Ben & Jerry, Al's French Frys among past Vermont winners of James Beard Award
The win Monday night by a Randolph chef at the James Beard Awards begs a question: Who else in Vermont has won at the nation’s most-prominent food-industry celebration?
The answer, it turns out, is an eclectic mix that includes a pair of famous ice cream pioneers, a landmark diner-ish fast-food joint, a cheese-and-butter maker and a couple of French-trained chefs. The win Monday by Nisachon “Rung” Morgan of Saap as best chef in the Northeast adds to the list a Thai cook whose first real professional kitchen experience came when she and her husband opened their Randolph restaurant in 2015.
The Burlington Free Press asked a publicist for the James Beard Foundation to round up all of the past Vermont winners of the award. Here’s the list:
Madeleine Kamman
The renowned French chef wrote celebrated cookbooks and taught at upscale cooking schools before moving to Williston in the late 1990s. (She and her husband had two sons and three grandchildren in the area.) Considering her elevated background, Kamman’s approach to planning meals was surprisingly impromptu, as she told the Burlington Free Press in 1998.
“Ten minutes before, that’s when I plan dinner,” Kamman said, adding that menus come from what’s available at the market. “Appreciate your ingredients. Know what the techniques you have learned can do for them.”
Kamman was honored with two James Beard Awards. She was named to “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” in 1986 and received a lifetime achievement award in 1998. According to a New York Times news obituary that called her “a strong-willed teacher of traditional French cuisine,” Kamman died at age 87 in 2018 in Middlebury.
High honors:Vermont chef wins prestigious James Beard Award
Albert Kumin
Born in Switzerland, Kumin moved to North America to pursue his work that, according to the New York Times, made him “one of the most celebrated pastry chefs in the United States.” Kumin made desserts at Four Seasons and Windows on the World in New York and also worked in the kitchen at Jimmy Carter’s White House. He is credited as the inventor of chocolate velvet cake, according to the Times.
Kumin eventually moved to Vermont, where in 1988 he founded Green Mountain Chocolates in Waterbury to make Swiss and Belgian chocolate truffles, the Times wrote. Like Kamman, Kumin was honored in 1992 by the James Beard Foundation for “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.”
According to his New York Times obituary, Kumin died at his home in Stowe in 2016, at age 94.
Ben & Jerry
Ask non-Vermonters to name the state’s most-famous resident and they’re likely to come up with two: Ben & Jerry.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started a tiny ice cream shop in an old gas station at College and St. Paul streets in Burlington in 1978. Their quirky flavors ranging from Chunky Monkey to Cherry Garcia carried them onto global success, with hundreds of Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops now open worldwide.
The two are also known for espousing political and social causes ranging from campaign finance reform to opposition to genetically modified organisms. Cohen and Greenfield won the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year award in 1993.
More:Should Vermont businesses shy away from activism?
The Bissonettes/Al’s French Frys
An award often associated with elite French-trained chefs and recipients who run a family-oriented dispenser of fries, burgers, fried chicken and ice cream don’t seem to be a likely match. Yet brothers Bill and Lee Bissonette of Al’s French Frys in South Burlington were honored with a James Beard Award in 2010 in the category “America’s Classics.”
That designation does apply to Al’s, which dates to the 1940s and occupies a diner-like building along Williston Road.
More:A Vermont fried-chicken tale, told in six pieces
Allison Hooper/Vermont Creamery
The last Vermont winner of a James Beard Award was in 2018, when Allison Hooper of Vermont Creamery was selected to “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.” The business dates to 1984, when Hooper and Bob Reese founded the Websterville-based creamery.
“Our cheeses and butter have won hundreds of national and international awards, our team remains our most valuable resource, and we still put taste above all,” the website for Vermont Creamery reads. “You’ll never eat anything we don’t believe in.”
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Ben & Jerry, Al's French Frys among VT James Beard winners
