James Beard Foundation 2012 Winners Include Matt Molina, Wolfgang Puck and Boulevard in San Francisco

Founded after celebrated American Chef and TV personality, James Beard, the annual James Beard Foundation Awards 

 honor the finest culinary professionals in North America in the following categories: Outstanding Restaurateur, Outstanding Chef, Rising Star Chef of the Year, Best New Restaurant, Outstanding Pastry Chef, Outstanding Service, Outstanding Wines and Spirits Professional, Outstanding Wine Program, Outstanding Bar Program, Best Chefs (for each of 10 regions) and Outstanding Restaurant.

The list of eligible entries is reduced to approximately 20 semifinalists. The judges are a voting group of over 300 previous James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award winners, 250 panelists divided evenly among 10 regions, and 17 members of the Restaurant and Chef Awards committee. The contest is then reduced to 5 semi-finalists who become the final nominees.

In 2011 the Outstanding Restaurant winner was Eleven Madison Park in New York City. Run by head chef Daniel Humm.  The restaurant boasts a unique dining experience as guests are given a grid of 16 ingredients, and the staff designs a meal based on selected preferences.

So...Who won this year?
The award for Best Chef Pacific was given to Matt Molina, and the Outstanding Restaurant award was given to Boulevard in San Francisco. Among the honorees, Wolfgang Puck was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Traveling to New York in Style with Tips from Travel with Carnet

If you’re planning a trip to New York, be prepared to be overwhelmed with the amount of sites that offer travel advice.  After all I only had 5 days there and I had already invested more than that trying to decide what my best itinerary would be.  And what was I gonna do?  Carry around a binder with divider tabs as to options I picked out?  And then go to google to map them just to find out I could never cover that much ground in 5 days?  I was getting really frustrated. 

Then, I stumbled upon a site TravelWithCarnet.com that has it all, and maps it all for you – even if you want to (ie) find a hotel that’s within walking distance the shopping district or the restaurant row you plan to indulge in. 

Pick your favorites, the site will map them out and you can print it, or you can send the info to your smart phone and away you go!

One of The Best Sushi Restaurants in New York – Soto Restaurant in West Village

Soto Restaurant at 57 6th Ave in the West Village is a treasure of 
culinary surprises. It isn't just sushi. The dishes at Soto make sushi
maki seem as passé as a cheeseburger. It is the art of combining
intricate flavors with delicate slices of raw seafood. 

The menu includes the best seafood, all decorated with intricate
details like soy foam and custard-like sea bream. Classic dishes
like Anago and salmon nigiri are cleanly prepared and made to
satisfy the traditional taste palettes. Whereas exotic treats like
Shima Aji, a striped jack fish sushi nigiri, the Uni cocktail, a sea
urchin, cater to the more adventurous patron.  Fluke Ponzu,
served with ginger roots, and Sea trout Carpaccio are also
popular selections. Every dish maintains the clean aesthetic and
exotic taste of original Japanese cuisine.

Much more on their cuisine with link to reservations at: 
http://bit.ly/JkltIN

Map The Best Clothing Shops In New York

Going on a shopping weekend with the girls to NYC! We want to make sure we don’t waste any time so we’ve mapped it all out – where to shop - on this website that reviews everything New York. Then once you’ve selected where you wanna go, you send the interactive map to your smartphone! Go here to check it out!


The site is totally free and it reviews all kinds of shopping destinations from contemporary up-and-coming boutiques, to hidden treasures and luxury flagships. They also include the store specialty, address, phone, website, and their hours.

Las Vegas: Cirque du Soleil Show and Restaurant Pairings- “Viva Elvis” at the Aria, plus Emeril’s and the Gold Lounge at MGM Grand

I took the word of a travel site called Travel With Carnet .com that recommended a full nite of entertainment in Vegas and it was great! I followed this itinerary to a “t”.

“Starting with a trip to the Aria Resort and Casino for “Viva ELVIS” by Cirque Du Soleil, the live music, dance and acrobatics were truly marvelous. The show makes an excellent tribute to the King of Rock ‘n Roll, Elvis. Prepare to experience awe and amazement, as well as laughter and tears, at the mercy of some of the best Elvis impersonators around today.

Pair your show with the hospitality of Elvis’ Southern roots at the MGM Grand with a reservation at Emeril’s, the chef's New Orleans fish house. The seafood bar is always a hotspot for guests with its open kitchen and the restaurant is one of the famed chef’s most popular, with its modern take on traditional Louisiana Creole cooking.

To round off an evening dedicated to the talents of Elvis, head to the Gold Lounge across from the Elvis Theater to indulge in the luxurious gold trim that embodies Elvis’ favorite color and borrows designs from his Graceland estate.”

Gourmet Spring Delicacy Available In Venice, Italy; Venetian Castraura (early Artichoke)

If you are in Venice this March or April, there is one delicacy you should not miss; the castraura, a vegetable available for only 6 weeks at the end of March and into April. As a tourist, it’s a perfect thing to buy at the Rialto market while you blend in with the locals, since you can buy it and eat it on the spot, no cooking required.

Castraura is the first bud of the artichoke. The Consorzio del Carciofo Violetto di Sant’Erasmo is a consortium of 20 producers on the island of Sant’Erasmo who grow these delicacies. They’re quite expensive, around 3 euros for 10, at the Rialto Market. After plucking the outer leaves, you can enjoy them raw, with simply a dash of oil and a pinch of rock salt. I guess that’s why the word literally means “castrated”!

They are also delicious braised in the oven with a little olive oil and white wine. The secret is not to overcook them. They are sometimes served fried, but it is a bit of shame eating them that way, as they tend to lose their most delicate aromas.

TravelWithCarnet.com (where I read about this) also has some wonderful tips on other foods you must try in Venice including: specialty Seafood, Veal, Soups, Pastas, Cocktails & Desserts. They also review restaurants, hotels, things to do, shopping, etc. in Venice, Italy.

Free 2012 London Summer Olympics Trip Planner

I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about a trip! I’m traveling to Europe for the fist time ever and will be going to some of the events at the London Summer 2012 OLYMPICS!!!

The only downside is that I’m only going to be there for 5 days and I understand there is so much to do and see, in addition to the Olympics, that I hope I can squeeze it all in.

I’m one of those uber organized people so I am creating my own itinerary (aka my “Carnet” as they call it there!) so I don’t loose any of my valuable time when I am there. I’m using a site named Travel With Carnet. C o m that has it all. I picked my hotel based proximity to the games. Then, I picked out some interesting restaurants, shopping and museums on their site which then maps it all out for me. The site reviews virtually everything. I also got a FREE 2012 London Olympics Trip Planner which I found here.

Once I set up my itinerary on the site, I was able to send it to my mobile phone!

Free Summer Olympics 2012 Trip Planner Packed With Things to do During Your Stay in London Town, with Shopping Boutiques, Museums and Restaurants

It’s tempting to cruise all over the web to find the best suggestions of where to go and what to do when you are traveling, but I’m going to save you some very valuable time before, and/or during, your vacation.

There’s a site called TravelWithCarnet.com that has it all, and maps it all out for you – even if you want to stay (ie) within walking distance of your hotel – or find a hotel to stay at because it has a walking area that will fill your itinerary. Their annoynomous reviewers critique Hotels, Restaurants, Museums, Awesome Adventures, Up-Scale Shopping, Women’s Fashion, Men’s Fashion, Jewelry Shopping, Beauty & Fitness, Kids stuff and more.

Set up your itinerary on the site and and send the info to your smart phone! It’s awesome – away you go while traveling light!

Click here If you want their free Summer Olympics 2012 Trip Planner!

Popular Restaurants in Milan, Italy – Travel With Carnet .com Defines Hard To Find Trendy and Cool Restaurant Locations to Choose From

Ok, let’s say I’m a female traveling alone in Milan and want to have dinner in a place where I won’t stick out like a sore thumb as an American dining alone – and more importantly, a place that is perhaps a mecca for meeting local people.

I was looking on the dining recommendations on a site called TravelWithCarnet.com and they recommended exactly what I was looking for – very close to my hotel. I tried googling “hip restaurants in Milan” and that got me nowhere! So am really pleased I found this “insider’s travel site”.

The restaurant the site recommended and I selected was called TRATTORIA TORRE DI PISA. It’s on Via Fiori Chiari, right off the main boulevard, Via Pontaccio. While it has been known for its celebrity clientele, it also boasts the hip clientele of Milan; writers, poets, artists are regular fixtures at the small restaurant. Its historical celebrity visitors include: Sharon Stone, Veruschka, Marisa Berenson and Laura Antonelli. Back in the 60’s when the restaurant opened, Andy Warhol was a fan as was Catherine Deneuve, the Fendi sisters, John Kennedy Jr. and Silvio Berlusconi; all of whom regularly dined here. TravelWithCarnet gives you the inside scoop, very helpful for a woman traveling alone throughout Milan and other destinations in Europe.

Where To Shop In London, The Best Shopping Tips by Travel With Carnet.com

When traveling to London this summer, I plan on doing quite a bit of shopping! I’ve been researching where to go

and decided to start on Oxford Street.  There’s this site
that I found called TravelwithCarnet.com that makes
customizing my shopping excursion a breeze. After
reading the extensive descriptions of the shops, it maps
it all out for me and I only have to rely on one single
page to easily navigate from place to place.  And… being
forgetful as I am, if I forget (or loose) the map, I’ll just
log in on my phone and pick it up on their site, where I
saved it!
The site lists all kinds of shopping destinations from
contemporary up-and-coming boutiques, to hidden treasuresand luxury flagships.   The site
includes the store specialty, address, phone, website, and their hours. I’ll also beusing their
restaurant guide to decide to where to stop to eat --- on the map of course!

With the Travel With Carnet.com guide, shoppers now have a reliable source they can trust.

The Best Restaurants, Bars, Patisseries, and Tea Rooms in Paris!

There’s many travel guides out there, however I find that TravelWithCarnet.com’s updated directory of best restaurants and restaurant reviews in Paris contains everything (and more) you need to know before you go.

Their newly expanded city restaurant list includes over 100 free reviews to the worlds’ most talked about dining establishments. TravelWithCarnet.com even has a “menu reader” that includes all the preparations and sensitive food ingredients you might want to know about before your meal arrives table side.

Ok, I admit I’m a bit of a relentless Foodie but hey, you only live once and I don’t mind paying to dine at the world’s best establishments. So how do you find the best restaurants, bars, patisseries, tea rooms, etc.? You can bank on asking a total stranger for recommendations, ask a concierge or you can simply walk down any given street and look at menu and think “ok that sounds good”. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer a much more trusted source.

Visit TravelWithCarnet.com for more tips about traveling in Paris

Wondering what to do in Paris, learn more about Paris, Hotels in Paris, Attractions In Paris? Travel With Carnet Knows Paris!

There’s a great online travel guide that offers a wide but selective list of over 1000 restaurants, attractions, what to do and where to do it , hotels, museums, shopping boutiques and galleries. You can surf the site and decide if the selections fit their daily itinerary based on location and proximity to the city's most visited attractions. When you save the selections are you can print a single custom neighborhood map with the details or send the information to their phone. This site feature is called the travel carnet and resembles a personal agenda or as the French would say, a "carnet".

So if you’re traveling to Paris this summer make sure to go to TravelWithCarnet.com’s Paris information center. They have critics who travel the world and post travel tips, plus a directory to the best restaurant and hotel reviews in a number of different cities around the world.

Traveling to New York in Style with Tips from Travel with Carnet

If you’re planning a trip to New York, be prepared to be overwhelmed with the amount of sites that offer travel advice. After all I only had 5 days there and I had already invested more than that trying to decide what my best itinerary would be. And what was I gonna do? Carry around a binder with divider tabs as to options I picked out? And then go to google to map them just to find out I could never cover that much ground in 5 days? I was getting really frustrated.

Then, I stumbled upon a site TravelWithCarnet.com that has it all, and maps it all for you – even if you want to (ie) find a hotel that’s within walking distance the shopping district or the restaurant row you plan to indulge in.

Pick your favorites, the site will map them out and you can print it, or you can send the info to your smart phone and away you go!