Bryant Terry

Bryant Terry is a multidisciplinary artist, James Beard Award-winning chef, publisher, and author. Rooted in ancestral inspiration, his work encourages us to pursue a more healthful, just, and sustainable world. San Francisco Magazine included Bryant 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.” Alice Waters said, “Bryant Terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege.”

From 2015 to 2022, he served as the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, where he curated innovative public programming blending food, farming, health, activism, art, and culture.

Terry is currently pursuing an MFA at UC Berkeley. His studio practice investigates cycles of resilience, transformation, and liberation through an interdisciplinary approach that bridges cooking, sculpture, sound, mixed media, video, and social practice. He has collaborated with or shown work at institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, The Hammer Museum, The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and Stanford d.school.  

As the founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books, Terry collaborates with visionary chefs, writers, artists, activists, and innovators of color to create visually stunning nonfiction books. He has authored five highly acclaimed cookbooks, edited and curated an anthology called Black Food, and edited the forthcoming 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.

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. 

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