The James Beard Foundation is changing its rules and regulations in an effort to make its coveted awards more inclusive and to counter critics who say the organization has not done enough to fight race and gender imbalances in the restaurant industry.
The changes were announced Tuesday and go into effect immediately, in time for the coming nomination season, which begins this month and culminates in a black-tie ceremony in May.
“The idea is to make sure it’s more indicative of who is working in the industry and that people are doing what they should be doing,” said Anne Quatrano, the Atlanta chef who oversees the awards.
Most notably, the powerful volunteer committees that govern which restaurants, chefs, media outlets and publications are nominated for medals will aim to be at least as diverse as the United States population. The larger groups of judges who vote on winners will face a similar mandate.
The committees, which will initially use Census Bureau statistics as a guide, won’t remove members to achieve racial and gender parity, but rather will fill vacancies or expand the committees to increase diversity, she said.
The organization will also stop adding people to its Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America list. Although the list includes such notable names as Martha Stewart, Alice Waters and the late Jonathan Gold, it also includes men who have been caught up in sexual abuse and harassment scandals, including Mario Batali and John Besh.
Originally established in 1984 by Cook’s and Restaurant Business magazines, the Who’s Who awards are judged by previous winners, making it a closed loop. “It was a nondiverse club, to be frank,” said Mary Blanton Ogushwitz, a senior account director with Magrino, the foundation’s public relations firm.
The leadership awards, which focus on issues of food justice, public health and sustainable practices, are also undergoing a modest renovation. Instead of selecting winners from a list generated by both a standing committee and previous winners, the awards will allow the public to nominate people. For the first time, winners will receive $10,000.
The foundation is also waiving some media entry fees in an effort to attract new voices. First-time entrants in the journalism awards may submit work without charge. Entry fees for its other media categories, including books, broadcast and design, will be waived for the first two weeks of the submission period, which begins Oct. 15. (Restaurants and chefs don’t pay to enter.)
The changes come during what has been a challenging year for the Beard Foundation, which handed out its first awards in 1991 and has become the premier vehicle to recognize chefs, restaurateurs and food media in the United States.
Like much of the restaurant industry, the organization has been reckoning with systematic sexual harassment, as well as racial and gender imbalance.
During the last round of awards, the foundation, in a nod to the #MeToo movement and a sign that it was serious about tackling sexual harassment, required that the group of 600 judges who send names to the nominating committee consider behavior along with food and service.
The foundation will continue to ask judges to factor in restaurant culture and leadership values when suggesting possible winners. “Extra time for fact-checking has been built into the foundation’s schedule to ensure nominees and winners are vetted to the best of our capabilities,” the foundation said in a statement on Tuesday.
The foundation’s efforts to change were in evidence during its last round of awards in May, when 11 of the 15 chefs it recognized were women, people of color or both. The top book award went to Michael Twitty for “The Cooking Gene,” which traces his genealogical journey to his family’s African roots.
“We want to keep the momentum of last year’s awards moving forward, which we don’t want people to think for any reason was some kind of a fluke,” Ms. Quatrano said. “These are still merit-based awards.”
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