A Vegan Cookbook Celebrating Indigenous Mexican Food Just Won a James Beard Award

From vegnews.com

By Charlotte Pointing

Dora Ramírez’s cookbook Comida Casera has won a James Beard Award, honouring its celebration of Indigenous and traditional plant-based Mexican cuisine

According to vegan blogger Richa Hingle, in Comida Casera, “every recipe feels like an embrace.” After taking a closer look at the cookbook by Dora Ramírez, creator of the popular recipe blog Dora’s Table, we have to agree. The book features more than 100 plant-based Indigenous and traditional Mexican recipes, and every page pays tribute to Mexico’s rich culinary heritage.

The cookbook offers a thoughtful exploration of Mexico’s history and culture, beginning with Indigenous dishes before moving through street food favourites, home-cooked classics, and modern interpretations. Everything is plant-based and packed with flavour. So it’s no surprise that Ramírez is the latest winner of the James Beard Award for Vegetable-Focused Cooking.

                                                                                                                      Dora Ramírez

The James Beard Media Awards

The James Beard Media Awards, held in Chicago this year, are among the most prestigious honours in food media. Think of them as the Oscars of the culinary world, celebrating authors, recipe developers, journalists, and other food industry professionals.

In addition to the Vegetable-Focused Cooking category, the awards recognize excellence in books and journalism, honouring achievements in Literary Writing, Commercial Media, Feature Reporting, Investigative Reporting, and more.

“So many hours went into writing, recipe testing, photographing, and collaborating with the cocineras,” Ramírez told the San Antonio Report. ”So being recognized by my peers and the James Beard Foundation feels incredibly rewarding.”

Supporters were quick to congratulate Ramírez on social media. 

“I have been following you for years,” commented one Instagram user. “My mom is from Del Rio, and I have been plant-based since 1994. I appreciate you so much.”

Another added: “I absolutely love Comida Casera!! I bought two copies when it was released! One for myself and one for a friend of mine who wanted to introduce meatless meals into her family dinners!”

Recognizing vegan excellence

Ramírez isn’t alone in earning a James Beard Award for a vegan cookbook. In 2022, Joanne Lee Molinaro of The Korean Vegan won the Vegetable-Focused Cooking category for The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen.

“Many Korean American women came up to me and told me how they’ve been rooting for me, Korean to Korean, how much it means to them to see a Korean American woman’s book nominated and then win a James Beard,” Molinaro wrote on Instagram at the time.

“I am so humbled by this idea—that I am making Korean people proud of me, that you feel seen through my parents’ stories and my love of doenjang chigae.”

Other vegan James Beard Award winners include Alexis Nikole Nelson, who won the Broadcast Media Award for Social Media Account for her TikTok and Instagram platform BlackForager in 2022; Joe Yonan, who won the Vegetable-Focused Cooking category for Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking in 2025; and Hannah Che, who won the same category for The Vegan Chinese Kitchen in 2023.

https://vegnews.com/dora-ramirez-james-beard-award-cookbook