James Beard - Foundation

Foundation

The James Beard Foundation was set up in Beard's honor to provide scholarships to aspiring food professionals and to champion the American culinary tradition — which Beard helped create. Since 2001 the Beard Foundation has awarded over $2.2 million in scholarships and tuition waivers to young culinarians and career changers pursuing culinary studies.

For a time, the foundation was plagued by scandal; in 2004 its head, Leonard Pickell, resigned and was imprisoned for grand larceny and in 2005 the board of trustees resigned. It was during this period that chef and writer Anthony Bourdain referred to the foundation as "a kind of benevolent shakedown operation". Since that time a completely new board of trustees has instituted a new ethics policy and selected a new president, Susan Ungaro, both actions explicitly targeted at preventing further abuse.

The foundation continues to experience some financial difficulty; it has operated at a deficit for several consecutive years, though the size of that deficit has decreased since Pickell's departure and 2010 is expected to be a turnaround year for the organization.

After Beard's death in 1985, Julia Child had the idea to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place it was throughout his life. Peter Kump, a former student of Beard's and the founder of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's New York Cooking School), spearheaded the effort to purchase the house and create the James Beard Foundation.

Beard's renovated brownstone is located at 167 West 12th Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village. It is North America's only historical culinary center, a place where Foundation members, the press, and the general public are encouraged to savor the creations of both established and emerging chefs from across the country and around the globe.

The annual James Beard Foundation Awards are given at the industry's biggest party, part of a fortnight of activities that celebrate fine cuisine and Beard's birthday. Held on the first Monday in May, the Awards ceremony honors the finest chefs, restaurants, journalists, cookbook authors, restaurant designers, and electronic media professionals in the country. It culminates in a reception featuring a tasting of the signature dishes of more than 30 of the James Beard Foundation's very best chefs.

A quarterly magazine, Beard House, is a comprehensive compendium of the best in culinary journalism. The foundation also publishes the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Directory, a directory of all chefs who have either presented a meal at the Beard House or have participated in one of the foundation's out-of-House fundraising events.