James Beard - Nominee

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience"

– James Beard

The genesis of chef, cookbook author, teacher, and television personality James Beard’s career began when his parents took him to the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon in 1905 when he was two years old where he watched the Triscuits and shredded wheat biscuits get made. Beard said it “marked my life” and “intrigued the hell out of me.” This fascination with food continued a year later when he was bedridden with malaria. He spent time focusing on the food his mother Elizabeth and the family’s Chinese cook Jue-Let whom he called his Chinese godfather because he played such a central role in raising him alongside his Chinese nanny Thema. Beard went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon but was unable to graduate because he was expelled due to his gay identity (he engaged in relationships with some male students and a professor). The college later gave him an honorary degree in 1976. In his recorded reminiscences about his life, Beard recalled that he knew he was gay at age 7 but kept this a secret from everyone except his mother with whom he came out to as a young man. In order to have a change of scenery, he traveled to Liverpool, UK on a British freighter. While Beard was in Europe, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied voice and theater. In London and Paris, Beard was able to have sexual freedom for the first time with other men. His positive experiences in France, including eating French cuisine for the first time, turned him into a Francophile. In 1924, Beard returned to the United States and lived in Portland, Seattle and Hollywood where he worked as an actor, costume and set designer and radio host. Beard moved to New York City (NYC) in 1937 to continue his acting career and when that didn’t pan out he and his friends Bill and Irma Rhodes opened a catering company Hors d'Oeuvre, Inc. to capitalize on the cocktail party craze of Manhattan’s elite population. The New York Daily News and the New Yorker praised their business savvy. The Daily News described one of Beard’s signature dishes, “it is the brioche onion sandwich with gives the palate its great moment.” Beard’s popularity resulted in lecturing, teaching, and writing opportunities including his first cookbook, Hors D'Oeuvre and Canapés, in 1940 where he compiled all his catering recipes. His focus was on real cooking and fresh and high quality ingredients, not processed foods. Renowned chef, cookbook author, and television personality Julia Child said Beard’s cookbook put him on the culinary map. Both Beard and Child became fast friends and supported each other’s work for many years. Beard had to put his catering career on hold due to the rationing that was instituted when the United States entered World War II. There is conflicting information about whether Beard was drafted or enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942. The records show that Beard attended cryptography school in the military and served in the U.S. Seaman’s Service in Puerto Rico, Brazil, France, and Panama. Beard’s stint in the military was short-lived since he was able to be released from the service in 1943 due to a regulation that he took advantage of since he was over the age of 38. He returned to NYC and resumed his culinary career. Beard’s journey as an American food authority took off as the host of the first-ever national television cooking show on NBC called, I Love to Eat, from August 1946 to May 1947. He was named the “Dean of American Cookery” by the New York Times in 1954. A year later, Beard founded The James Beard Cooking School in NYC and Seaside, Oregon where he taught classes until he died. He also taught across the country at other cooking schools, civic groups and women’s clubs. In 1959, Beard joined forces with restauranteur Joe Baum to launch the Four Seasons Restaurant in NYC. He also consulted on the World Trade Center's Windows on the World restaurant and had his own restaurant on Nantucket. Beard released his memoir, Delights and Prejudices, in 1964 and also wrote a syndicated column, contributed to magazines and newspapers on the topic of gastronomy, and was the author of 22 cookbooks including the bestselling Beard on Bread in 1973. His work required heavy editing and some contained work from ghostwriters. Beard was not without criticism because he pilfered some recipes and called them his own in his work and endorsed food products such as Omaha Steaks, Green Giant Corn Niblets, Planters Peanuts, and Shasta soft drinks among others to fund his cooking schools even though he would not use these products in his own cooking. He later chastised himself over this calling himself a ‘gastronomic whore.” Beard wrote in 1970 that his favorite menu item for a holiday open house was what people now call a charcuterie board. Although Beard’s recipes were popular during his lifetime, they are rarely used today with most of his work unavailable online. He had a heart attack in 1971 and went on a low-calorie, no-salt diet so he could manage his heart disease and put some of those recipes in his 1981 The New James Beard cookbook. In 1981, Beard and his friend Gael Greene founded Citymeals on Wheels to help feed elders in NYC which is still in operation and has served over 70 million meals since its founding. Beard had a 30 year romantic relationship with pastry chef Gino Cofacci with whom he lived with in a Greenwich Village townhouse. Although Beard kept his gay identity a secret from the public for most of his life, his close friends and associates knew about it but didn’t reveal it to outsiders. Beard decided to officially come out as gay in 1981 in his revised memoir, Delights and Prejudices. Only in recent years has Beard’s gay identity been brought to the forefront when referencing his life story. Beard died in 1985 at the age of 81 from heart failure and his ashes were scattered in the beach waters in  Gearhart, Oregon where he spent his childhood summers. A year later, Child and other chefs and friends of Beard established The James Beard Foundation with the headquarters located at his townhouse that they bought after his death. In 1991, the first ever James Beard Foundation Awards, which are known as the “Oscars of the food world,” were bestowed on chefs and restaurants across the United States. Some famous recipients have been Rick Bayless, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, José Andrés, Judith Jones, Barbara Lynch, and Ina Garten. Beard’s life was featured in a 2017 PBS Documentary, James Beard: America's First Foodie. The James Beard Public Market is set to open in Portland, Oregon in 2027.