Bravo for the Beard Awards!

David Chang, Daniel Boulud, Dan Barber and Jean-Georges Vongerichten were among the big winners at last night's James Beard Awards, held at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The glittering evening, known to avid restaurant-goers as the Oscars of the food world, drew the industry's best an brightest for an evening of peer recognition and, of course, good eating.

Show hosts Cat Cora, Emeril Lagasse and actor Stanley Tucci did an admirable job of keeping the proceedings moving, but much like the Academy Awards, the Beard show is infamous for running long and dry. Still, enduring the speeches is always a small price to pay for the post-awards reception and after-parties. In keeping with the theme of this year's show, Women in Food, the reception featured the culinary creations of some of the nation's leading women chefs, including Lidia Bastianich, Anita Lo, Michelle Bernstein, Carrie Nahabedian and Jennifer Petrusky.

Once they moved on from Lincoln Center, guests, nominees and winners had their pick of after-parties, with the more ambitious foodies packing in several stops. New York Insider briefly checked out Bar Boulud (conveniently located across the street from Lincoln Center) before heading to Nobu 57, where Drew Nieporent was hosting a Champagne and sushi celebration. We then decamped to the Modern, where the booze was flowing, though there was not a nibble to be had. Other revelers headed downtown to Mario Batali's Otto or to Terroir, in the East Village.

All in all, it was a night of great fun and redkindled friendships—as is always the case when the hospitality world pulls out all of its stops.

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Fit for a King

Fresh from their trip to Pensacola, where they helped commemorate the 450th anniversary of the first Spanish settlement in Florida, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia presided as special guests of honor at a dinner given at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Emceed by New York superchef Mario Batali, the evening provided a royal kick-off to this weekend's South Beach Wine & Food Festival, in Miami. After a lavish food and wine tasting in the Spanish mission-style courtyard of the Biltmore, guests proceeded to the hotel's regal banquet hall, where they dined on courses prepared by several of Spain's most noted chefs, each of whom presented a course. The wizards of cuisine included Pedro Subijana, Daniel Garcia and Francisco (Paco) Torreblanca. Culinary master of ceremonies was José Andrés, whose brand of molecular gastronomy continues to captivate diners in our nation's capital and most recently, at Bazaar in Beverly Hills. Among the celebrity guests who turned out to sample la comida españa were singers Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan. Neither one performed, which we thought was a shame. The king and queen would surely have enjoyed a mash-up of "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" and "Rhythm is Gonna Get You."

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