Johnson, Joseph 'JJ'

Impact on the world

Co-authored 'Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Quiet Nights, and Everything in Between' with chef Alexander Smalls, already profiled in this collection, winning the James Beard Foundation's 2019 award for Best American Cookbook; he went on to found Fieldtrip, a fast-casual restaurant built specifically around rice, a grain he has framed as a unifying thread connecting African, Caribbean, Latin American, and Asian culinary heritage, expanding the concept from New York City to an international location at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and was named to Forbes's 30 Under 30 list in the food and wine category in 2014.

Life & background

Born in Long Island, New York around 1985 to a family of Caribbean ancestry, with grandparents born in Barbados, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico, Johnson spent much of his early life in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, deciding at age seven to become a chef after seeing a Culinary Institute of America commercial on television and growing up reading his grandmother's cookbooks. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he traveled to Ghana to study West African cuisine directly at its source before returning to New York to cook in a series of acclaimed kitchens, including Tribeca Grill, building toward his eventual partnership with Smalls on their award-winning cookbook. He went on to publish a second book, 'The Simple Art of Rice: Recipes from Around the World for the Heart of Your Table,' named one of the New York Times's best cookbooks of 2023, while hosting the television series 'Just Eats with Chef JJ' on Cleo TV into its fifth season and working as a chef and personality on BuzzFeed's Tasty platform; during the COVID-19 pandemic, Food & Wine specifically profiled him for his community support work feeding people affected by the crisis. He has remained a committed advocate for equity within the broader food system, partnering with organizations including Rethink Food and Friends of the Children to address hunger, sustainability, and youth mentorship, and continues expanding Fieldtrip's footprint while framing his restaurant deliberately as a vehicle for elevating rice-based dishes from across the African diaspora and beyond to the same cultural status as more conventionally celebrated culinary traditions.

Sources

1. Fine Dining Lovers; NYC Food Policy Center; James Beard Foundation archive; Taste Cooking; Great Performances