JBF Events

A Tribute to Mildred Amico

Director Emeritus of House Programming Mildred Amico


Pastry Chef Florian Bellanger Mad Mac and Ruby et Violette/ NYC

Ed Brown Eighty One/ NYC

Rebecca Charles Pearl Oyster Bar/ NYC


Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier Arrows and MC Perkins Cove/ Ogunquit, ME

JBF Award Winner George Mavrothalassitis Chef Mavro/ Honolulu

JBF Award Winner Eric Ripert Le Bernardin/ NYC

JBF Award Winner Ming Tsai Blue Ginger/ Wellesley, MA

JBF Award Winner Takashi Yagihashi Takashi/ Chicago

One great career is more than most people achieve. For Mildred Amico, serving as program director of the James Beard Foundation was her fourth. At a time when some chefs change jobs more often than they sharpen their knives, Mildred has spent the past 22 years inviting the risen and rising stars of American gastronomy to cook in James Beard’s kitchen. A former student and friend of the big man himself, she volunteered to help out the fledgling Foundation formed after his death. One thing led to another and soon this mother of five, former nurse, and former patient-relations director of Brooklyn Hospital, found herself with career number four.

Now it is time to honor Mildred’s achievements with a special fund-raising dinner prepared by some of the close culinary friends she has made over the years. We would need a kitchen the size of a stadium to accommodate all of the chefs who volunteered to fête our colleague and friend.