Joan Nathan is the author of several cookbooks, including Jewish Food in America and The New American Cooking, which won the James Beard Award and the IACP Award for best cookbook of the year, respectively. Based on the book, she hosted the nationally syndicated PBS television series Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan. Nathan has garnered multiple distinctions, including James Beard's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America, Les Dames d'Escoffier's Grande Dame Award, and Food Arts magazine's Silver Spoon Award, as well as an honorary doctorate from Chicago's Spertus Institute of Jewish Culture. Nathan, the mother of three grown children, splits her time between Washington, D.C., and Martha's Vineyard, where she resides with her husband, Allan Gerson.