August 18, 2025
Chef Harris had a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implanted in him in his twenties.
“Chef Mayne” etched on a white jacket is the first thing students from Columbus Downtown High School’s culinary program will likely notice when their instructor, Jermayne Harris, walks into the room. The black letters of his name are proof of the program’s success.
“Being a student at this school and coming from where they come from shows them that they can do whatever it is they want to do,” Harris tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
But what his students probably don’t see initially is the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) inside a waterproof bag that he keeps close to his chest. The mechanical pump is an implant to help the left ventricle (the heart’s main pumping chamber) pump blood more effectively. It’s the same LVAD that forced him to take a leap of faith to open his own business when his employer at the time let him go after spending weeks in the hospital.
Chef Jermayne Harris Diagnosed With Heart Failure In His Twenties
Harris was in his physical prime in his early twenties. As a teenager, he ran track and was a quarterback for his high school football team. He returned home after college to start a catering business. At the beginning of 2017, he began to feel sick, and the cold-like symptoms would linger. He started wheezing first thing in the morning and eventually in his sleep.
The only way Harris could sleep comfortably was straight up against the wall. His lower extremities started to swell months later to the point he couldn’t put on his shoes anymore. He drove himself to the hospital, and doctors diagnosed him with congestive heart failure at the age of 23.
“I was kind of a shock because I was so young, but at the same time I was thinking, ‘OK. What’s next? Is it curable?’ and things like that.”
Harris wore a defibrillator for a few months and had one permanently put in on October 2017. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of his health scares. In 2019, he had a panic attack while working, which ultimately landed him back in the hospital. Harris said he felt different than his initial hospital stay in 2018. Doctors found a blood clot in his lung, and his health took a dramatic turn. Harris was life-flighted to another hospital, where he learned he would receive the HeartMate 3 LVAD as the next level of care.
According to Lifeline of Ohio, he contracted a virus that severely damaged his heart.
From Hospital Bed To Hot Food Truck Kitchen
While in the hospital, Harris said he had nothing but time and would watch the Food Network, which inspired him to create the menus for his food truck. His dad planted the seed to start his food truck after the restaurant he was working in let him go.
“My dad didn’t want to be under that kind of stress after seeing how they treated me while I was going through my health situation.”
The menu featured six different bowls from around the world, including bowls inspired by Asia and the Caribbean. Amid his business venture and health battle, Harris maintained a relationship with the Columbus Public Schools, where he served on the advisory board for the culinary program. That relationship opened the doors to becoming an assistant to the program and eventually a teacher.
It takes a great deal of heart for Chef Mayne to get up every day and inspire students, especially since his own heart is failing and his physical activity is limited. While others may have faltered at everything he has gone through, he has used his LVAD to pump some culinary heart into his students, and while renewing hope for himself. He has lived out his dream of opening a food truck and is now training the next generation of culinary artists.
As for what’s next for Harris, he has been on the heart transplant list in Ohio since 2017 and now has two hearts that beat outside of his body.
“I’m married and raising a daughter,” says Harris. “I think there’s another business venture in me eventually with my wife.”
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