Jessica B. Harris is the author, editor, or translator of 19 critically acclaimed books, 13 of which document the foods and foodways of the African diaspora. High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (2011), a New York Times Best Seller, was transformed into an eight-part Netflix docuseries in 2021. Her most recent book, Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine (2025), presents a tripartite story of the foundational foods of America. 
 
A culinary historian, Harris has lectured on African American foodways at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, and numerous institutions and colleges throughout the United States and abroad. 
 
In her more than four decades as a journalist, Harris has written book reviews, theatre reviews, and travel, feature, and beauty articles too numerous to note. Her byline has appeared in Essence, Vogue Germany, Gourmet, Saveur, Food and Wine, Cooking Light, Southern Living, Garden and Gun, and Eating Well.  
 
Harris has made numerous television appearances on shows including NBC’s Today, Good Morning America, and Moveable Feast. On the Food Network, she has appeared on Sara Moulton’s Cooking Live, and Food News and Views.  
 
A professor in the English Department at Queens College, CUNY for 50 years until her retirement in 2018, Harris is currently professor emeritus at that institution. She holds an AB from Bryn Mawr College, an MA in French Literature from Queens College, CUNY, a License ès Lettres from the Université de Nancy, France, and a doctorate in performance studies from New York University. Harris was the inaugural scholar-in-residence in the Ray Charles Endowed Chair at Dillard University in New Orleans. 
 
Dr. Harris has been a board member of the Caribbean Culinary Federation, a national board member of the American Institute of Wine and Food, a life member of the College Language Association, a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and a board member emerita of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and Culture in New Orleans. She has also been an advisory board member for the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Heinz Center in Pittsburgh, and the National Museum of American History.  
 
Dr. Harris holds many honors and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, the Lafcadio Hearn Award from the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, the Amelia Award from Culinary Historians of New York, and the De Masters Award from the Association of Food Journalists. She received a Doctorate of Letters honoris causa from Johnson and Wales University. She was inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Drink in America in 2010. Her cookbooks were inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2019, and in March 2020 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the same organization. She was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2021 by TIME magazine. In 2022, she received the “Auggie” Auguste Escoffier Award from the Culinary Institute of America, and High on the Hog the docuseries won both an NAACP Image Award and a Peabody.