artist. publisher. author.
bryant terry is a multidisciplinary artist, chef, publisher, and author. his work has earned prestigious honors, including a James Beard Award, an NAACP Image Award, and an Art of Eating Prize. San Francisco Magazine included terry 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. In regard to his work, terry’s mentor Alice Waters says, “bryant terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege.”
terry’s studio practice explores resilience, cultural memory, and liberation through an interdisciplinary approach that bridges cooking, sculpture, sound, video, and social practice. At its core is an exploration of how art can catalyze individual and collective change while reckoning with historical legacies and systemic challenges. By blending conceptual rigor with material experimentation, he creates work that interrogates power structures, fosters dialogue, and imagines futures of shared empowerment and renewal.
In the spring of 2025, terry completed a degree in the MFA Program in Art Practice at UC Berkeley. He was subsequently awarded a 2025–2026 Graduate Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts, a prestigious yearlong residency supporting promising emerging artists.
From 2015 to 2022, he served as the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, curating dynamic programming connecting food, health, farming, and activism. His art and ideas have been featured at leading institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Birmingham Museum of Art, The Underground Museum, and The Hammer Museum at UCLA.
terry is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including those from the Open Society Foundations (Community Fellowship), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Food and Society Fellowship), UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory (Artist Fellowship), and the East Bay Fund for Artists.
terry’s achievements in the publishing world include authoring five highly acclaimed cookbooks, editing and curating an anthology, Black Food, and serving as the editor of The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025. Black Food, received widespread praise and was hailed as the most critically acclaimed American cookbook of 2021. It secured spots on numerous esteemed lists, such as those by The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, The Washington Post, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Glamour. Black Food was honored with the Art of Eating Prize, awarded to the best book about food each year.
Another notable work by terry is Vegetable Kingdom, published in February 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book garnered both commercial success and critical acclaim, earning an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, receiving James Beard and IACP award nominations, and being named one of the best cookbooks of all time by Food & Wine Magazine in 2024. terry’s Afro-Vegan was celebrated as one of the best vegetarian cookbooks of all time by Bon Appétit.
As the founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books, an imprint of Ten Speed Press and Penguin Random House, terry collaborates with visionary chefs, writers, artists, activists, and innovators of color to create visually stunning nonfiction books.
In 2023, terry teamed up with artist Joshua Gabriel to form the creative duo Saint State Street. Through their music, they weave a tapestry of influences, seamlessly blending soul-stirring spirituals, opera, traditional blues, post-bop jazz, 90s hip hop, trap, acoustic, and electronic elements. Their compositions are captivating and delve deep into the human experience, exploring themes of history, memory, family, resilience, and personal growth.
terry is a sought-after speaker and is exclusively represented by the Lavin Agency. He frequently presents keynote speeches at community events, conferences, and renowned universities such as Brown, Stanford, Wesleyan, and Yale. He obtained his culinary education from the Chef's Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City. Additionally, terry holds an MA in History with a focus on the African Diaspora from NYU, where he studied under Robin D.G. Kelly during his time as a Ph.D. student. He resides and works in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their two daughters.
(short bio)
bryant terry is a multidisciplinary artist, chef, publisher, and author. His studio practice bridges cooking, sculpture, sound, video, and social practice to explore resilience, cultural memory, and liberation. From 2015 to 2022, he served as the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, curating dynamic programming connecting food, health, farming, art, and activism.
His art and ideas have been featured at leading institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Underground Museum, The Birmingham Museum of Art, and The Hammer Museum at UCLA.
As founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books (an imprint of Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House), he collaborates with visionary creatives of color to produce visually stunning nonfiction books.
terry’s achievements in the publishing world include authoring five highly acclaimed cookbooks, editing and curating an anthology, Black Food, and serving as the editor of The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025. His work has earned him prestigious honors, including a James Beard Award, an NAACP Image Award, and an Art of Eating Prize. His book Black Food received widespread praise and was hailed as the most critically acclaimed American cookbook of 2021.
terry is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including those from the Headlands Center for the Arts (Graduate Fellowship), Open Society Foundations (Community Fellowship), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Food and Society Fellowship), UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory (Artist Fellowship), and the East Bay Fund for Artists.
terry completed an MFA in Art Practice at UC Berkeley in 2025. He holds an MA in History from NYU and received his culinary training at the Natural Gourmet Institute. He presents frequently around the country as a keynote speaker at community events, conferences, and colleges.