Taste: An award-winning section

You like Taste. We can tell from your calls, letters and e-mails.

So do the critics, those who look at food sections nationally and internationally and pronounce their judgment.

Taste has won three awards from the James Beard Foundation and has been nominated as a finalist seven times.

Awards went for Best Section, Best Feature (for a story on pastry chef Michelle Gayer by staff writer Rick Nelson), and for Best Series (a four-part series on Italian food by staff writer Bill Ward).

In our eyes, the Beard award is the premier recognition for food journalism, and we are justly proud of that acclaim.

The Taste staff has won numerous awards over the years, including Best Section, from the Association of Food Journalists (made up of food editors and writers at newspapers and magazines nationwide).

We have been recognized by the Penney-Missouri Feature competition (second-best feature section in nation), the Society of News Design (for all those beautiful covers) and the Society of Professional Journalists (for stories and design).

Taste was an early innovator with its food pages, as reflected in its development of full-page poster-cover illustrations. We've stayed on the cutting edge of food journalism with our continued attention to compelling visuals and, more recently, to articles that focused not only on food preparation and restaurant reviews, but also on stories that reflect the impact of food on our lives.

The creative approach to design and content that we adopted 10 years ago has gone on to influence food sections nationwide. It wowed readers and critics alike.

All of the awards Taste has received have been since that redesign more than a decade ago, under the leadership of editor Lee Svitak Dean. Over those years, the Taste staff has included Nicole Hvidsten, Jeremy Iggers, Rick Nelson, Kim Ode, Diane Osby, Rhonda Prast, Steve Rice, Al Sicherman, Tom Wallace and Bill Ward, as well as many other contributing writers and designers.

Next on our schedule: The future, one issue at a time. We have plans to make, food to eat and pictures to take.