20 chefs were nominated in the category of “Best Chef: Pacific” for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards; but only one is from Orange County: Craig Strong of Studio at The Montage in Laguna Beach.
Chef Strong is no stranger to the distinction, though. He was a semi-finalist last year too.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.