Gastronomica wins James Beard Award

Gastronomica has been awarded the 2012 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for Publication of the Year. The journal shared the prize with Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs’s Food 52.

The James Beard Foundation recognizes culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields. Beard was considered the dean of American cooking at the time of his death in 1985. A ceremony on May 4 honored Goldstein and other media award winners.

The awards committee cited the journal for “proving that food can be the catalyst for meaningful and serious discussions about culture, history, literature, art, and politics. Founding Editor Darra Goldstein has turned her enthusiasm for food into a substantive and intelligent publication that influences us all. In addition to editing Gastronomica, Darra is a Professor of Russian at Williams College. She is a quintessential example of the diverse and unexpected personalities you’ll find talking about food at Gastronomica, where poets, artists, professors, opinion makers, and pundits bring a stimulating breadth of perspectives to the table. In our digital age of fleet tweets, trendy headlines, and the battle to grab readers’ attention in an increasingly crowded space, Gastronomica reminds us that curiosity, hard thought, and great writing are award-worthy values.”

Gastronomica was named Best Food Magazine in the World at the 2011 Gourmand Awards in Paris. The journal also received the 2007 Utne Independent Press Award for Social/Cultural Coverage and the Prix d’Or at the Gourmet Voice World Media Festival in 2004.