Lifeway Foods and the James Beard Foundation are Cooking with Lifeway Kefir During Third Annual Taste America®: "Local Flavor from Coast to Coast"

CHICAGO, Sept. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY), the nation's leading supplier of kefir cultured dairy products, today announced their partnership with the James Beard Foundation as a national sponsor of the third annual Taste America®: "Local Flavor from Coast To Coast" national epicurean tour.  As part of the program's 2015 itinerary, a line-up of world-class chefs will demo custom recipes using Lifeway Kefir products at local Sur La Table® locations in select Taste America cities. Reservations for the free cooking demos will begin two weeks prior to each event. For more information, please visit jbftasteamerica.org.

"Our partnership with the James Beard Foundation is an incredible opportunity to introduce our kefir to a new audience and to demonstrate its versatility as a hot new ingredient," said Julie Smolyansky, Lifeway's President and CEO. "Working with innovative chefs who are at the forefront of their industry will allow us to prove that kefir is much more than a drink and allow them to bring a new flavor profile to menus across the country."

Spanning six weekends between September 18 and November 7, 2015, the program will kick off in Miami and visit a total of ten dynamic culinary cities across the country throughout the fall. Each stop will feature a special Friday night benefit dinner crafted in collaboration with a Taste America All-Star and a Local Star chef, during which guests will enjoy a palette cleanser of Lifeway Frozen Kefir products. The Taste America agenda will continue the next day with free, in-store consumer events at a local Sur La Table location. The lineup of public programming will include "cooking with kefir" demonstrations in select markets (Boston, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco) led by celebrated chefs from the area. Lifeway representatives will also be sampling kefir products before and after the cooking demonstrations in all 10 Taste America cities.

"Taste America was created with the goal of bringing together top innovators in our food world to educate and entertain Americans about local flavors from coast to coast, " said Susan Ungaro, president of the James Beard Foundation. "As many people might not be familiar with kefir, we are delighted to have Lifeway Foods on board as a national sponsor providing our guests with a deeper understanding of the product, its rich history, health benefits and the delicious ways it can be used. We can't wait to see what recipes the chefs come up with!"

Cooking with Lifeway Kefir Demonstrations

Lifeway is teaming up with a select group of top toques for live cooking demonstrations featuring custom recipes made with Lifeway Kefir products. These demonstrations will take place at select Sur La Table stores in:

• Boca Raton, FL: Saturday, September 19, featuring Chef Cindy Hutson (Ortanique on the Mile)
• Boston, MA: Saturday, October 10, featuring JBF Award-winning Chef Tony Maws (Craigie on Main)
• San Francisco, CA: Saturday, October 24, featuring Chef Rocky Maselli (A16)
• Chicago, IL: Saturday, October 24, featuring Chef Tanya Baker (The Boarding House)

About Lifeway Foods, Inc.

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (LWAY), recently named one of Forbes' Best Small Companies, is America's leading supplier of the probiotic fermented beverage known as kefir. In addition to its line of drinkable kefir, the company also produces frozen kefir, specialty cheeses and a ProBugs line for kids. Lifeway's tart and tangy cultured dairy products are now sold across the United States, Canada, Latin America and the United Kingdom. Learn how Lifeway is good for more than just you at Lifewaykefir.com.

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Media Contact:
Hanni Itah
847.415.9324
[email protected]

Company Contact:
Lifeway Foods
877.281.3874
[email protected]

About the James Beard Foundation (JBF)

Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation celebrates, nurtures, and honors America's diverse culinary heritage through programs that educate and inspire. A cookbook author and teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge about food, James Beard, who died in 1985, was a champion of American cuisine. He helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts, instilling in them the value of wholesome, healthful, and delicious food. Today JBF continues in the same spirit by administering a number of diverse programs that include educational initiatives, food industry awards, scholarships for culinary students, publications, chef advocacy training, and thought-leader convening. The Foundation also maintains the historic James Beard House in New York City's Greenwich Village as a "performance space" for visiting chefs. In September of 2012, JBF launched the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Protocol and helped create the American Chef Corps as a way to champion American chefs abroad, promote American food products, and foster an interest in American culinary culture and history through international programs and initiatives. One such project is Expo Milano 2015, a global gathering of 147 countries addressing the challenges of how we will feed ourselves in the future. At Expo, the James Beard Foundation has co-led the effort for the State Department to design and produce the USA Pavilion; the theme of the pavilion, "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet," showcases America's contributions to global food security and gastronomy.For more information, please visit jamesbeard.org. Get JBF news, recipes, and more at the James Beard Foundation's blog. Join the James Beard Foundation on Facebook. Follow the James Beard Foundation on Twitter and Instagram.

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SOURCE Lifeway Foods, Inc.

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