Rufus Estes facts for kids
Rufus Estes (born in 1857, died in 1939) was an amazing chef who used to be enslaved. He became famous for cooking delicious meals on fancy train cars called "Palace Cars" for the Pullman Company in the late 1800s.
Estes was born in Maury County, Tennessee. He was one of nine children. When he was about 10 years old, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He only got to go to school for a short time.
Early Life and Work
Rufus Estes likely started working when he was very young, around five years old, in the fields. This was during a time when many people were forced to work without pay. As he grew older, he got his first known job at a restaurant in Nashville. He worked there from when he was about 16 until he was 21.
In 1881, the restaurant he worked for moved to Chicago. Rufus Estes went with them and found another job there.
Cooking on Luxury Trains
In 1883, Rufus Estes began working for the Pullman Company. This company was famous for its luxurious railway cars. These cars were like moving palaces! They had beautiful decorations, fancy lights called chandeliers, air conditioning, and comfortable beds. On these trains, Rufus Estes cooked gourmet meals for important people.
He managed private Pullman cars for many famous individuals, including two United States Presidents, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. He also cooked for a Spanish princess named Infanta Eulalia of Spain, the famous explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, and the talented musician Ignace Jan Paderewski.
A Chef's Journey
Between 1894 and 1897, Rufus Estes took a break from the Pullman Company. He worked as a chef on a ship called the RMS Empress of China. This ship sailed all the way from Vancouver in Canada to Tokyo, Japan!
He decided to leave Pullman for good in 1897. He then took a new job managing another luxury private railway car for a businessman named Arthur Stillwell. Later, in 1907, he started working for a part of the United States Steel Corporation in Chicago.
A Cookbook Legacy
In 1911, Rufus Estes published his own cookbook! It was called Good Things to Eat, as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection Of Practical Recipes For Preparing Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, Etc. The book had more than 600 recipes.
Rufus Estes wanted people to know that he was both a very skilled professional chef and someone who had overcome being enslaved. His cookbook is one of the very first ones written by a Black chef in America. Other early Black cookbook authors included Robert Roberts, Malinda Russell, and Abby Fisher.
