A plateful of authentic Bermuda food speaks volumes about the Island's history, a visiting American culinary expert says.

Dr. Jessica Harris, invited by Tourism Minister David Dodwell to offer some thoughts on the importance of food to vacationers, said, "People want to see the food and taste it, and all of the food that appears on a plate would tell me, as a historian, about Bermuda's past.'' Native New Yorker Dr. Harris has published six cookbooks and is a tenured associate professor of English composition at Queens University in New York.

She is a culinary historian and a restaurant reviewer for the Village Voice, and she is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Dr. Harris is also a board member of the local and national boards of the American Institute of Wine and Food.

She was invited to Bermuda last week by Mr. Dodwell to discuss the importance of food in a vacation experience and how Bermuda can develop its food and dining. She also met with food and beverage managers of local hotels and restaurants.

Journalism, her avocation, led her from book reviews and theatre criticism, to feature and beauty articles, and ultimately to a specialty in cultural writing.

In over 25 years as a journalist, she has contributed articles to numerous publications including Food and Wine, Essence, Eating Well, The New York Times, Cooking Light, Prevention, and Vogue.

"By avocation I write cookbooks, I have written six, with the latest one being `The Kwanzaa Keepsake','' Dr. Harris said.

She added: "As a food historian my speciality is in the food of Africa and what happened to that food when it got across the Atlantic.'' Dr. Harris has written for Gourmet and a variety of other publications including Essence magazine.

As a writer for Essence magazine's travel section, Dr. Harris combined her love of travel and keen interest in the history of food into a column entitled, "Go Gourmet''.

"I would travel and write about food. It grew and escalated and I later began speaking about food. I was the keynote speaker at the Caribbean Culinary Competition which is held in a variety of places.'' Explaining her fascination with things gastronomic, Dr. Harris says: "Food is absolutely fascinating ... We eat different foods because it particularises us, what we eat makes us special.'' Dr. Harris added food connects us with different parts of the world. Cornmeal, for example, is linked to Africa, Brazil, West Africa and the Caribbean.

And Bermuda' cassava pie links us to Britain, ie. pie making, and the Caribbean.

"The cassava root is the joining of the old world and the new world tuber.'' She added: "Bermuda's history and some of its favourite dishes provide tangible links with the American south -- the most culinary evocative region for most Americans.

"Hoppin' John is not only eaten in Bermuda, but it is the traditional New Year's dish of South Carolina where links go back to western Africa where it appears on Senegalese tables under the name of thiebou niebe.

"This dish alone places Bermuda firmly in the middle of two traditions as a link between the US and the Caribbean to the south where the rice and peas, peas and rice litany is a daily recitation.'' She is currently working on another book, tentatively entitled "Africa: A Continent of Cuisine from Nigeria to Zimbabwe''.

FOOD EXPERT -- Dr. Jessica Harris with a few Bermuda-made products.