Joe Randall

Joe Randall (July 23, 1946 – February 14, 2026) was an American chef, educator, and cookbook author, who specialized in African American cuisine.^[1][2]

Joe Randall was born Joseph Glascoe on July 23, 1946, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. When he was a child, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle. His adoptive uncle Joseph Randall was a doctor.^[3] Randall was raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In the summertime, he worked at a restaurant at a restaurant owned by his uncle Richard Ross in the Pittsburgh area. After high school, he joined the United States Air Force. He worked as a cook at a base outside of Albany, Georgia where he was first directly exposed to Southern food.^[3]

In 1964, Randall returned to Pennsylvania. He worked in restaurants in the Harrisburg area. While working at the Harrisburger Hotel, the person who ran it, Robert W. Lee, a transplant from Georgia, became his mentor.^[3]

One year, when Randall was visiting Savannah, the president of the Savannah College of Art and Design asked him to cook dinner for her. She was so impressed with his cooking, that she hired him to run the food services of the college.^[3]

In 1994, Randall found the Taste of Heritage Foundation, to widen the audience for African American cuisine.^[4] A few years later, Randall began offering cooking classes at a kitchen appliance store, something that he long dreamed of. The school was so successful that in 2000, the location became a permanent school. It closed in 2016.^[3]

In 1998, Randall authored A Taste of Heritage: The New African American Cuisine, with Toni Tipton-Martin.^[5][4] In 2023, the book was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Hall of Fame.^[6] The book went beyond the limits of African and soul food, and introduced non-traditional pairings of ingredients and other cuisines (including French, Caribbean, and Latin).^[4][7]

Randall died on February 14, 2026, at his home in Savannah, Georgia.^[3]