simonesez: Restaurant August

Accolades and Honors

New Orleans City Business – 2008 – Inaugural class of Culinary Connoisseurs, recognizing 50 top professionals in Louisiana’s culinary industry based on cuisine, business success, and culinary involvement; honorees include August, Best Fine Dining Establishment; Lüke, Best Casual Upscale Dining Establishment; Lüke, Best New Restaurant; John Besh, Best Owner – August, Lüke, Besh Steak, La Provence; John Besh, Best Executive Chef – August, Lüke.

Food Network: The Next Iron Chef – 2007 – Chef John Besh was selected to compete to become the Next Iron Chef, succeeding in every challenge, and finishing as the runner-up in Kitchen Stadium.

New Orleans Magazine – December 2007 – Chef John Besh named “Best Chef of the Year.”

New Orleans Magazine – December 2007 – Lüke named “Best New Restaurant.”

Iconoclasts, Sundance Channel – November 2007 – Chef John Besh and Wynton Marsalis selected portraits of creative visionaries whose passion for what they do has transformed our culture for the third season of the original series ‘Iconoclasts.’ “Iconoclasts explores the intersection where two great talents meet and where creativity comes alive,” Executive Producer Robert Redford.

The Times-Picayune – October 2007 – August “Top 10 Best Restaurants in New Orleans.”

2007 Restaurant Neighbor Award, National Restaurant Association – Chef John Besh named state award winner for his tremendous dedication to community outreach in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Nation’s Restaurant News Hall of Fame Awards – May 2007 Chef John Besh and August named to the Hall of Fame for Fine Dining.

The James Beard Foundation Awards – 2006 – John Besh receives award for Best Chef, Southeast.

[2005 – John Besh nominated for Best Chef, Southeast]

Iron Chef America – February 2006 – Chef John Besh was the first New Orleans chef to compete against Iron Chef Mario Batali; Besh was victorious in the battle that aired on Food Network.

Santé Restaurant Culinary Hospitality Award – 2005 – August received the Regional Innovative Culinary Hospitality Award.

Kendall-Jackson Winery 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Festival – September 2004 – Chef John Besh won the Chef’s Challenge; Besh served as competition judge at festival in September 2005.

Great American Seafood Cook-Off – July 2004 – Chef John Besh crowned “King of Seafood” at competition highlighting seafood from local waters (aired April 2005 on Food Network); Besh now serves as a spokesman for the Louisiana Seafood Board.

Icelandic Naturally Food & Fun Festival Culinary Competition – February 2004 – Chef John Besh named Chef of the Year.

Wine Spectator – since 2002, August has received the “Award of Excellence.”

Food & Wine Magazine – July 1999– Chef John Besh as one of the “Top 10 Best New Chefs in America.”

Condé Nast Traveler – May 2008 – The annual “Hot List” named the top 105 worldwide restaurants of 2008 – only 39 were in the United States, and Lüke was one of them!

Bon Appétit – February 2008 – The annual green issue named La Provence on its “The Hot 10/The Best Eco-Friendly Restaurants” list.

Zagat – 2007 – August ranked with the highest honor, Number 1, in New Orleans for Food and Service.

Gayot.com The Guide to the Good Life – November 2006 – August named one of the “Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S.” The site states that Besh “continues to thrill us with a cuisine of home-grown traditions married to contemporary ideas and classic technique.”

Gourmet Magazine – October 2006 – August named one of America’s “Top 50 Restaurants;” John Besh is credited with “intelligently updating the Louisiana dining tradition while exploring a vision of something New Orleans truly needs: a future.”

US Airways Magazine – January 2006 – August’s Moroccan-spiced Duck named one of the “10 Best Tastes of the Year” by John T. Edge.

USA Today – 2004 Year in Review Food – Critic Jerry Shriver declared New Orleans the Top Dining Destination of 2004, noting that in the spring he “fell in love all over again with…August…”

The Times-Picayune – June 2003 – Local critic Brett Anderson included August in his Top 10 Picks.

GQ – December 2003 – Alan Richman included August as one of ten restaurants in an article on where to eat in 2004.

Gourmet Magazine – September 2003 – August is listed on Gourmet’s “Guide to America’s Best Restaurants.” “Just shy of its second birthday, August is spoken of in the same breath as the city’s most distinguished institutions.”

The Times-Picayune – June 2003 – Local critic Brett Anderson rated the food at August “superior,” claiming that Besh has “willed one of the region’s most celebrated restaurants into one of the region’s best restaurants, period.” Five red beans were awarded, making August only the second restaurant in the city to receive this honor in the past three years.

Condé Nast Traveler – May 2002 – The annual “Hot List” named the top 50 worldwide eateries of 2002 – only twelve were in the United States, and August was one of them!

Cookie Magazine – May 2008 – Chef John Besh featured with his four sons fishing [a long-standing family tradition], cooking, and bonding in the article “Gone Fishin’.”

Today Show – April 2008 – Chef John Besh appeared on program in live cooking segment; additional appearances in October 2007, June 2006, November 2005, October 2005, April 2005, and December 2003.

Restaurant Hospitality – February 2008 – Chef John Besh was featured on the cover and profiled in “10 Thoughts from John Besh.”

New Orleans City Business – February 2008 – Local critic Tom Fitzmorris reviewed La Provence in his article “La Provence maintains familiar French roots” claiming it “…will be the most interesting restaurant in the coming year — and earn five stars by the end of it.”

Food & Wine Magazine – December 2007 – Chef John Besh featured at home with family and friends in the article “The Big, Easy Christmas.”

The Wall Street Journal – November 2007 – Chef John Besh’s 30-minute meal featured in the Food & Drink Section “Chefs at Home.”

Travel + Leisure – November 2007 – Chef John Besh featured with three other New Orleans chefs in the article “Soul Survivor” about the re-energized restaurant scene. [Photo taken at August.]

House & Garden – October 2007 – Chef John Besh featured at home with his family using his outdoor Viking kitchen for family gatherings in the article “Off Duty.”

Town & Country – April 2007 – Chef John Besh featured in the article “Farm to Table” about sustainable southern cuisine.

Town & Country – June 2006 – Chef John Besh featured in the article “New Orleans Now” about his philanthropic work in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina.

O The Oprah Magazine – March 2006 – Chef John Besh featured as “The First Responder” in the article “Delta Force - New Orleans’ mightiest chefs cook again!”

Super Seafood Grill-Off – March 2006 – Chef John Besh served as judge for Food Network competition.

Gourmet Magazine – February 2006 – Chef John Besh featured in “A Letter from New Orleans – Some Heroes and the Food on Their Tables.”

Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels – February 2006 – August was featured on episode about New Orleans in this Food Network program.

Wall Street Journal – December 2005 – recipes from Chef John Besh featured.

CNN – November 2005 – Chef John Besh featured throughout broadcast on Thanksgiving morning.

The New York Times – September 2005 – Chef John Besh featured as the city’s culinary voice in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; Besh also featured in articles on recovery in October 2005 and January 2006.

Food Network: All-American Tailgating Cook-Off – January 2005 – Chef John Besh served as judge for Food Network competition.

Gambit Weekly – November 2004 – John Besh selected as one of New Orleans top residents in “Top 40 Under 40.”

Robb Report - November 2004 – August’s penthouse called New Orleans’ best-kept dining secret.

The New York Times Magazine, “The Sophisticated Traveler” – May 2004 – “…I first came down here believing that eating in New Orleans meant dinner at Antoine’s. What I discovered dining at …August… will surprise no one who has been keeping up with the local restaurant scene: this remains a fabulous eating town, right up there with New York and San Francisco and maybe superior to either…”

Food & Wine Magazine – February 2004 – In her feature on New Orleans, Julia Reed reveals that she prefers to dine at “lovely August, where I invariably order gnocchi with crab and white truffle, or whatever wonderful thing [John Besh] is doing to his impeccable house-smoked salmon.”

Travel + Leisure – November 2003 – In Travel + Leisure’s feature, “40 Great Places to Spend the Holidays,” John Besh is cited as the “chef at one of [New Orleans’] top tables.”

Food & Wine Magazine – July 2003 – Chef John Besh featured in the article “A Chef At Peace” about his time as a Marine in the Gulf War and his progression to becoming a chef.

The New York Times – April 2002 – Chef John Besh featured on the front page of the Dining Section – “Off Off Bourbon Street, a Jubilant Revival” about the opening of August in New Orleans.