Episode 158: Food Writer Jessica Harris Links African and American Influences

Jessica Harris has twice won James Beard Foundation awards, including one for Lifetime achievement. Rather than just being in the kitchen, she has proved herself to be especially skilled at blending sentences and paragraphs and then seasoning the mix with a  generous heaping of knowledge to create fresh culinary history.

For one of her recent books, “High on the Hog” she went to Africa to discover some of the links between African cooking and classic American dishes. Her Netflix series based on the book was so successful that a second season has been produced. Harris, who lives in Brooklyn but also has a residence in New Orleans – itself a destination for Afro/Caribbean/European/Cajun fusion, joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with podcast producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about the culinary discoveries that are part of cooking.

She also discusses the cross-cultural origins of savory words such as gumbo and jambalaya.

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