We Won a James Beard Award!

Now what?

Cake Zine family,

As you may have seen, we have news!

Last month, the James Beard Media Award Nominees were published, and we were elated to learn that, for a second time, a story Cake Zine had published had been nominated for an award.

Then, over this past weekend…

“No Papers, Just Peaches” by Sithara Ranasinghe won the 2026 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for Best Profile!!!

“No Papers, Just Peaches” is an essay written for Forbidden Fruit, our seventh issue, and edited by our very own Jesse Sparks. The piece profiles Bilal, an undocumented immigrant from Pakistan working in Sithara’s local frutería in Barcelona. The story was beautifully illustrated with a commissioned painting by artist John Rego.

You may have read this piece before in the magazine or in this very newsletter, but what you might not know is that it came to us through the open pitch call we hold for every issue. Our team reviewed over 600 pitches for Forbidden Fruit and narrowed them down to only 25 pieces for inclusion in the issue. Sithara’s was one of them.

Reviewing pitches on such a massive scale is undeniably exhausting. At the same time, it is a privilege that we don’t take for granted—each issue, we are honored that so many people are interested in sharing their words in our once-very-little, now a little-less-little independent magazine.

It would be infinitely less work for us to forgo an open pitch call and directly solicit work from writers. However, those countless hours of reviewing pitches and debating lineups with our editorial board create a magazine we could never make any other way. As outlets continue to shutter (or get passed around between venture capital and billionaire owners), we’re committed to publishing emerging writers and commissioning the unexpected.

So we continue the open pitch calls. We try to avoid getting overwhelmed and take it submission by submission. We look for stories that deeply engage with the theme while subverting the most obvious interpretations by writers who use style and voice in singular ways. Sithara’s pitch did all of that and more. Illicit labor has powered our food systems from the beginning. It’s a massive global issue, but what Sithara’s essay does so smartly is focus on a single experience, with a very human mix of humor, dignity, and grace. We immediately knew we wanted to include it in the issue, and our editor, Jesse Sparks, did an incredible job shaping the story into its final form.

We’re so gratified that a story about the people who are so often overlooked has been selected, and we have so much respect for the nominees at GQ and Civil Eats. To be honest, as much as we believed in the strength of Sithara’s piece, we didn’t expect to go up against Conde Nast and win.

As you probably know, we’re not in the business of independent publishing to win awards. We do it for the opportunity to work with writers and tell meaningful stories that might not exist elsewhere, whether it’s an essay about hiding alcoholism with orange soda, finding the unknown identity of an iconic pinup girl carved up like a piece of steak, sapphic M&M fanfiction, or a story like Bilal’s.

Winning mainstream recognition for our work is a funny thing. In our four years and eight issues, we’ve been proud of so many stories. While we couldn’t be at the awards ceremony in Chicago, we’re grateful to be recognized by the food media establishment. Hopefully, it will lead to more opportunities for this independent magazine—advertisers and brand partners, hit us up!—but either way, we’ll be here publishing the stories that we think are important.

If you want to support us in this endeavor, now is a great time to buy a copy of Forbidden Fruit—or better yet, a yearly subscription to Cake Zine. (Annual magazine subscriptions are an invaluable source of support for independent media, and we finally launched our own earlier this year!)

The work doesn’t stop, and we’ll have another great issue for you to enjoy in the fall.

Love,
Cake Zine