Mitchell Davis

Executive Vice President, the James Beard Foundation; author of Kitchen Sense (Clarkson Potter, 2006), Host of Taste Matters on Herirage Radio Network

Mitchell Davis is the executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation, a cookbook author, a food journalist, and a scholar with a Ph.D. in Food Studies from NYU. With the Beard Foundation for almost 20 years, Davis has created and overseen many important initiatives, most recently an annual conference on sustainability and public health in the food system. He holds a chair on the academy of the London-based World’s 50 Best Restaurants program.   Davis is host of Taste Matters, a weekly radio show (Wednesdays at 11 a.m.) on The Heritage Radio Network. His most recent cookbook, an electronic collaboration with chef Laurent Gras, called My Provence, won two IACP awards in 2013. 

What was your first job in the culinary world?
In 10th grade I worked as counter help in a butcher shop in north Toronto on Wednesday afternoons and all day Sunday. I got the job by cutting a chicken into 8ths during the interview.

If you could cook James Beard one dish, what would it be?
My family's Cheese Thing (baked macaroni with cheddar and tomatoes).
 

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