The Harvard Common Press

Authors of many cookbooks and travel guides, Cheryl and Bill Jamison write with passion and wit about barbecue, American home cooking, the food and culture of the Southwest, and tropical beach travel.  Considered leading authorities on each of these topics, the Jamisons are among the nation’s most-lauded culinary professionals, with honors that include three James Beard Foundation Awards in six years.

Bon Appétit has pronounced the Jamisons “the king and queen of grilling and smoking,” and the The Christian Science Monitor has declared, “Like a film with Anthony Hopkins, it’s hard to go wrong with a cookbook from Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison.”  The New York Times Book Review hailed their work as: “Stimulating…The Jamisons don’t just cook these dishes; they know everything about them.”

When not busy researching, developing recipes, or writing, the Jamisons are frequent guest instructors at many prestigious cooking schools, including Les Gourmettes in Phoenix and Central Market’s five Texas locations.  Cheryl is a guest instructor at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, teaching traditional and contemporary Southwestern and Mexican cooking.  She is also a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Slow Foods, and past president of Friends of the Santa Fe Area Farmers’ Market and the Northern New Mexico chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.  Before being lured into a culinary career, Bill was a history professor, a lecturer for the National Humanities Series, the Southwest regional director for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a management consultant for British Airways.

Bill grew up in Texas, understanding from birth that smoked brisket was the food of gods.  Cheryl grew up in rural Illinois, where ‘barbecue’ was a Sloppy Joe, so she had some catching up to do.  For two decades they have lived just outside of Santa Fe, in a converted adobe dairy barn shaded by fruit trees.