James Andrews Beard, "The Father of American Gastronomy," was born in Portland, Oregon, on May 5, 1903. He attended Reed College for a short time but experienced discrimination as a gay man and was expelled in 1922 for his love affairs. Beard subsequently joined a theatrical troupe and studied acting and vocal performance abroad in hope of making a career in entertainment. Unable to find sustainable work in theatre and film, he partnered with Bill and Irma Rhode to open up a catering company, Hors d'Oeuvre, Inc., in the late 1930s in New York. Beard honed his passion and talent for cooking and education and made waves in the culinary world with the publication of his first book, Hors d'Oeuvre and Canapés, in 1940.

His burgeoning culinary career was interrupted when he was drafted into the army in World War II, but he still found ways to pursue his gastronomic talents by managing sailors' canteens with the United Seamen's Service in Puerto Rico, Rio de Janeiro, Marseilles, and Panama. After the war, Beard found success and celebrity as a leading figure in the American culinary scene. In 1946, Beard appeared on the first national cooking television show, NBC's I Love to Eat, and in 1955, he opened the James Beard Cooking School in his New York apartment. In 1952, Beard began corresponding with Helen Evans Brown, a proponent of California cuisine known for bringing scholarly rigor to cookbook writing, and maintained a close friendship with her until Brown's death in 1960. Beard authored a number of influential cookbooks, including Cook It Outdoors (1941) (the first book published on modern outdoor cooking), The James Beard Cookbook (1959), American Cookery (1972), and Beard on Bread (1973), and kept up a syndicated newspaper column, "Beard on Food." In 1985, Beard passed away on January 21, 1985, in New York at the age of 81.