Here Are Washington’s 2018 James Beard Foundation Media Award Winners

At a ceremony in New York City April 27, the James Beard Foundation announced its Media Award winners for 2018, and a small selection of locals took home accolades.

Formerly known as the Book, Broadcast, and Journalism Awards — the broad categories the foundation still recognizes — the ceremony honored the massive baking tome Modernist Bread in the Restaurant and Professional section of the book category. Authors Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya’s first whopper, Modernist Cuisine, won multiple Beard awards in 2012, including Cookbook of the Year; the duo’s Cooking Lab is based in Bellevue.

In the Broadcast Media Awards category, Seattle-based Andrew Gooi won the Visual and Technical Excellence section for his Food Talkies films, whose subjects include chef Mutsuko Soma (Kamonegi) and Shoichi Sugiyama, who makes mochi the traditional way in the Seattle area.

And while Eater critic Bill Addison’s review of Southern stunner Junebaby didn’t win the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, Edouardo Jordan’s restaurant did still make an appearance in a roundabout way. Osayi Endolyn, deputy editor of Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy, won the Columns section for her “Missed Cues” series, including “Destination, Small Town” with its musings on the food scene in Gainesville, Florida. “If a Florida man like chef Edouardo Jordan can shine with Congaree’s middlins at Junebaby in Seattle, can’t a chef find a loyal audience here?” she asks, wondering “why a community with nicely compensated professionals can’t attract and sustain a kind-of-fine dining scene.”

Restaurant and chef category winners will be announced at the James Beard Awards Gala Monday, May 7 in Chicago, where the America’s Classics winners, including Union Gap’s Los Hernandez Tamales, will also be acknowledged.

• Here Is the Full List of 2018 James Beard Foundation Media Award Winners [E]
• Here Are Seattle’s 2018 James Beard Award Finalists [ESEA]
• Union Gap’s Los Hernandez Tamales Wins an America’s Classics Award [ESEA]
• Modernist Bread [Official website]
• Food Talkies [Official website]
• Destination, Small Town [Gravy]