James Beard once said, "It is true thrift to use the best ingredients available and to waste nothing." Ed Kim, cartoonist for Beard House Magazine and other JBF publications, illustrated his rankings of said best ingredients in the October 2000 cover of the JBF Calendar & Newsletter in a comic called “Beard House Food Pyramid." (Click here for full-sized artwork.) Viewed alongside retrospectives of last year’s culinary trends and prognostications of what awaits in 2015, Kim’s vision of the food pyramid à la Beard is remarkably resonant. Hudson Valley foie gras and truffles on the daily; oysters a few times a week; morels, chanterelles and porcini when in season. Fifteen years later, it seems almost nothing has changed. Take a glimpse at a menu for any dinner or event this year at the Beard House and see for yourself.
Meg Kilkenny is an editorial intern at the James Beard Foundation.
