The Africa Cookbook: About the Author

The Africa Cookbook:
About the Author

Jessica B. Harris is the author of seven critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods of the African Diaspora. Hot Stuff: A Cookbook in Praise of the Piquant (Atheneum, 1985; Ballantine, 1986), Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking (Atheneum, 1989; Ballantine, 1991), Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Traditional Caribbean Cooking (Fireside, 1991), Tasting Brazil: Brazilian Recipes and Reminiscences (Macmillan, 1992) and The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 1995), A Kwanzaa Keepsake: Celebrating The Holiday with New Traditions and Feasts (Simon & Schuster, 1995). The Africa Cookbook is her seventh book.

In over 25 years as a journalist, Harris has written about the culture and foodways of the African Diaspora for publications ranging from Essence magazine where she was travel editor from 1978 to 1981—to Vogue —to The New York Times. She has also written for Caribbean Travel and Life, Food and Wine, New Woman, Travel Weekly, Africa Commentary, Black Enterprise and other publications.

As a culinary historian, Harris has lectured on the foodways of African-Americans at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and at numerous institutions and colleges around the country. She has been profiled in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers, as well as magazine such as Gourmet, Food & Wine, Eating Well, Cooking Light and New Woman.

A native of New York, Harris is a tenured full professor of English composition at Queens College in New York City. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College, New York University, Queens CUNY, and Université de Nancy, France. She is a member of AIWF, ASCP, and Les Dames d'Escoffier's New York Chapter.

The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent
By Jessica B. Harris
Simon & Schuster
Hardback, $25.00
382 pages
ISBN: 0-684-80275-9
Information provided by the publisher.