Madhur Jaffrey Gets James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award

India-West News Desk

NEW YORK – The James Beard Foundation on March 29 announced that its 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree is legendary cookbook author, writer, teacher, and actress Madhur Jaffrey CBE. The award is given to 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,” the organization said.

With this award, Jaffrey becomes a nine-time James Beard Award winner. “It’s a wonderful pinnacle to my career and I’m overjoyed,” Jaffrey said of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jaffrey first captured attention as an actress in the film Shakespeare Wallah, winning the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965. Her first cookbook, An Invitation to Indian Cooking, was published in 1973, and was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2006. She has since released more than 30 award-winning cookbooks, cementing her status as the “Godmother of Indian Cooking.” In 1982, her iconic show, ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery,’ premiered on the BBC.

Jaffrey, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2022—the third-highest civilian award given by the Indian government— is credited with bringing mainstream attention to Indian cuisine, both in the U.S. and the U.K.