Calling All Food Lovers! Bizarre Foods Host Andrew Zimmern, Panel Of 43 Celebrity Tastemakers Team Up With General Mills To Serve Up Fourth Annual The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards

Chef Dan Barber Named First Munchies Inspirational Food Thought Leader

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Feb 23, 2015, 09:11 ET

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards returns for its fourth year as Tablespoon.com, a General Mills website, honors 100 of the top food experiences in America and salutes Dan Barber as its Inaugural Inspirational Food Thought Leader. Beginning today, the public has the chance to cast their votes for nominees from across the country chosen by an expert panel of 43 culinary tastemakers. Categories range from Best Food Competition TV Show to Best Chef; Best Burger to Best Ramen and Best Coffee Shop to Best Cocktail Bar, and the public can vote on their food favorites daily through March 31 at Tablespoon.com/themunchies.

Bizarre Foods Host Andrew Zimmern and panel of 43 celebrity tastemakers team up with General Mills for the fourth year of The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards to honor 100 of the top food experiences in America.

The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards panel of 43 celebrity tastemakers name Dan Barber as its Inaugural Inspirational Food Thought Leader.

James Beard award-winning television personality and Chef Andrew Zimmern returns to lead The Munchies expert panel, working with a wide-ranging panel of well-known food personalities to create the short list of nominees.

"Food is an integral part of our individual lives and communal culture in America. I'm always fascinated to see what the public considers desirable and worthy of applause via this unparalleled food awards program," said Zimmern. "The Munchies provides a unique opportunity to spark a national conversation about fantastic food and empowers the public to voice who is most deserving. And new this year, the expert panel and I are proud to recognize Chef Dan Barber for his great work with the Inspirational Food Thought Leader Award."

Inspirational Food Thought Leader Award
Chef-thinker Dan Barber is named the 2015 Inspirational Food Thought Leader by Zimmern and the Munchies Awards' expert panel. New to the The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards, the honor recognizes the person that has had the greatest positive transformative impact on the country's food system and made a substantial impact for our future.

As the chef at New York's Blue Hill restaurant, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, Barber practices a kind of close-to-the-land cooking and stewardship of the earth. Working as an advocate of good food and sustainable agriculture, Barber has popularized simple ideas that upend the way people think about the food they eat. In spring of 2006, Barber won James Beard's "Best Chef, New York City," and in 2009, Barber received the James Beard award for "America's Outstanding Chef", and was named one of the world's most influential people in Time's annual "Time 100" list. In 2014 he published The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food.

In addition to selecting the honoree of the Inspirational Food Thought Leader award, The Munchies expert panel shared their culinary perspectives to determine the 100 nominees across three groups of categories:

Terrific Tastemakers gives props to the media and personalities who make the food world delicious, from the Best Food Competition TV Show to the Best Food Blog or Site.
Best Bites honors the most intriguing interpretations of our favorite foods, like the Best Ramen, the Best Steak and the Best Taco.
Delicious Destinations pays homage to the haunts that keep us coming back for more, from Best Food Truck to Best Craft Brewery.

"The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards celebrates the best of the best across 20 categories in the world of food. We are excited for another year of heated competition," said Heather Reid Liebo, Food Content Marketing Manager at General Mills. "New for 2015 is elimination-style voting where the lowest vote getter in each category will be eliminated each round. Look for this to spice up the competition even more than before!"

Once again, The Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards will be making a donation to Feeding America on behalf of the expert panelists and voters.

Food enthusiasts can satisfy their cravings and vote daily at Tablespoon.com/themunchies now through March 31, 2015. The winners of the 2015 Munchies Awards will be based on popular vote and announced on Tablespoon.com in early April.

The List of 2015 Munchies Nominees

Best Food Competition TV Show

Chopped, Food Network
Iron Chef America, Food Network
Knife Fight, Esquire Network
Food Network Star, Food Network
The Taste, ABC

Best Food TV Personality

Alton Brown, Cutthroat Kitchen, Food Network
Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, CNN
Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, Food Network
Michael Symon, The Chew, ABC
Mo Rocca, My Grandmother's Ravioli, Cooking Channel

Best Chef

Ashley Christensen, Poole's Diner, Raleigh, NC
Hugh Acheson, Five & Ten, Athens, GA
Ignacio Mattos, Estela, New York, NY
Jamie Bissonette, Toro, Boston, MA
Paul Kahan, Blackbird, Chicago, IL

Best Food Blog or Site

Food Republic
I Am a Food Blog
Perennial Plate
Serious Eats
Smitten Kitchen

Best New Cookbook

Flour and Water: Pasta, Thomas McNaughton, Ten Speed Press
Heritage, Sean Brock, Artisan
Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen, Dana Cowin, Ecco
My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories, David Lebovitz, Ten Speed Press
Plenty More, Yotom Ottolenghi, Ten Speed Press

Best Food Magazine

Bon Appetit, Conde Nast
Cherry Bombe
Food & Wine
Lucky Peach
Saveur, Bonnier Corporation

Best Pizza

DiFara Pizza, Brooklyn, NY
Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix, AZ
Pizzeria Lola, Minneapolis, MN
Pizzeria Mozza, Los Angeles, CA
Pizzeria Vetri, Philadelphia, PA

Best Burger

Au Cheval, Chicago, IL
The Company Burger, New Orleans, LA
Father's Office, Los Angeles, CA
Holeman and Finch Public House, Atlanta, GA
Minetta Tavern, New York, NY

Best BBQ

Franklin Barbecue, Austin, TX
Kreuz Market, Lockhart, TX
Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint, Nashville, TN
Mighty Quinn's Barbeque, New York, NY
Scott's Bar-B-Que, Hemingway, SC

Best Steak

Doe's Eat Place, Greenville, MS
Gibsons Steakhouse, Chicago, IL
Keens Steakhouse, New York, NY
Lonesome Dove, Fort Worth TX
Peter Luger Steak House, Brooklyn, NY

Best Taco

Big Star, Chicago, IL
Empellon Taqueria, New York, NY
Guerrilla Tacos, Los Angeles, CA
Mas Tacos Por Favor, Nashville, TN
Taqueria del Sol, Atlanta, GA

Best Ramen

Daikokuya, Los Angeles, CA
Ippudo, New York, NY
Ivan Ramen, New York, NY
Ramen Tatsu-ya, Austin, TX
Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle, Los Angeles, CA

Best Donut

Dough, Brooklyn, NY
Doughnut Plant, New York, NY
Doughnut Vault, Chicago, IL
Federal Donuts, Philadelphia, PA
Glam Doll Donuts, Minneapolis, MN

Best Ice Cream

Ample Hills Creamery, Brooklyn, NY
Big Gay Ice Cream, New York, NY
Bi-Rite Creamery San Francisco, CA
Graeter's, Cincinnati, OH
Salt & Straw, Portland, OR

Best Sandwich Spot

Cochon Butcher, New Orleans, LA
Katz's Delicatessen, New York, NY
Porchetta, New York, NY
Robert's Western World, Nashville, TN
Zingerman's Deli, Ann Arbor, MI

Best Coffee Shop

Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland, CA
Crema, Nashville, TN
La Colombe, Philadelphia, PA
Panther Coffee, Miami, FL
Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Portland, OR

Best Food Truck

Biscuit Love Truck, Nashville, TN
East Side King, Austin, TX
King of Pops, Atlanta, GA
Kogi BBQ Truck, Los Angeles, CA
Nong's Khao Man Gai, Portland, OR

Best Craft Brewery

Bell's Brewery, Kalamazoo, MI
Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Goose Island, Chicago, IL
Sixpoint Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Surly Brewing Co., Minneapolis, MN

Best Cocktail Bar

Cure, New Orleans, LA
Marvel Bar, Minneapolis, MN
Pegu Club, New York, NY
The Aviary, Chicago, IL
Trick Dog, San Francisco, CA

Best Food City

Chicago, IL
Los Angeles, CA
New Orleans, LA
Portland, OR
San Francisco, CA

The Munchies Award's Expert Panelists

The Munchies nominees were chosen by a panel of culinary tastemakers including stars of blogs, podcasts, books, restaurants and TV. Below is the complete list of panelists: