James Beard Awards: Honouring Food Authors, Journalists & Content Creators; Winners List Inside

The James Beard Awards, an annual celebration that honours excellence in food and beverage storytelling across three categories–books, broadcast media, and journalism–was held in Chicago on June 14. The 35th edition of the awards was hosted by the Illinois Restaurant Association and Choose Chicago, and here’s the complete list of winners.

All About James Beard Foundation Awards

Established in 1990, the James Beard Awards are among the most prestigious honours that recognise exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system in the USA. The annual event celebrates voices that elevate food’s cultural, social, and political relevance, and it is often called the “Oscars of food media”. All the winners receive a certificate and a medallion engraved with the James Beard Awards insignia.

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Complete List Of Book Award Winners

According to the James Beard Foundation’s website, here are all the cookbooks and other nonfiction food or beverage-related books that were honoured at the 35th James Beard Awards, under various categories –

Baking and Desserts – Sift: The Elements of Great Baking (Nicola Lamb)

Beverage with Recipes – The Bartender’s Pantry: A Beverage Handbook for the Universal Bar (Emma Janzen, Jim Meehan, and Bart Sasso)

Beverage without Recipes – Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan’s National Drink (Yoshiko Ueno-Müller)

Bread – Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking (Richard Hart, Henrietta Lovell, and Laurie Woolever)

Food Issues and Advocacy – Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch (Andrea Freeman)

General – Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes: A Cookbook (Carolina Gelen)

International – The Balkan Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of the Balkans (Irina Janakievska)

Literary Writing – Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (Nicola Twilley)

Professional and Restaurant – Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California’s Wine Country (Rogelio Garcia and Andréa Lawson Gray)

Reference, History, and Scholarship – McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches (Gary He)

Single Subject – Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking (Nadia Cho, Mingoo Kang, and Joshua David Stein)

U.S. Foodways – Our South: Black Food Through My Lens (Ashleigh Shanti)

Vegetable-Focused Cooking – Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques (Joe Yonan)

Visuals – McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches (Gary He)

Emerging Voice – Paola Velez
Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store

Cookbook Hall of Fame – Rose Levy Beranbaum

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This Year’s Broadcast Award Winners

 

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James Beard Awards 2025 recognised nonfiction works from digital and terrestrial media as well. They honoured radio, television broadcasts, podcasts, documentaries, online sites, social media creators and content covering food and beverage topics, under the following categories –

Audio Programming – Loading Dock Talks with Chef Preeti Mistry
“Cream Pie with Telly Justice”

Audio Reporting – Post Reports
“Bacon: The Best-Kept Secret in Washington”

Commercial Media – La Mera Mera Tamalera

Documentary Visual Media – MARCELLA

Docuseries Visual Media – World Eats Bread

Instructional Visual Media – G.O.A.T.

Lifestyle Visual Media – Relish

Social Media Account – Little Fat Boy

Travel Visual Media – Drink: A Look Inside the Glass

Emerging Voice – Mohammed Shaqura
Hamada Shoo

Broadcast Media Hall of Fame – Martha Stewart

2025’s Journalism Award Winners

The 2025 James Beard Awards celebrated and honoured food or drink-related content which were published in 2024 in any medium, under the following categories –

Beverage – “Want to Make Spirits in Thailand? Good Luck.”
Craig Sauers
Punch

Columns and Newsletters – “The farm bill hall of shame”; “The essential workers missing from the farm bill”; “Tribal nations want more control over their food supply”
Teresa Cotsirilos, Bridget Huber, and Claire Kelloway
Food & Environment Reporting Network and Mother Jones

Craig Claiborne Distinguished Criticism Award – “New tasting menu dinners at Honeysuckle Provisions are provocative and delicious”; “The enduring, confusing, and always delicious Octopus Cart is still puffing along after 34 years”; “Loch Bar, a new high-end seafood spot on Broad, swings big and misses”
Craig LaBan
Philadelphia Inquirer

Dining and Travel – “Gastro Obscura’s Feast”
Anne Ewbank, Diana Hubbell, and Sam O’Brien
Gastro Obscura

Feature Reporting – “We Need to Talk About Trader Joe’s”
Adam Reiner
TASTE

Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication – The Bitter Southerner

Foodways – “As Detroit sees a future in urban agriculture, some pushback harkens to a dark past”
Lyndsay C. Green
Detroit Free Press

Health and Wellness – “Florida Banned Farmworker Heat Protections. A Groundbreaking Partnership Offers a Solution.”
Grey Moran
Civil Eats

Home Cooking – “The Art and Science of Kimchi”
Andrea Geary
Cook’s Illustrated

Investigative Reporting – “The North Koreans behind global seafood”; “The Whistleblower”
Ian Urbina and the Staff of The Outlaw Ocean Project
The Outlaw Ocean Project and The New Yorker

Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award – “Etta’s Five Bankruptcies Have Left a Collective Mess”; “White Sox Fans Came for the Losses, Stayed for the Milkshakes”; “Namasteak, USA”
Ashok Selvam
Eater Chicago

MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award – “The City that Rice Built”
Jeff Gordinier and George McCalman
Food & Wine

Narrative Photography – “The Only Constant is Chuck’s”
Rory Doyle
Self-published

Personal Essay – “My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza”
Mosab Abu Toha
The New Yorker

Personal Essay with Recipes – “A Cuisine Under Siege”
Laila El-Haddad
SAVEUR

Profile – “Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar”
Helen Rosner
The New Yorker

Emerging Voice – MacKenzie Chung Fegan
Restaurant Critic
San Francisco Chronicle

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Congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 James Beard Awards!

Cover Image Courtesy: website/jamesbeard