Patrick Ryan and Ryan Brazeal once again nominated for ‘Best New Chef’ award

The nominees for this year’s “Best New Chef: Midwest,” sponsored by Food & Wine magazine, are particularly impressive: 10 bright young Midwestern chefs from six cities seeking honors (Story restaurant’s Carl Thorne-Thomsen was the winner-take-all “Best Chef” in last year’s competition) decided not by a panel of judges but by online voters.

Once again, Patrick Ryan, the larger-than-life chef-owner of Port Fonda, and Ryan Brazeal, of Novel restaurant, are nominated in this category. They were also nominated last year.

The “People’s Choice” awards are given by Food & Wine magazine to the chefs in each regional category who garner the most online votes. (You can vote for your choice by clicking here.) Ryan and Brazeal are competing this year with Paul Berlgand, Thomas Kim and Jim Christiansen from Minneapolis; Tim Dahl and Dan Fox from Madison, Wisconsin; Ben Poremba from St. Louis; Matthew McClure from Bentonville, Arkansas; and Thomas Hauck from Milwaukee.

Online voting continues through 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 8. The winners will be announced Thursday, April 9.