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 memoirist. She writes about food (mostly plantains), twinship, intercultural and interracial relationships, and motherhood. Her writing has appeared in Epicurious, TASTE, The Counter, Cuisine Noir, Whetstone, The James Beard Foundation Blog, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Review Online, and elsewhere. She was a 2022-2023 Legacy Network Advisee for the James Beard Foundation and a 2023 Food Writing Award Winner for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).
She has been teaching at Otis since Fall 2009.
Awards and Honors
- 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
- Otis Assessment, Research, and Scholarship (OARS) Grants: Fall 2015 & Fall 2017
Publications:
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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.