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JJ Johnson says he knew he wanted to be a chef at seven years old, when a Culinary Institute of America commercial came on TV and something just clicked. 

But if you ask him where it really started, he’ll take you back further than that, to his Afro Puerto-Rican grandmother’s kitchen. He was born on Long Island, raised between New York City and the Poconos, with grandparents from Barbados, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. Needless to say, the food at his family’s table covered a lot of ground (literally).

He eventually made it to the Culinary Institute of America, traveled to Ghana to study West African cuisine, then returned to New York and cooked through some of the city’s best kitchens. His first cookbook, Between Harlem and Heaven, co-authored with Alexander Smalls and Veronica Chambers, won the James Beard Foundation Book Award. He opened FIELDTRIP, his fast-casual rice bowl concept in Harlem, and Esquire named it one of the best new restaurants in America, the only fast-casual spot on the list. His second book, The Simple Art of Rice, made the New York Times best cookbooks list in 2023. He also has a FIELDTRIP inside Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau, so when the festival came calling, he already had roots there.

He’s headlining as host of Jerk Jam, and he doesn’t talk about jerk the way most chefs do. “Jerk is more than a seasoning — it’s resistance, preservation, and identity,” he says. “It comes from the Maroons and Taíno people, from survival in the hills, from using smoke and spice not just for flavor but for protection and technique. That history matters to me.” For Jerk Jam, he’s planning to honor the integrity of the spice blend and the fire while layering in his own perspective, which might mean different proteins, unexpected textures, or rice preparations that nod to West Africa or the American South. “I want it to feel rooted but expansive,” he says. “Respectful, but evolving.”

If you’ve eaten at FIELDTRIP, you already know how Johnson feels about rice. He wrote a whole book about it. It is, he’ll tell you, so much more than a side dish. “Rice is memory,” he says. “It’s Jollof. It’s peas and rice. It’s Hoppin’ John. It’s arroz con gandules. It’s congee. It’s paella.” 

Rice shows up in every culture the diaspora touched, from West Africa to the Caribbean to the American South, taking on different forms in different hands but never losing its place at the center of the table. “For me, rice represents survival and >The Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Festival runs five days alongside headliners including Tom Colicchio, Rachael Ray, Antonia Lofaso, Ian Kittichai, José Andrés, Aaron Sánchez and Michelin-starred Chef Michael White, with performances by Sugar Ray and DJ Pauly D. Proceeds benefit the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation, a nonprofit working to protect marine wildlife and habitats throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean seas. Johnson has one piece of advice for first-timers: follow the smoke. “Jerk done properly — over wood, with smoke, with patience — is transformative. It’s not fast food. It’s ritual. 

So I’d tell them: find the grill, follow the smoke, and taste something that’s been kissed by flame.”

The post For James Beard Award–Winning Chef JJ Johnson, Success Was Never About Shrinking. And His Career Proves It appeared first on Essence.

Author: Kimberly Wilson

Read the original article on Essence.