When the James Beard Awards return to Chicago on June 13 for the first time since 2019, the “Oscars of the food world” will be hosted by an organization that has spent the pandemic soul searching.
After abruptly canceling the announcement of award winners in both 2020 and 2021, citing a variety of reasons, the 36-year-old James Beard Foundation radically reimagined both its internal operations and external programs to be more diverse and equitable.
It’s a process that has been needed for years, those from the foundation and the industry say, and one that was rigorous, transformative and, at times, contentious.
“What 2020 did was it really necessitated a more fundamental and kind of seismic change,” said James Beard Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach, who joined the organization in 2018. “We recognized we needed to draw a breath and do this really thoughtfully and with great intentionality.”
The group’s many changes, announced last year, included:
- A revised mission statement to include a commitment to “racial and gender equity, community and environmental sustainability”
- A requirement that award winners must promote racial and gender equity and sustainability
- A requirement that all entrants must describe how their work aligns with the foundation’s new mission
- Widespread changes to the judging process, including diversity, equity and inclusion training for all, as well as shortened term limits
“We have a platform, we have a spotlight, we have a currency,” Reichenbach said. “We want to ensure we’re using that to elevate the breadth of talent and celebrate new leaders. We also really want to be supportive of those on the path toward this.”
‘I would compare it to winning an Oscar or a Grammy’
To fully understand the significance of the James Beard Foundation Awards for independent restaurants, one must know this: Winners and nominees stand to receive much more than a shiny medal and a chance to get dolled up, walk the red carpet and drink champagne.
Going forward, “James Beard winner” will be mentioned before a chef’s name in most every press release and media article. It’s the sort of thing that would likely make the first line of a restaurant professional’s obituary.
And, more than that, it’s often the golden ticket that lends a restaurant operator the credibility to attract the attention of investors.
Charlotte, N.C., chef Greg Collier is up for his third James Beard nomination for Best Chef Southeast, one of very few Black chefs to earn such an honor.
Collier and his wife, Subrina, plan to open four new concepts in a 6,000-square-foot space there later this fall. They currently run Leah & Louise, a restaurant specializing in Southern comfort food and craft cocktails. And, after seeing a lack of opportunities for Black restaurateurs, the two started the Bayhaven Food & Wine Festival last year to celebrate and uplift the community.
“I would compare it to winning an Oscar or a Grammy. I do think it puts you in a different conversation once you say James Beard Award-winning chef. It just puts you in a different class of chef … There’s a lot of chefs who get money thrown at them, way before the James Beard nominations or finals. It’s awesome they had those opportunities, but those opportunities for Black chefs are few and far between.” - Chef Greg Collier
Since becoming a James Beard Award finalist this year, Collier said he is already getting calls from people interested in working with him on cookbooks, possible TV appearance and consulting gigs. But what he’s really looking for is capital.
“Everybody gets stuck on the representation piece,” he said. “The representation piece is just the first piece. The next piece is putting your money where your mouth is.”
Collier, who started in the industry more than 20 years ago as a dishwasher, is hopeful that winning a James Beard Award could be a steppingstone to some of those investments that Black operators have historically been shut out of.
“I would compare it to winning an Oscar or a Grammy,” he said. “I do think it puts you in a different conversation once you say James Beard Award-winning chef. It just puts you in a different class of chef … There’s a lot of chefs who get money thrown at them, way before the James Beard nominations or finals. It’s awesome they had those opportunities, but those opportunities for Black chefs are few and far between.”
A fraught history
Despite the industry-wide significance of the James Beard Foundation Awards, the foundation itself has had a checkered past.
James Beard, the person for whom the nonprofit is named after, was a foodie before foodies were foodies.
He opened a small food shop in 1937 and authored a cocktail food cookbook in 1940—the first of many he would write. In 1946, Beard hosted one of the first TV cooking shows and he was named the “dean of American cookery” by the New York Times less than a decade after that. He started a cooking school in 1955 that he ran for the next 30 years, until his death in 1985.
After Beard’s death, Julia Child urged his friends to do something with his storied rowhouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Little more than a year later, the James Beard Foundation opened the home to “provide a center for the culinary arts,” the group said at the time.
The first James Beard Foundation Awards were handed out in 1991. Awards sponsorships and ticket sales generated $4.5 million for the year ended March 31, 2020, a fraction of its more than $19 million in annual revenue, according to the foundation’s tax statement. The foundation received an $835,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan in April 2020.
“What 2020 did was it really necessitated a more fundamental and kind of seismic change. We recognized we needed to draw a breath and do this really thoughtfully and with great intentionality.” - James Beard Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach
In 2005, Leonard Pickell Jr., who had been president of the foundation for a decade, pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny after prosecutors argued that he had stolen more than $1 million during his last three years in office. Pickell died in 2007.
Susan Ungaro took over as head of the organization and led the group for 11 years before stepping down in 2017. Reichenbach was then hired to helm the James Beard Foundation.
“The awards have been on the path of evolution for a while now,” she said. “One of my priorities was to really make sure we were moving in the direction of increased inclusivity.”
A pivot point
All of the foundation’s festering issues came to a head in 2020.
The pandemic, of course, was decimating independent restaurants. The #MeToo movement was bringing to light widespread allegations of harassment and abuse in the industry. And the country itself was undergoing a violent racial reckoning in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Reports swirled that the 2020 awards were canceled because not a single Black chef made the nomination slate. Other reports indicated dissension and dissatisfaction internally at the foundation over diversity and equity issues.
So, while the organization worked to reimagine its awards process, it also undertook its own makeover.
“I think we’re constantly in draft,” said Dawn Padmore, VP of the awards, who joined the foundation in February 2021. “Change is emotional. Our discussion internally as an organization around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) goals and what that actually means requires a lot of space and time to work through in a practical way and work through emotionally as well.”
San Antonio-based chef Steve McHugh, who is white, is nominated this year for Best Chef Texas, his sixth nomination. McHugh is the chef-owner of Cured and plans to open a restaurant and bar in Austin later this summer.
McHugh said he hopes the revamped awards program brings more attention to cities and states with under-the-radar culinary scenes, while also bringing more mindfulness to the other programs offered by the foundation.
“They’ve had to say, ‘Do we just want to be known for handing out an award? Or do we want to be known for supporting this industry and being the changemaker for this industry?’” he said. “We’re not going to sit back and pat everybody on the back, but we’re going to hold this industry accountable.”
McHugh participates in the foundation’s Smart Catch program to promote and better understand sustainable seafood. He’s also a member of the San Antonio Food Policy Council, working to build a “food forest” in the city to provide pecan, citrus and stone fruit trees for an area that historically been a food desert.
“It’s not just about who wants and award,” he said. “It’s who wants to make the industry better?”