State of the nation

If you want to get a feel for food in the US, then check out the nominations for the James Beard Foundation Awards for 2004. If you're a chef, it seems like the places to be are New York, San Francisco or LA. Good to see also that Madhur Jaffrey gets a mention...but there's a sad lack of names familiar to anyone over here - I guess our food worlds are further apart than I thought.