Education
- Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Creative Writing, Pepperdine University
- Master of Professional Writing (MPW) in Creative Nonfiction, University of Southern California (USC)
Bio and Affiliation
Jessica Ngo is a food memoirist. Her writing has appeared in Epicurious, TASTE, The Counter, Cuisine Noir, Whetstone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. She was a 2022 Legacy Network Advisee for the James Beard Foundation, a 2023 Food Writing Award Winner for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and a 2025 Food Writing grantee for the Edna Lewis Foundation. In 2026, she launched her own micropublisher of food memoirs by Black food industry professionals, Jollof & Jambalaya Press. Her memoir Half Nigerian / Fully Plantain will be published in Winter 2026.
Awards and Honors
- Food Writing Grantee, Edna Lewis Foundation: 2025
- Food Writing Award Winner, International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP): 2023
- Teaching Excellence Award: 2017
- Otis Faculty Development Grants: Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2023 & Spring 2025
- Otis Assessment, Research, and Scholarship (OARS) Grants: Fall 2015 & Fall 2017
Publications:
- Half Nigerian / Fully Plantain: A Memoir. Jollof & Jambalaya Press. Forthcoming Winter 2026.
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"Twin Fruits in Life & Lore." Whetstone. Volume 12. Summer 2024.
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"5 Reasons to Incorporate Food Into Your Writing This Year." The Brevity Blog. 15 Jan. 2024.
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"The Inspiration Behind and Impact of BIPOC Culinary Festivals." James Beard Foundation Blog. 8 Sept. 2023.
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"God Bless Bakersfield, Birthplace of the Baby Carrot." Eaten. Volume 17. Summer 2023.
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"She Lost Her Dad to Cancer. Plantain Helped Say Goodbye." Unpeeled Journal. 21 March 2023.
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"Biology and Science are Put to the Test with Twins That Cook." Cuisine Noir. 3 January 2023.
- “Kwame Onwuachi is Putting African Diasporic Cuisines in Conversation.” Epicurious. 13 July 2022.
- “A Quarter Nigerian, but Fully Plantain.” The Republic: A Journal of Nigerian Affairs. 15 June 2022.
- “A Heritage Dessert Platter for my French-Vietnamese-Nigerian-American Sons.” Epicurious. 5 May 2022.
- “Publish the Plantain: Why this Venerable Global Fruit Deserves a Book of its Own.” The Counter. 21 January 2022.
- “What Do Photo-Free Cookbooks Offer 21st Century Readers?” Stained Page News. 29 Oct. 2021.
- “Who gets to call themselves a food writer? The pandemic made it clear: We all do.” The Counter. 12 July 2021.
- “When In Doubt, Plantain Scramble.” TASTE. 22 June. 2021.
- “Los Angeles.” Dispatches from a Pandemic. Harvard Review Online. Dec. 6. 2020.
- “Identical in Every Way.” Tiny Love Story in Modern Love section of New York Times. 17 March. 2020.
- “Dolls, Brown Like Us: A Chronology.” Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. 22 July 2019.
- “Food Justice for All.” Artillery. May/ June 2019 issue.
- “Bullying Arts Education.” Op-Ed Poetry Pages. Los Angeles Times. 29 Aug. 2014.