Jessica B. Harris


Jessica B. Harris is an American culinary historian, college professor, cookbook author and journalist.

Early life

Jessica B. Harris, an only child, was born in Queens, New York in 1948. Her family also had a summer home on Martha's Vineyard. From 1953 to 1961, Harris attended the United Nations International School in New York City. She graduated from the High School of Performing Arts when she was sixteen years old and went on to earn an A.B. in French from Bryn Mawr College. Her junior year at Bryn Mawr, Harris studied in Paris. Following graduation, Harris returned to France to study at the Universite de Nancy for one year. She then earned her master's degree from Queens College and a Ph.D. from New York University. In 1972, Harris traveled to West Africa to work on her doctoral dissertation.

Career

In the 1970s, Harris worked as a journalist before becoming a food writer. She was book review editor at Essence and theater critic for New York Amsterdam News, the United States' oldest black newspaper.
Harris is a member of the faculty in the English Department at Queens College/C.U.N.Y. She hosts a monthly program, My Welcome Table, on Heritage Radio Network. She has published 12 books. Her primary subjects are the culinary history, foodways and recipes of the African diaspora. Harris was a 2004 winner of the lifetime achievement awards from the Southern Foodways Alliance and a 2010 James Beard Foundation special award honoree. Her most recent book is the memoir My Soul Looks Back.

Personal life

Harris resides in Brooklyn, Martha's Vineyard and New Orleans.

Works and publications