KQED Public Television brings home James Beard Foundation Award
Check, Please! Bay Area takes the prize for Best Local Television Food Show

May 7, 2007, San Francisco, CA --- In its second season, Check, Please! Bay Area, KQED's restaurant review series, has won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Media Award for Best Local Television Food Show. Hosted by Leslie Sbrocco and produced by Tina Salter with executive producer Kurt Mendelsohn, the series also received a nomination for Best Television Food Special.

Check, Please! Bay Area was also nominated last year in the Best Local Television Food Show category, in its premiere season. This year, the other national nominees in this category were also from the Bay Area: KNTV's In Wine Country and KRON's Bay Café.

The awards ceremony took place last night in New York City. Winners in 21 categories were announced. The Media Awards, presented by the James Beard Foundation, recognize excellence in food and beverage journalism for articles published in 2006, and for television, webcast, and radio programs that aired in 2006 in the United States and Canada.

Turning local diners into food critics, Bay Area residents eager to discover the latest in food trends, from the simplest café to the four-star destination, dish about their favorite dining destinations. Find a new restaurant or rediscover an old favorite on Check, Please! Bay Area, Thursdays at 7:30pm and Saturdays at 1:00pm on KQED Public Television 9. Check out www.kqed.org/checkplease to stream or download video, find recipes, restaurant info, and more.

KQED (www.kqed.org) is a service of Northern California Public Broadcasting, Inc. (NCPB), with over 780,000 weekly radio listeners and more than 1,000,000 monthly viewing households. KQED Public Television 9, one of the nation's most-watched public television stations during primetime, is the producer of local and national series such as Quest; Check, Please! Bay Area; Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way; and Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. KQED's digital television channels include KQED HD, KQED Encore, KQED World, KQED Life and KQED Kids, and are available 24/7 on Comcast. KQED Public Radio, home of Forum with Michael Krasny, Pacific Time, and The California Report, is the most-listened-to public radio station in the nation with an award-winning news and public affairs program service (88.5 FM in San Francisco and 89.3 FM in Sacramento). KQED Education Network brings the impact of KQED to thousands of teachers, students, parents and the general public through workshops, community screenings and multimedia resources. KQED Interactive offers video and audio podcasts and live radio stream at www.kqed.org, featuring unique content on one of the most-visited station sites in public broadcasting.