough, Bloomfield, White, Dufresne, and Anthony were all nominated for this category last year — Gabrielle Hamilton beat them all and went home with the gold.