NEW YORK — In advance of the James Beard Awards ceremony, the James Beard Foundation announced the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual in the American food and beverage or food media scene whose work has had a long-lasting impact on the industry. This year’s winner is La Brea Bakery founder Nancy Silverton.

In her more than four decades as a chef, baker, restaurateur and author, Silverton has had a profound influence on the commercial baking landscape. She helped spark the modern artisanal bread movement and won the first-ever James Beard Award for Pastry Chef of the Year in 1991.

“Of all the ways the James Beard Foundation has generously honored me over the years, the Lifetime Achievement Award means the most because I have not lived this professional life alone,” Silverton said. “So far from it. I cannot wait to share this moment with the hundreds of chefs, servers, managers, dishwashers, valet attendants and everyone who’s clocked in with me for the last 45 years.”

In her tenure, she has co-founded other globally recognized restaurants, and in 2014, she won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, honoring her technique, hospitality, creativity and leadership. Silverton has mentored chefs, bakers and restaurateurs who have since defined their own culinary identities and contributed to the holistic restaurant ecosystem.

Silverton will be recognized at the Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony, set for June 15 in Chicago.