Edna Lewis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Edna Regina Lewis
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| Born | April 13, 1916 Freetown, Virginia, U.S.
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| Died | February 13, 2006 (aged 89) Decatur, Georgia, U.S.
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| Other names | Edna Kingston |
| Occupation | Chef, teacher, author, seamstress |
| Known for | American Southern cooking |
| Spouse(s) | Steven Kingston |
Edna Regina Lewis (born April 13, 1916 – died February 13, 2006) was a famous African American chef, teacher, and writer. She changed how people thought about Southern cooking. Edna loved using fresh ingredients that were in season. She believed Southern food was about pan-fried chicken, pork, and fresh vegetables, especially greens. She wrote several books about Southern cooking and life in a community started by freed slaves.
Contents
Early Life: Growing Up in Freetown
Edna Lewis was born in a small farming village called Freetown. It was near Lahore in Orange County, Virginia. Her grandmother was an emancipated slave who helped start this community. Edna was one of eight children. Her father passed away in 1928 when she was 12 years old. At 16, she left Freetown by herself. She joined the Great Migration, moving north to find new opportunities.
Edna's Career Journey
After leaving Freetown, Edna Lewis first moved to Washington, D.C.. Later, in her early 30s, she moved to New York City. While in Washington, D.C., Edna worked for Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential campaign in 1936. At some point, she married Steven Kingston. He was a retired cook from the Merchant Marines.
Starting Out in New York
When Edna arrived in New York, a friend helped her find a job. It was at a laundry in Brooklyn. Her job was to iron clothes. However, she had never ironed before and was fired after only three hours! But Edna was good at sewing. She soon found work as a seamstress. As a seamstress, she copied Christian Dior dresses for famous people. She even made a dress for Marilyn Monroe. Edna also became known for creating beautiful African-inspired dresses. While in New York, she also worked for a newspaper called The Daily Worker.
Opening Café Nicholson
In New York City, Edna Lewis loved to host dinner parties for her friends. One of her friends was John Nicholson, who sold antiques. In 1948, John opened Café Nicholson on 58th Street in East Side Manhattan. He hired Edna as the cook.
The restaurant quickly became very popular. Many artists and creative people loved to visit. Famous guests included William Faulkner, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Eleanor Roosevelt. At the Café, Edna served simple, Southern-inspired dishes. Her chocolate soufflé was especially famous.
After five years, Edna Lewis left Café Nicholson. She tried raising pheasants on a farm in New Jersey. But one night, all her birds died from a sickness. After that, she opened and closed her own restaurant. She also cooked for private events and taught cooking classes. She even worked as a guide at the Hall of African Peoples in the American Museum of Natural History.
Writing Cookbooks: Sharing Southern Flavors
In the late 1960s, Edna broke her leg. This meant she could no longer cook professionally. Judith Jones, a cookbook editor at Knopf, encouraged her to write a cookbook. Judith also edited books for Julia Child. Edna worked with Evangeline Peterson on The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972).
Later, Judith Jones worked with Edna alone to write The Taste of Country Cooking in 1976. This book was very special. It had many recipes. But it also shared stories about Southern and African-American food. It truly captured Edna's spirit and her memories. In 1979, Craig Claiborne from The New York Times called it "the most entertaining regional cookbook in America."
In 2017, almost 40 years after it was first published, The Taste of Country Cooking became a bestseller again! It was featured on an episode of the cooking show Top Chef.
Later Career and Legacy
After her husband passed away, Edna returned to working in restaurants. She worked at places like Fearrington House in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina. She also worked for five years at the historic Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn, New York, before retiring in 1995.
In the late 1980s, Edna started the Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food. This group was a first step toward the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA). In a 1989 interview, Edna said, "As a child in Virginia, I thought all food tasted delicious. After growing up, I didn't think food tasted the same, so it has been my lifelong effort to try and recapture those good flavors of the past."
The Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food wanted to make sure people remembered how to cook with traditional ingredients. Before starting this group, she wrote In Pursuit of Flavor in 1988.
Personal Life and Friendship
Edna Lewis was married to Steven Kingston. He was a retired cook from the Merchant Marines.
In 1986, Edna adopted a young adult named Dr. Afeworki Paulos. He came from Eritrea to study in the United States.
A Special Friendship
In her later years, Edna became good friends with a chef named Scott Peacock. They met in 1990 when he was cooking at the Georgia Governor's Mansion. Their friendship grew very strong. In 1992, Edna moved to Atlanta to be closer to Scott. They eventually worked together on a cookbook called The Gift of Southern Cooking (2003). Their long friendship was unique. She was an older, widowed African American woman, and he was a young, white, gay man. People sometimes called them "The Odd Couple of Southern Cooking."
For the rest of her life, Edna and Scott worked together. They wanted to make sure that classic Southern dishes and cooking traditions would not be forgotten. They were both very dedicated to preserving Southern cooking. As Edna got older, Scott became her caretaker until she passed away in 2006.
Edna Lewis's Famous Sayings
- “One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been that I have never stopped learning about Good Cooking and Good Food.”
- “Over the years since I left home, I have kept thinking about the people I grew up with and about our way of life. I realize how much the bond that held us had to do with food.”
- “Women didn't 'learn' how to cook - you were born knowing how.”
Awards and Honors
Edna Lewis received many awards for her amazing contributions to cooking:
- 1986 – Named Who's Who in American Cooking by Cook’s Magazine
- 1990 – Lifetime Achievement Award, International Association of Culinary Professionals
- 1995 – James Beard Living Legend Award (she was the first to receive this award!)
- 1999 – Named Grande Dame by Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international group of female cooking experts.
- 1999 – Lifetime Achievement Award from Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) (their first such award)
- 2002 – Barbara Tropp President's Award, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs
- 2003 – Inducted into the KitchenAid Cookbook Hall of Fame (James Beard)
- 2004 – The Gift of Southern Cooking was nominated for a James Beard Award and an IACP Award
- 2009 – Honored as an African American Trailblazer in Virginia at the Library of Virginia
- 2014 – Honored with a United States postal stamp featuring her image
Published Cookbooks
Edna Lewis wrote and co-wrote several important cookbooks:
- The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972)
- The Taste of Country Cooking (1976)
- In Pursuit of Flavor (1988)
- The Gift of Southern Cooking (2003), co-authored with Scott Peacock
See also
