Joe Yonan

Joe Yonan is an American vegetarian/plant based food writer and cookbook author. He is the former Food and Dining Editor for The Washington Post, where he wrote the Weeknight Vegetarian column from 2013 to 2025. Yonan's 2024 cookbook Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking won the 2025 James Beard Award. and is the grandson of Assyrian refugees. He grew up in San Angelo, Texas, the youngest of eight children. and from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 2000.

Career Yonan initially worked as a reporter for Boston media outlets. After many years in "hard news," however, and not receiving a promotion from The Boston Globe, Yonan explored a career change. He read What Color Is Your Parachute? In 2006, he joined The Washington Post as food editor and food writer, where he wrote the "Cooking for One" column for five years. He was living on his sister's and brother-in-law's homestead in Maine in 2012 when he became a vegetarian. The homestead grows vegetables, mushrooms, beans, walnuts, rye, wheat, and fruit. He states that he made the switch for health and environmental reasons, and credits growing up in San Angelo as vital towards his interest in beans, due to his constant consumption of Tex-Mex.

Yonan has said he is "90% vegan," and primarily writes about plant-based food.

Honors and awards Winner 2020: International Association of Culinary Professionals 2018: International Association of Culinary Professionals 2018: Association of Food Journalists

James Beard awards and nominations Winner 2009: Best Newspaper Food Section 2010: Best Newspaper Food Section Later, when describing his 2013 book, Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook, written as he was transitioning to a vegetarian diet, Publishers Weekly, argued that the "greatly appealing dishes in this collection open up a whole new culinary world for veggie lovers." Tasting Table included Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes (2020) in its list of “The 14 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks That Even Meat Eaters Will Love," and Food & Wine listed it as one of their "Favorite Vegetarian Cookbooks."

Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking (2024) Yonan's 2024 cookbook Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking won the 2025 James Beard Award (Media: Vegetable-Focused Cooking). VegNews included it in its list of "The Best Vegan Cookbooks of 2024," Food & Wine lists it as one of "The Best Cookbooks of 2024, According to Food & Wine Editors," columnist Avery Yale Kamila lists it among "The year’s best vegan cookbooks" in the Portland Press Herald, T. Susan Chang of NPR lists it on "Cooks We Love: 11 cookbooks from 2024 recommended by NPR critics and staff," Chowhound lists it as one of the "15 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks Of 2024," The New York Times lists it among "The 16 Best Cookbooks of 2024," and Laura Brehaut of The National Post featured the book in her Cook This column.