Stroke the Chefs / @!$%# the Cooks

You'd think after the damage done by their recently convicted former president, the questions raised about their whole purpose, and the nauseating revelations of how little money the James Beard Foundation were actually raising for scholarships, that they'd maybe learned something. That they'd adapted, moved on, become more sensitive to the widely held perception that they are in fact, nothing more than a private dining society, a high-rent memorial to a much disliked crank who--once a year, throws a lavish stroke-and-choke where corporate sponsors can "honor" prominent chefs and restaurant folk at what remains--for better or worse--the "Oscars of food" ceremony.

Apparently, you'd be wrong.