Rice takes food further
May 24, 2019
ARLINGTON, VA – The honors for rice this year continue to grow as Plate Magazine’s rice-focused issue won a Neal Award, one of the most coveted awards in business journalism. The special 2018 July/August was recognized by the Jesse H. Neal judges as 2019’s Best Subject Related Package.
The magazine features eye-popping rice images, unique culinary perspectives, quotes from expert chefs utilizing rice, and articles including, “The Gift of Rice: Nothing Unites Us Like a Bed of Rice”, “Crispy Treasure-Socarrat is the Gold at the Bottom of the Pot”, “Southern Crop,” and “Rice Renaissance.”
“A big congratulations to Plate Magazine,” said USA Rice Domestic Promotion Manager Cameron Jacobs. “This is a huge honor for them and will also benefit the rice industry by amplifying just how many top chefs are incorporating rice in their menus and the various applications they are using to do so.”
Culinary topics included in the issue were rice porridges, fried rice remixes, steamed rice cakes, low country rice, arancini, grits, paella, rice beers and cocktails, and historic rice uses.
“With quotes from top chefs like ‘If you accept that all of our history could be told through our food, then all of our stories could be spelled out in grains of rice’ from Chef Jackie Summers and ‘There was a West African rice. There was a U.S. rice. There was a Chinese rice. There was an Indian rice. That’s what fueled those communities. It meant more than money. I think over time, we lost focus on that and we need to get back to that’ from Chef J.J. Johnson,’ I am hoping we see a trickle-down effect as news begins to circulate and professional chefs absorb the issue’s information and gain that grain inspiration,” said Jacobs.
The issue also demonstrates the creative platform rice provides for chefs and continued growth opportunities that put rice at the forefront as opposed to the side of the plate. These opportunities range from global bowls to historic island staple recipes, modern takes on comfort food, the merging of cultures to create distinctly unique rice dishes, and much more.