James Beard Awards, Semi-Finalists Announced

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I'm proud to announce that my life-long best friend, Derek Emerson, Chef/Owner of Walker's Drive-In in Jackson, Mississippi has been named as a semi-finalist by the James Beard Foundation for the category of Best Chef in the South.

In the coming weeks I'll be doing an interview with Derek and will share it with my Sagacious readers. I hope that in the interim, we get news that Derek has made it to the next stage in the James Beard Awards process! Objectively speaking, he deserves it. I'm too critical of all things culinary to just support him because he's my bro—I support him because he's an excellent chef who changed this Yankee-So Cal-Big City gal's opinions about Southern cooking.
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