25 Years of Food at its Best

In less than a week, many of the country’s best chefs will be descending on New York City for the 2012 James Beard Foundations Award. This year the annual awards program, considered in the industry to be the Oscars of the Culinary Community, will be hosted by the always charming and entertaining Alton Brown, last year’s recipient of the JBF Best TV Food Personality Award.

Celebrating it’s silver anniversary with the theme, “25 Years of Food at its Best” the evening will not only honor the culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields, but pay tribute to the Foundation’s founder and namesake, James Beard by featuring a special presentation of James Still’s I Love to Eat: Cooking with James Beard, starring Robert Neal.

Inspired by the life of James Beard, I Love to Eat is a new one-man play that shares the same title as Beard’s 1946 NBC cooking show, which was actually the first cooking show to air on broadcast television in the United States.

During the Gala Reception at Lincoln Center, chefs who have been influenced by James Beard and his legacy, will prepare dishes inspired by recipes from his more than 20 cookbooks

“As we celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we are thrilled to have an incredible group of hosts and presenters who have been awarded for their commitment to cultivating our industry,” said Susan Ungaro, President of the James Beard Foundation. “We are also delighted to celebrate the Foundation’s major milestone with the ‘best of the best’ chefs from around the country paying tribute to both James Beard and this year’s award winners through the historic recipes from James Beard’s many cookbooks.”

Tickets to the May 7th Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception (General Admission $475; $425 for James Beard Foundation members) are still available and can be purchased online. For those who can’t make it to the live event, the awards program will be live streamed at jamesbeard.org or you can follow the live feed on the James Beard Foundation’s Twitter page at twitter.com/beardfoundation.

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