Indian chef becomes first South Asian to win James Beard Award

Popular Indian cookbook author and actress Madhur Jaffery is regarded as "the first to introduce Indian food to the West, presenting mirch and masala in a way they could understand". With "unwavering patience", she has become the first-ever South Asian to have been awarded the coveted James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award since the Foundation established the awards in 1990.

The award recognizes an "individual whose lifetime body of work has had a positive and long-lasting impact on the way we eat, cook, and/or think about food in America".

Known worldwide for her deliciously spoiling Indian cookbook, Jaffrey’s An Invitation to Indian Cooking (1973), her first cookbook, significantly increased the inclination of Americans to Indian eateries and gave birth to the idea of Americans trying Indian food at their homes. Following the massive success of her 1973 book, the 89-year-old star would write over 30 award-winning cookbooks.

Apart from her successful, rather legendary cooking career, Jaffrey was accredited with a Silver Bear Award for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965 for her film Shakespeare Wallah. 

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In 1982, Jaffery's cooking show, Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, premiered on the BBC. In light of the show's success, the James Beard Foundation inducted #AnInvitationToIndianCooking into its Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2019, the celebrity chef received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK Guild of Food Writers. In 2022, the Government of India awarded her with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in the country. This Lifetime Achievement Award makes her a nine-time James Beard Award winner.