Winners Announced for the 2017 James Beard Foundation Media Awards

Winners Announced for the 2017 James Beard Foundation Media Awards

NEW YORK, NY (April 25, 2017) - The James Beard Foundation, the culinary industry’s most prestigious recognition program, has announced the winners of the 2017 James Beard Media Awards, honoring the nation’s top cookbook authors, culinary broadcast producers and hosts, and food industry journalists. Nominees and guests gathered at an exclusive celebration dinner, hosted by James Beard Award winner Andrew Zimmern, on Tuesday, April 25, at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City. A complete list of award winners can be found at the end of this release, as well as atjamesbeard.org/awards.

Highlights from this year’s list of winners include:

Book Awards:

General Cooking: Eat in My Kitchen: To Cook, to Bake, to Eat, and to Treat, Meike Peters, (Prestel)

Book of the Year: Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes, Ronni Lundy, (Clarkson Potter)

Cookbook Hall of Fame: Judith Jones

Broadcast Media Awards:

Outstanding Personality/Host: Andrew Zimmern, Andrew Zimmern’s Bucket List; Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food; Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Airs on: Travel Channel and andrewzimmern.com

Podcast: The Four Top, Host: Katherine Cole, Producers: Katherine Cole and Morgan Holm, Airs on: npr.org and iTunes

Television Program, on Location: Chef's Table, Producers: David Gelb, Brian McGinn, Matthew Weaver, Andrew Fried, and Dane Lillegard, Airs on: Netflix

Journalism Awards:

Visual Storytelling: “Thrill Ride,” Vince Dixon and Mariya Pylayev, Eater

Publication of the Year: Roads & Kingdoms

Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award: “High Chairs and Hard Core”; “The X-Files”; “Beyond Biscuits and Gravy,” Karen Brooks, Portland Monthly

M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: “The Dog Thief Killings,” Calvin Godfrey, Roads & Kingdoms

All Media Awards categories are overseen by individual committees which serve to determine Awards policies and procedures. The Book Award judges (48 in total) include editors, authors, journalists, and culinary educators who have not published a culinary book during the current Awards year. The Broadcast Media Award judges (more than 50 in total) include producers, educators, editors, and print journalists. Journalism Award judges (more than 100 in total) include working editors, journalists, retired food and beverage editors and writers, and deans and professors of leading journalism colleges.

The Awards began with a cocktail reception where Pier Sixty Host Chefs Philip DeMaiolo and Matthew Tiscornia prepared an array of passed hors d’oeuvres. Dinner was prepared by James Beard Award winner Maricel E. Presilla (Cucharamama, Hoboken, NJ), James Beard Award winner Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Philadelphia), and James Beard Award winner Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill, Chicago). A dessert reception immediately followed, with an array of sweets provided by Nicolas Botomisy (Valrhona, New York City), James Beard Award-nominated chef Meg Galus (Boka, Chicago), James Beard Award-nominated chef Maura Kilpatrick (Oleana, Boston), and James Beard Award-nominated chef Margarita Manzke (République, Los Angeles).

The Restaurant and Chef and Restaurant Design Awards will be announced on Monday, May 1, 2017, at the James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago. A number of special achievement awards, including Humanitarian of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Who’s Who, Design Icon, and America’s Classics will be also be distributed to pre-announced honorees. This highly anticipated annual celebration will take place at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and will be hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. A gala reception will immediately follow, featuring top chefs and beverage professionals from across the country.

Established in 1990, the James Beard Awards recognize culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields and furthers the Foundation’s mission to celebrate, nurture, and honor chefs and other leaders making America's food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone. Each award category has an individual committee made up of industry professionals who volunteer their time to oversee the policies, procedures, and selection of judges for their respective Awards program. All JBF Award winners receive a certificate and a medallion engraved with the James Beard Foundation Awards insignia. There are no cash prizes.

The 2017 James Beard Foundation Awards are proudly hosted by Choose Chicago and the Illinois Restaurant Association and presented in association with the Chicago Department of Aviation, HMSHost, Illinois Office of Tourism, and Mariano's as well as the following partners: Premier Sponsors: All-Clad Metalcrafters, American Airlines, Lavazza, S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, True Refrigeration®; Supporting Sponsors: Breville®, Hyatt, Robert Mondavi Winery, Skuna Bay Salmon, Valrhona; Gala Reception Sponsors: Ecolab, Front of the House®, Kendall College, Windstar Cruises; with additional support from: Chefwear, Creminelli Fine Meats, Emmi Roth, VerTerra Dinnerware. Lead support for the JBF Media Awards was provided by Breville, Rodney Strong Vineyards and William Grant & Sons.

About the James Beard Foundation (JBF)

Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation celebrates, nurtures, and honors chefs and other leaders making America's food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone. A cookbook author and teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge about food, the late James Beard was a champion of American cuisine. He helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts, instilling in them the value of wholesome, healthful, and delicious food. Today JBF continues in the same spirit by administering a number of diverse programs that include educational initiatives, food industry awards, scholarships for culinary students, publications, chef advocacy training, and thought-leader convening. The Foundation also maintains the historic James Beard House in New York City’s Greenwich Village as a “performance space” for visiting chefs.

For more information, please visit jamesbeard.org. Get food news, recipes, and more at the James Beard Foundation’s blog, or subscribe to the free digital newsletter Beard Bites. Follow @beardfoundation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Watch the James Beard House Kitchen Cam, James Beard Awards, and more on the Foundation’s Livestream channel. Find more JBF-related video on the Foundation’s YouTube channels.

2017 James Beard Foundation Awards Nominees

2017 James Beard Foundation Book Awards

For books published in English in 2016.

American Cooking

Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes
Ronni Lundy
(Clarkson Potter)

Baking and Dessert

Dorie’s Cookies
Dorie Greenspan
(Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Beverage

Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki
Martin Cate with Rebecca Cate
(Ten Speed Press)

Cooking from a Professional Point of View

Classic Koffmann
Pierre Koffmann
(Jacqui Small)

General Cooking

Eat in My Kitchen: To Cook, to Bake, to Eat, and to Treat
Meike Peters
(Prestel)

Health

You Have It Made: Delicious, Healthy, Do-Ahead Meals
Ellie Krieger
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

International

Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan
Naomi Duguid
(Artisan)

Nonfiction

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression
Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe
(Harper)

Photography

Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking
Chris Court
(Ten Speed Press)

Reference and Scholarship

The Oxford Companion to Cheese
Catherine Donnelly
(Oxford University Press)

Single Subject

Milk. Made.: A Book About Cheese. How to Choose It, Serve It and Eat It
Nick Haddow
(Hardie Grant)

Vegetable Cooking

The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook
Salma Hage
(Phaidon Press)

Book of the Year Award
Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes
Ronni Lundy
(Clarkson Potter)

Cookbook Hall of Fame
Judith Jones

2017 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Awards

For television, web, and radio programs aired in 2016.

Documentary

The Birth of Saké
Director: Erik Shirai
Producer: Masako Tsumura
Airs on: iTunes, PBS, and vhx.tv

Outstanding Personality/Host

Andrew Zimmern
Andrew Zimmern’s Bucket List; Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food; Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
Airs on: Travel Channel and andrewzimmern.com

Podcast

The Four Top
Host: Katherine Cole
Producers: Katherine Cole and Morgan Holm
Airs on: npr.org and iTunes

Radio Show/Audio Webcast

Hidden Kitchens: War & Peace & Food
Producers: The Kitchen Sisters: Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva
Airs on: NPR's Morning Edition and npr.org

Special (on TV or Web)

Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday for Heroes
Host: Lidia Bastianich
Producers: Laurie Donnelly, Lidia Bastianich, Anne Adams, and Shelly Burgess Nicotra
Airs on: PBS

Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location

Fish the Dish
Host: Spencer Watts
Producer: Chris Knight
Airs on: Gusto and gustotv.com

Television Program, on Location

Chef's Table
Producers: David Gelb, Brian McGinn, Matthew Weaver, Andrew Fried, and Dane Lillegard
Airs on: Netflix

Television Segment

Harvesting Alaska
Hosts: Heather Hintze and Lauren Maxwell
Producer: Gina Romero
Airs on: KTVA Anchorage and ktva.com

Video Webcast, Fixed Location and/or Instructional

Kitchen Conundrums with Thomas Joseph
Host: Thomas Joseph
Producers: Samantha Schutz and Greta Anthony
Airs on: marthastewart.com and YouTube

Video Webcast, on Location

Working 24 Hours at…
Director: Joe Williams
Host: Andrew Knowlton
Producer: Meghan Scibona
Airs on: video.bonappetit.com

Visual and Technical Excellence

Uncharted
Director and Photographer: James Mann
Editors: Aaron Warzynski and James Fitzpatrick
Airs on: tastemade.com

2017 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards

For articles published in English in 2016.

Columns

“Eat”: “A Haitian Grandmother’s Home-Cooked Porridge”; “Kimchi Fried Rice, Korean Comfort Food”; and “Casa Calamari”
Francis Lam
The New York Times Magazine

Dining and Travel

“I Want Crab. Pure Maryland Crab.”
Bill Addison
Eater

Food and Culture

“A Last Dinner in the Jungle”
Shane Mitchell
Roads & Kingdoms

Food and Health

“Brain Food”
Hunter Lewis, Carolyn Williams, Sidney Fry, and Peggy Knickerbocker
Cooking Light

Food Coverage in a General-Interest Publication

The New Yorker Food Issue
David Remnick, Lauren Collins, Dana Goodyear, and Carolyn Kormann

Food Reporting

“Exploited in Paradise” series
Martha Mendoza and Margie Mason
Associated Press

Home Cooking

“How to Cook, Smoke, Crumble, Grind, Pickle, Candy, Milk, Slow Cook, Toast, Pulverize, and Fry a Nut”
Cheryl Slocum and Robin Bashinsky
Cooking Light

Humor

“Recipes with Roots: The True Meaning of Turkey”
Francis Lam
Cooking Light

Local Impact

“‘Free Crabs!’”; “A Significant Goodbye”; “Feeding the Prison System”
Hanna Raskin
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

Personal Essay

“All I Want Are Some Potato Skins”
Keith Pandolfi
Serious Eats

Profile

“Finding Pete Wells: A Search for America's Most Dangerous Restaurant Critic”
Kevin Alexander
Thrillist

Visual Storytelling

“Thrill Ride”
Vince Dixon and Mariya Pylayev
Eater

Wine, Spirits, and other Beverages

“The Great Craft Beer Sellout”
Dave Infante
Thrillist