Here Are the 2025 James Beard Foundation Media Award Winners

Congratulations are in order for many members of food media: Tonight during a ceremony in Chicago, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2025 Media Award winners, bestowing medals to food professionals working in cookbooks, journalism, and television and audio programming. The awards whittled down winners from a long list of finalists that was announced in early May. Among the winners: Eater Chicago editor Ashok Selvam won the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, while Ashleigh Shanti won a cookbook award for Our South: Black Food Through My Lens. In the Emerging Voice categories, Broadcast went to Mohammed Shaqura and Hamada Sho, a content creator based in Gaza; Journalism to MacKenzie Chung Fegan of the San Francisco Chronicle, whose recent story about her experience at the French Laundry was the talk of the town; and Cookbooks to Paola Velez, author of Bodega Bakes.

At the ceremony, host Padma Lakshmi noted the importance of the current political moment — with the awards ceremony coinciding with a military parade in Washington, D.C. and anti-Trump protests across the nation — noting that, “This is our America. All of us. It’s important to say that out loud.” In accepting their award for General Interest Publication, the team behind The Bitter Southerner expressed thanks for “the freedom of the press.”

Martha Stewart was named the recipient of the inaugural Broadcast Media Hall of Fame Award, designed to recognize a “visionary individual who has revolutionized the way food is presented and discussed on television, radio, or streaming platforms.” (She accepted via a pre-taped message.) The Cookbook Hall of Fame Award went to Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible.

The final winners in the restaurant and chef awards categories will be celebrated on Monday, June 16, during a gala ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Below, find all the book, broadcast, and media winners:

2025 James Beard Media Award Winners

The 2025 James Beard Book Award winners:

Baking and Desserts: Sift: The Elements of Great Baking; Nicola Lamb (Clarkson Potter)

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

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

Bread: Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking; Richard Hart, Henrietta Lovell, and Laurie Woolever, (Clarkson Potter)

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, (Metropolitan Books)

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

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

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

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

Reference, History, and Scholarship: McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches; Gary He, Self-published)

Single Subject: Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking (More than 60 Recipes Featuring Gochujang, Doenjang, and Ganjang); Nadia Cho, Mingoo Kang, and Joshua David Stein, (Artisan)

U.S. Foodways: Our South: Black Food Through My Lens; Ashleigh Shanti, (Union Square & Co.)

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

Visuals: McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches; Gary He, (Self-published)

The 2025 James Beard Broadcast Media Award winners: 

Audio Programming: Loading Dock Talks with Chef Preeti Mistry; “Cream Pie with Telly Justice”; Airs on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms

Audio Reporting: Post Reports; “Bacon: The Best-Kept Secret in Washington”; Airs on: Post Reports

Commercial Media: La Mera Mera Tamalera; Airs on: YouTube

Documentary Visual Media: MARCELLA; Airs on: PBS American Masters

Docuseries Visual Media: World Eats Bread; Airs on: National Geographic Channel

Instructional Visual Media: G.O.A.T; Airs on: MasterClass

Lifestyle Visual Media: Relish; Airs on: PBS, Passport, TPT, TPT-2 and YouTube

Social Media Account: Little Fat Boy; Airs on: Instagram, TikTok, Substack and YouTube

Travel Visual Media: Drink: A Look Inside the Glass; Airs on: Apple TV, Prime Video, Tubi, and Roku

The 2025 James Beard Journalism Award winners 

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

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 2025. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.

Additional photo illustration credits: Getty Images for the James Beard Foundation