2026 James Beard Foundation Awards: Call for entries open

The James Beard Foundation® announced today that the entry and recommendation period for the 2026 James Beard Awards® presented by Capital One is officially open until December 3rd, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. (Deadline extended from November 21st).

Deadlines:

• Open Call for Entry begins on Wednesday, October 1 at 9 a.m. ET and closes Friday, November 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET. To enter, follow the link here.

To Enter:

For information on the 2026 James Beard Awards Open Call for Entries and Recommendation process, visit here.

• Restaurant and Chef Awards: Click here to submit your recommendation/s
• Media Awards: Click here to submit your entry
• Impact Awards: Click here to submit your recommendation/s

Recommendation and Entry Costs:

• Recommendations for the Restaurant and Chef Awards and Impact Awards are free to submit.
• Entries to the Media Awards (Book, Broadcast Media and Journalism) require an entry fee of $85 per entry. Entrants may request a fee waiver due to financial constraints. Entries will not be penalized if this option is selected.
• Physical book copies for Book Awards entries must arrive at the warehouse for review by Friday, December 5, 2025.

Eligibility Documents:

Information regarding the 2026 Awards programs, including eligibility and criteria guidelines, can be found within the submissions portal. Note: Any book published or distributed in the United States in 2025 in eligible.

• Impact Statement:
  • As part of all Awards submissions, the Foundation requires a short statement, written (150-300 words) or recorded (audio or video, 1-2 minutes) by the entrant or recommender. The statement offers a chance to tell the committees and judges a little more about the candidate and their work, and how they express the mission and the Foundation’s values, articulated through its vision of “Good Food For Good.” The statement is reviewed for content and not for language fluency, video quality, or production value.
  • For all programs, Impact Statements submitted by entrants composed in whole or in part by generative artificial intelligence tools will not be accepted.

Awards Submission “How-To” Videos:

• Visit our YouTube page to watch our James Beard Awards explainer videos including how to submit recommendations to the Restaurant and Chef Awards and entries to the Media Awards.

UPDATES TO THE 2026 JAMES BEARD AWARDS

Every year, the James Beard Awards subcommittees and the Foundation may make changes or additions to categories in order to reflect and capture current trends in the industry and to align with the overall priorities of the organization.

Media Awards

Book

• The 20% recipe threshold has been removed for the following categories: Beverage without Recipes, Food Issues and Advocacy, Literary Writing, Reference, History and Scholarship and Visuals
• Submissions for revised editions must include a PDF of the original publication. The revised edition must contain 50% new material.
• The subcommittee-selected “Cookbook Hall of Fame” award has been renamed the “James Beard Book Awards Hall of Fame” to encapsulate the breadth of the culinary works and authors that this award recognizes.

● See the announcement for updates to Competition Visual Media and Instructional Visual Media and Journalism.

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Mark your calendar!

• Open Call for Entries and Recommendations:
  • Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 9 A.M. ET – Friday, November 21, 2025 at 11:59 P.M. ET
  • Books to reach warehouse by December 5th, 2025

• Important Dates:
  • Media Awards – Saturday, June 13, 2026
  • Impact Awards – Sunday, June 14, 2026
  • Restaurant and Chef Awards – Monday, June 15, 2026