Jessica B. Harris facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jessica B. Harris
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | March 18, 1948 Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College Queens College, City University of New York New York University |
| Genre | Nonfiction, memoir |
| Subject | Culinary history, personal history, New York City, the 1970s and 1980s, African diaspora |
| Notable works | High on the Hog (2011) |
| Notable awards | James Beard Award |
Jessica B. Harris (born March 18, 1948) is an American expert on food history. She is also a college professor, a writer of cookbooks, and a journalist. She taught at Queens College, City University of New York for 50 years.
Jessica B. Harris has written 15 books. These include cookbooks, non-fiction books about food, and a memoir. She has won two James Beard Foundation Awards. One of these was for Lifetime Achievement in 2020. Her book High on the Hog was made into a four-part Netflix series in 2021. The series is called High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jessica B. Harris was born in Queens, New York, in 1948. She was an only child. Her family also had a summer home on Martha's Vineyard. From 1953 to 1961, she went to the United Nations International School in New York City.
She finished high school at the High School of Performing Arts when she was 16. She then earned a degree in French from Bryn Mawr College in 1968. During her third year at Bryn Mawr, Harris studied in Paris, France. After graduating, she went back to France to study for one year.
Jessica B. Harris earned her master's degree from Queens College in 1971. She then earned her Ph.D. from New York University in 1983. In 1972, Harris traveled to West Africa. She went there to work on her doctoral research.
Career Highlights
In the 1970s, Jessica B. Harris worked as a journalist. Later, she became a food writer. She was an editor for book reviews at Essence magazine. She also worked as a theater critic for New York Amsterdam News. This is the oldest Black newspaper in the United States.
From July to November 1999, she was a food historian for a TV show called Sara Moulton's Cooking Live Primetime. She has also appeared on other TV shows. These include The Today Show, The Main Ingredient, The Curtis Aikens Show, and Good Morning America.
Teaching and Research
Harris is now a professor emerita in the English Department at Queens College/C.U.N.Y. She taught there for 50 years. She was also the first scholar to hold the Ray Charles Chair in African American Material Culture at Dillard University in New Orleans. She also started the Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures at Dillard.
She hosts a monthly radio show called My Welcome Table. It is on the Heritage Radio Network. Jessica B. Harris has published 12 books. Her main topics are the history of food, food traditions, and recipes. These often focus on the food of the African diaspora. This means the food traditions of people of African descent around the world.
Awards and Recognition
In 2004, Jessica B. Harris won a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance. In 2010, she received a special award from the James Beard Foundation. She published a memoir called My Soul Looks Back in 2017.
In May 2021, Netflix released a four-episode series. It was based on Harris's 2011 book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. In 2020, she won a James Beard Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement. In September 2021, she was included in the Time 100 list. This is Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Personal Life
Jessica B. Harris lives in Brooklyn, New York. She also has homes in Martha's Vineyard and New Orleans.
Books by Jessica B. Harris
- Hot Stuff: A Cookbook in Praise of the Piquant, 1985
- Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Tastes Of A Continent, 1991
- Tasting Brazil: Regional Recipes and Reminiscences, 1992
- The World Beauty Book: How We Can All Look and Feel Wonderful Using the Natural Beauty Secrets of Women of Color, 1995
- The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking, 1995
- On the Side: More Than 100 Recipes for the Sides, Salads, and Condiments that Make the Meal, 1998
- A Kwanzaa Keepsake: Celebrating the Holiday with New Traditions and Feasts, 1998
- The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent, 1998
- Iron Pots & Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking, 1999
- Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim, 2003
- High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, 2011
- Rum Drinks: 50 Caribbean Cocktails, From Cuba Libre to Rum Daisy, 2013
- The Martha's Vineyard Table, 2013
- My Soul Looks Back, 2017
- Vintage Postcards from the African World: In the Dignity of Their Work and the Joy of Their Play, 2020
