The 2025 James Beard Media Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 James Beard Media Awards presented by Capital One. The Media Awards took place in Chicago on Saturday, June 14 and honored the nation’s top food authors, broadcast producers, hosts, journalists, podcasters, and social media content creators.

Join us in celebrating the winners below!

The Book Awards recognize cookbooks and other nonfiction food- or beverage-related books that were published in the U.S. in 2024. Books from foreign publishers must bear a 2024 U.S. copyright date and/or must have been distributed in the U.S. during 2024.

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

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

Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan’s National Drink
Yoshiko Ueno-Müller
(Prestel)

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our South: Black Food Through My Lens
Ashleigh Shanti
(Union Square & Co.)

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

McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches
Gary He with Brankica Harvey, Pedro Mendes, and Ken Deegan
(Self-published)

Paola Velez
Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store
(Union Square & Co.)

Rose Levy Beranbaum

The Broadcast Media Awards recognize nonfiction works in English from digital and terrestrial media—radio, television broadcasts, podcasts, documentaries, online sites, social media—covering food and beverage topics appearing widely for the first time in the U.S. in 2024.

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

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

La Mera Mera Tamalera
Airs on: YouTube

MARCELLA
Airs on: PBS American Masters

World Eats Bread
Airs on: National Geographic Channel

G.O.A.T.
Airs on: MasterClass

Relish
Airs on: PBS, Passport, TPT, TPT-2, and YouTube

Little Fat Boy
Airs on: Instagram, TikTok, Substack, and YouTube

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

Mohammed Shaqura
Hamada Shoo
Airs on: Instagram and TikTok

Martha Stewart

The Journalism Awards recognize works in English and cover food- or drink-related content which were published—or self-published—in 2024 in any medium.

“Want to Make Spirits in Thailand? Good Luck.”
Craig Sauers
Punch

“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

“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

“Gastro Obscura’s Feast”
Anne Ewbank, Diana Hubbell, and Sam O’Brien
Gastro Obscura

“We Need to Talk About Trader Joe’s”
Adam Reiner
TASTE

“As Detroit sees a future in urban agriculture, some pushback harkens to a dark past”
Lyndsay C. Green
Detroit Free Press

“Florida Banned Farmworker Heat Protections. A Groundbreaking Partnership Offers a Solution.”
Grey Moran
Civil Eats

“The Art and Science of Kimchi”
Andrea Geary
Cook’s Illustrated

“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

“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

“The City that Rice Built”
Jeff Gordinier and George McCalman
Food & Wine

“The Only Constant is Chuck’s”
Rory Doyle
Self-published

"My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza”
Mosab Abu Toha
The New Yorker

“A Cuisine Under Siege”
Laila El-Haddad
SAVEUR

“Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar”
Helen Rosner
The New Yorker

MacKenzie Chung Fegan
Restaurant Critic
San Francisco Chronicle