I am super psyched to be featuring my former classmate Bryant Terry as my very first featured chef! Once upon a time, we attended the Chef’s Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food & Health, as it was called at the time.
Having followed his career for years, he was and obvious first choice. I reached out to Bryant recently and told him about the blog and podcast I was working on. I’m about 20 years late to the party, but I finally showed up. I put my culinary career on hold, but Bryant has accomplished enough for both of us! I am honored that he agreed to allow me to feature him. Keep reading and you’ll understand why I am so honored! I snatched up this info from the bio on his website https://www.bryant-terry.com/
Bryant Terry is a James Beard Award-Winning chef, educator, and author renowned for his activism to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. Since 2015 he has been the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco where he creates public programming at the intersection of food, farming, health, activism, art, culture, and the African Diaspora. In regard to his work, Bryant’s mentor Alice Waters says, “Bryant Terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege.” San Francisco Magazine included Bryant among 11 Smartest People in the Bay Area Food Scene, and Fast Company named him one of 9 People Who Are Changing the Future of Food.
Vegetable Kingdom is Bryant’s fifth book! His last book, Afro-Vegan, was published in 2014. Just 2 months after being released, it was named one of the best cookbooks of 2014 by Amazon.com. That December it was nominated for an NAACP Award in the Outstanding Literary Work category. Bryant is also the author of the critically acclaimed Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine, which was named one of the best vegetarian/vegan cookbooks of the last 25 years by Cooking Light Magazine.
Bryant is a also a Ph.D. dropout who holds an M.A. in History with an emphasis on the African Diaspora from NYU, where he studied under Historian Robin D.G. Kelly. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and two brilliant and beautiful children.
So, I just ordered Bryant’s new book. I had all of the others, but I am really loving this one! It merges the ingredients and flavors from some of my favorite cuisines; Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Caribbean and of course, the America South.
Stay tuned for my interview with Bryant coming soon!
