On June 14, 2025, the James Beard Foundation® hosted its 35th annual Media Awards at Columbia College Chicago, honoring the nation’s top food storytellers—from cookbook authors to podcasters, critics to creators. Emmy‑nominated producer and New York Times best‑selling author Padma Lakshmi served as host, while culinary luminaries like Nyesha Arrington, Molly Baz, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Francis Lam, Adam Richman, Alexander Smalls, Andrew Zimmern, and others took the stage as presenters.
“We’re honored to celebrate phenomenal work that will surely impact how people cook, think about food, and engage with our shared culinary landscape for years to come,” said Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation.
This year’s honorees spanned the full spectrum of food media—from literary deep dives to plant-based innovations, from TikTok sensations to hard-hitting investigations.
In the Book Awards, Nicola Twilley took home the Literary Writing award for Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, while Ashleigh Shanti won U.S. Foodways for Our South: Black Food Through My Lens, a soulful reflection on culture, identity, and memory.
Cookbook newcomers were also celebrated: Paola Velez won the Emerging Voice in Books award for Bodega Bakes, a love letter to Dominican-American flavors and corner store classics.
Broadcast honors included World Eats Bread on National Geographic Channel, which won for Docuseries Visual Media, and Drink: A Look Inside the Glass, which claimed the new Travel Visual Media category. Martha Stewart was inducted into the first-ever Broadcast Media Hall of Fame, joining Rose Levy Beranbaum, who received the Cookbook Hall of Fame honor.
Journalism winners reflected the urgent, human, and political threads in food today. Mosab Abu Toha’s “My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza” (The New Yorker) won for Personal Essay, while Ian Urbina and the staff of The Outlaw Ocean Project took the Investigative Reporting prize for their coverage of the North Korean seafood trade.
“The Media Awards celebrate all those who expand our understanding of food through exceptional storytelling that educates, entertains, and inspires,” said Dawn Padmore, VP of Awards at the Foundation.
