--- description: Find out why Nancy Silverton is one of the 100 most influential people of 2026. title: Nancy Silverton: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffbb86617f39fc74/69d7cf5a11788e8f99ccc433/T100-2026-Web-Nancy-Silverton.JPG?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 15, 2026 # Nancy Silverton by [Ruth Reichl](/author/ruth-reichl/) ## Ruth Reichl Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Daniel Zuchnik—Getty Images/NYCWFF When Nancy Silverton won the very first James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 1991, a shock wave went rocketing through the food world. A young California woman had beaten two celebrated European men. It was the beginning of a revolution. Young American chefs were invading restaurant kitchens and changing the way we eat. And women were leading the charge. Nancy has never stopped moving forward. When she couldn’t find decent bread for her Los Angeles restaurant, she created La Brea Bakery. Then she introduced a new way of baking and began selling her sourdough loaves in supermarkets. It changed our food landscape, but a greater change was yet to come. In this moment when fine dining is being roiled by toxic behavior, Nancy’s eight restaurants offer proof that nastiness is no recipe for success. Nancy’s greatest strength has always been her enormous generosity. Thirty years ago I interviewed a man who was about to open a bakery. “She told me everything,” he said. “I never did figure out why.” And that is Nancy’s secret. Like all great chefs she wants to nourish people—but she understands that food alone is not enough. It’s undoubtedly why the James Beard Foundation plans to give her its lifetime achievement award. _Reichl is the former editor in chief of_ Gourmet Nancy Silverton Is on the 2026 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/nancy-silverton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/nancy-silverton/"},"headline":"Nancy Silverton","datePublished":"2026-04-15T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:49.526Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/nancy-silverton/","keywords":["TIME 100","list","franchise","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffbb86617f39fc74/69d7cf5a11788e8f99ccc433/T100-2026-Web-Nancy-Silverton.JPG?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ruth Reichl","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ruth-reichl/"}],"creator":"Ruth Reichl","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffbb86617f39fc74/69d7cf5a11788e8f99ccc433/T100-2026-Web-Nancy-Silverton.JPG?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/nancy-silverton/","name":"Nancy Silverton"}}]}] ```