Alice 'The Cheap Bastard' Laussade Has Been Nominated for a James Beard Award

Alice "The Cheap Bastard" Laussade Has Been Nominated for a James Beard Award

By Patrick Williams Mon., Mar. 18 2013 at 12:03 PM

The Observer's very own Alice Laussade, who for years put her cast-iron stomach on the line as The Cheap Bastard to bring you reviews of Dallas' low-cost lunch spots, was named a finalist in the humor-writing category of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards, which is like the Oscars of food and food journalism, except with no cheesy musical numbers.

Alice was nominated for The Cheap Bastard's Ultimate Guide to Eating like a Total Cheap Bastard in Dallas, a story that is about exactly what its headline says it's about. Plus, it's funny. You should read it.

The is the second time Alice has been a finalist in the prestigious James Beard Foundation's writing awards. In 2011, she was nominated in the humor category for "OK, Who Put Food in My Beer?", which was about fried food at the State Fair of Texas. She didn't take home the top prize that time around, a result that has absolutely nothing to do with any shameless bribes or sexual favors the judges definitely did not receive from the eventual winner, despite any contrary rumors you might read here.

"Holy shit! And my kid has pink eye! Best day ever," Alice wrote in a text message after we called her to let her know about this year's nominations, which the Beard Foundation live webcast and Tweeted this morning.

Sadly, while The Cheap Bastard occasionally makes a return appearance on City of Ate, Alice no longer produces the column regularly, having recently moved on to writing about parenthood and Dallas culture on our culture blog, The Mixmaster. Her Alice Column pops up there weekly, and she writes The Parent Crap whenever she remembers where it was she last left her kid.

Also nominated in the Beard's humor category this year were Lisa "I Hate Puppies" Hanawalt (Lucky Peach) and Michael "Let's Eat Horses" Procopio (Food for the Thoughtless).

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kergo1spaceship

"Plus, it's funny"...........WTF?

Twinwillow

Congrats for a well deserved accolade!

Anna_Merlan topcommenter

1 Like

YAY ALICE!!!

You should celebrate by popping out a baby! Whoo! Party time!

UrbanEpicurious

YES! It's nice to know JBF is keepin it real, plus the article was SOOOOOO super awesome. I'm pretty sure she laced it with unicorn farts and sprinkled in some drops of rainbow juice before it went to print.

Julie Hoyt Fisk

Fantastic! I love anything she writes!

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

Way to go, CB.

ScottsMerkin topcommenter

4 Like

Congratulations Alice ive missed your writing as I didnt realize you moved over to the mixmaster so Ive taken to reading everything Anna writes now but Ill come find you over there now. Also, to all the schleps who come on here bagging on Alice and calling her shallow and unintelligent for using curse words, this is a big fuck you LOL

JustSaying

1 Like

@ScottsMerkin Anna has been one of my favorite writers since she has been here. (So far, Merlan, don't fuck it up) Alice was funny in the first Cheap Bastard. Now her shit just reads like a 6th grade boy got his hands on a Mad Libs and filled in all the blanks with some variation of shit, dick, or balls.

Anna_Merlan topcommenter

@JustSaying @ScottsMerkin Alice is the straight-up tits.

JustSaying

@Anna_Merlan Kenny Powers, shirtless with a beer belly and a farmers tan, doing donuts on his jetski. The same jet ski that he lovingly named 'The Panty Dropper". That is a pretty gd awesome visual.

Anna_Merlan topcommenter

1 Like

@JustSaying Alice is hilarious and wonderful and you're incorrect. However, that was a very nice compliment. Thanks for that. I'll try not to fuck it up. I probably will, though.

Every comment you make, I imagine Kenny Powers bellowing it while doing donuts on his jetski and I just laugh hysterically. Best avatar picture ever.

JustSaying

1 Like

@Anna_Merlan Defending your friend and not acknowledging my compliment since it was in the same comment as my expressed low opinion of Alice. Thats gangster.