Madhur Jaffrey (89) is the first Indian and South Asian to get the honour. The James Beard Foundation honours significant culinary accomplishments. Madhur Jaffrey, a well-known cookbook author, has received one of its honours. Further information about her accomplishments may be found below:
Madhur Jaffrey, a well-known cookbook author, television chef, lecturer, and actor, was named to the James Beard Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award on March 29.
According to the foundation, the prize recognises persons “whose lifelong body of work has had a positive and long-lasting effect on the way we eat, cook, and/or think about food in America.”
Jaffrey is both the first Indian and the first South Asian to get this honour. The queen appointed Jaffrey an honorary Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004 in honour of her contributions in the culinary and television worlds. In 2022, she was given the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.
With the 2023 Lifetime Achievement award, Jaffrey has become a nine-time James Beard Award winner. According to the foundation’s press release, “Jaffrey rose to prominence as an actress in the 1965 film Shakespeare Wallah, receiving the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.” An Invitation to Indian Cooking, her debut cookbook, was released in 1973 and was accepted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2006. She has subsequently published over 30 award-winning cookbooks, solidifying her reputation as the “Godmother of Indian Food.” According to the charity, she “is recognised for introducing popular attention to Indian food, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.” Jaffrey remarked of her victory, “It’s a fantastic climax to my career, and I’m pleased.”
Jaffrey started off as an actor. When she was an acting student in London in the 1950s, she taught herself to cook using her mother’s recipes. She began taking cooking lessons after her divorce in 1966 in order to support for her family. As her work became more well-known, she began publishing cookbooks that went on to become international best-sellers. Jaffrey is also recognised for hosting cookery series, such as Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking, which debuted on the BBC in 1982. The BBC series was so successful that Ms. Jaffrey was told that the city of Manchester, UK, ran out of cilantro when she used it in a meal with chicken,” the New York Times reported.