Highland Park Production Company Up for James Beard Award

Nicolas DeGrazia and Daniel Kullman have been on a roll lately.

The two men behind Highland Park-based production company Bitter Jester Creative accepted an Emmy Award last November, after the group was nominated for three Emmys from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Now they're up for a James Beard Award, "the highest honor for food and beverage professionals working in North America" according to the foundation's website. Bitter Jester is nominated for Best Video Webcast.

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"It's literally the Academy Awards of the culinary industry," DeGrazia said on Tuesday.

He sounded thrilled by the news.

"For a small production company to be recognized at that level is just really exciting."

Bitter Jester and JMPurePastry are nominted for "The Chicago Restaurant Pastry Competition Season One." The other two nomineecontenders are "The Seasonal Cooks" on bonappetit.com and "How to Cocktail" on liquor.com

"Then there's us," DeGrazia said. "I never would have imagined that would happen. Our partnership with Jimmy and Julie MacMillan from JMPurePastry has been such an incredible experience. And Dan and I are confident that many more creative collaborations are going to follow."

The awards ceremony will be held in New York on May 3. It will be hosted by Chopped host Ted Allen.

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