Do You Know Which Award is Known as the "Oscars of Food"*?

If your answer is the James Beard Foundation Award, you are absolutely right!  The James Beard Foundation (JBF) has issued awards covering all aspects of the American culinary industry since 1990. Awards are given each year in the Spring for chefs and restaurateurs, cookbooks, culinary journalism and broadcasts, and restaurant design. From 2007 to 2014, the annual awards ceremony was held at the Lincoln Center in New York City. However, this year's ceremony will take place on May 4th at the Lyric Opera in Chicago,

The James Beard Foundation Award medallion

The Foundation and its eponymous awards are named after James Beard, the "Dean of American cuisine."** Beard was born in 1903 in Portland, Oregon and died in 1985. A big baby (14 pounds at birth!) he grew to be a big man tipping the scales at over 300 pounds. He was a showman and a died-in-the-wool champion of American cuisine. He hosted America's first television cooking show, I Love to Eat, which first aired (live no less) in 1946. He was also a prolific author who wrote 20 cookbooks, many of which are still available.

James Beard

The Lexington campus Library and Learning Resource Center has several of Mr. Beard's books, and all of them may be borrowed from the library.

James Beard's American cookery by James Beard; with illustrations by Earl Thollander. 
641.5 B368ja

Beard on Bread by James Beard.  641.815 B368b

The Armchair James Beard by James Beard. 641.5 B368a

*http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/chase-sapphire-preferred%C2%AE-visa-signature%C2%AE-presents-james-beard-foundations-taste-america%C2%AE  See also: 

**http://www.jamesbeard.org/about/james-beard

Other sources used in this post:

http://www.jamesbeard.org/awards

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/tribute-james-beard-uncensored