Tonight, the James Beard Foundation announced its Media Award winners for 2023. The Media Awards cover cookbooks and other books, journalism, and broadcasts like television and audio programming. Finalists were announced in April. The Awards this year happen on the heels of complicated headlines and backlash against the Foundation. “There’s a bit of noise around this year’s awards as we bring our mission and values center stage,” says Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach in her opening remarks, obliquely referring to the drama that has swirled around the Awards in the past month around nominee disqualifications. “We’re about raising people up, not calling them out.”
A few takeaways and highlights: In the new book categories, baker-blogger Maurizio Leo’s debut cookbook The Perfect Loaf: The Craft and Science of Sourdough Breads, Sweets, and More: A Baking Book won in the bread books category while Psyche A. Williams-Forson won in the food issues & advocacy category for Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America. It wasn’t a total sweep for the Bon Appetit exodus, but Andy Baraghani won in the general cookbook category for his acclaimed debut The Cook You Want to Be: Everyday Recipes to Impress while Rick Martínez won in the international category for Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico: A Cookbook. In the restaurant and professional category, Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook: A Family Affair in Smoke and Soul by Kevin Bludso and Noah Galuten took home the win. Illyana Maisonet took home the emerging voice award for her debut Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook and Joe Randall’s 1998 book A Taste of Heritage: The New African-American Cuisine was added the Foundation’s cookbook hall of fame. Oxford, Mississippi-based chef Vishwesh Bhatt — one of the chefs who spoke out against the Foundation’s handling of the disqualifications and resigned as a judge last month — won in the U.S. foodways category for his book I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef (Bhatt didn’t accept his award in person at the ceremony).
Elsewhere, Erwan Heussaff (@Erwan) won for social media account and Abena Anim-Somuah, the host of Cherry Bombe podcast “The Future of Food is You” took the emerging vice award for broadcast media, while Detroit Free Press restaurant and dining critic Lyndsay C. Green took the journalism emerging voice award. Eater’s own Brooke Jackson-Glidden won the Jonathan Gold local voice award for her work at Eater Portland. LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison took home the Craig Claiborne distinguished resaturant review award which “recognizes discerning criticism that contributes to the larger discourse on cuisine or restaurants” and Shane Mitchell took home the MFK Fisher distinguished writing award “recognizes a single article of exceptional literary merit on the subject of food and/or drink published in any medium” as well as the feature reporting award for her Bitter Southerner piece, “Blood Sweat & Tears.”
The restaurant and chef categories will be announced at a gala ceremony in Chicago this coming Monday, June 5. Here now, the complete list of James Beard Foundation Media Award winners for 2023:
James Beard Foundation Book Awards
Baking and Desserts
Beverage with Recipes
Beverage without Recipes
Bread
Food Issues and Advocacy
General
International
Literary Writing
Reference, History, and Scholarship
Restaurant and Professional
Single Subject
U.S. Foodways
Vegetable-Focused Cooking
Visuals
Emerging Voice
Cookbook Hall of Fame
James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Awards
Audio Programming
Audio Reporting
Commercial Media
Documentary / Docuseries Visual Media
Instructional Visual Media
Reality or Competition Visual Media
Social Media Account
- Erwan Heussaff; Erwan; Instagram
Visual Media—Short Form
Visual Media—Long Form
Emerging Voice
James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards
Beverage
Columns and Newsletters
Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award
Dining and Travel
Feature Reporting
Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication
Foodways
Health and Wellness
Home Cooking
Innovative Storytelling
Investigative Reporting
Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award
Personal Essay with Recipes
Personal Essay without Recipes
- “On Boba” by Kyla Wazana Tompkins for The LARB Quarterly of the Los Angeles Review of Books
Profile
MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award
Emerging Voice
- Lyndsay C. Green, Restaurant and Dining Critic, Detroit Free Press
Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2023. All editorial content, including this post, is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.
