Nancy Harmon Jenkins

2018

Literary and Culinary Achievement

"Literary Lion" Award

Nancy Harmon Jenkins is an authority on Mediterranean cuisines, on the Mediterranean diet and its consequences for good health, on extra-virgin olive oil, and (to her own surprise) on ancient Egyptian maritime technology. She is the author of many books, the latest of which is a collaboration with her daughter, Chef Sara Jenkins: The Four Seasons of Pasta (Avery Books, October 2015). Also in 2015 she published Virgin Territory: Exploring the World of Olive Oil (Houghton Mifflin, February 2015). She has spoken at numerous international conferences on a range of topics from olive oil and the Mediterranean diet to sustainable food systems and the state of the oceans and responsible seafood consumption. She has led food tours of Italy, Spain, and Tunisia, and served as a writer, coordinator and co-producer for a series of videos about the foods and wines of southern Spain, Sicily, and Puglia. Before launching her freelance career in the 1990’s, she was a staff writer at The New York Times and later served as Publications Director of the American Institute of Wine & Food. She was a founding director of Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust, an organization she continues to work with from time to time.