A former reporter with the Amherst-licensed New England Public Radio won a James Beard Foundation Award in the podcast category on Tuesday.
Tina Antolini, an award-winning storyteller and radio producer and a graduate of Hampshire College, chalked up another award for “Gravy,” a podcast she hosts and produces for the Southern Foodways Alliance.
“Gravy uses food as a vehicle to tell stories about the South,” Antolini said during an interview Thursday. The podcast launched in November of 2014.
Antolini said it feels “super gratifying” to win such recognition for a podcast that is less than two years old.
Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation is a national nonprofit that supports food and culture education and offers a series of coveted awards on cooking and American food culture.
The late James Beard was a chef, television personality and cookbook author dubbed the “dean of American cookery” by the New York Times in 1954. He “laid the groundwork for the food revolution that has put America at the forefront of global gastronomy,” according to jamesbeard.org.
The New York City-based foundation presents the James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards annually, “honoring the nation’s top cookbook authors, culinary broadcast producers and hosts, and food industry journalists,” according the foundation.
Antolini is honored having won, but this is not her first rodeo with “Gravy” – last year the foundation’s “Publication of the Year” award was given jointly to both the Gravy podcast and it’s quarterly sister print publication by Sara Camp Milam.
“I knew I was a finalist going to the event,” said Antolini regarding this year’s 2016 James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards in New York City. “You’re there in the room but you don’t know until you win.”
“Gravy,” is so appealing, Antolini believes, because it uses food as a starting point for stories about many different things.
“A lot of food podcasts are recipe advice or talks with a chef,” she said. “What Gravy does is something completely different – we tell stories about race, history, business, the environment – through food. There are twists and turns you don’t get from many food podcasts.”
Beyond food, though, Antolini said podcasts are a great way to reach a wide audience with long-form, narrative storytelling.
“Stories are what touch and move people,” she said. “…and audio storytelling is a powerful medium to connect with people.”
The podcast airs every other week on Thursday.
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.