6 Black Chefs (and 1 Inventor) Who Changed the History of Food
And oftentimes history, period.
Zephyr Wright in 1961. Wright, a personal chef to Lyndon B. Johnson, was said to have told the president of discrimination she had faced.CreditAssociated Press
Image
Zephyr Wright in 1961. Wright, a personal chef to Lyndon B. Johnson, was said to have told the president of discrimination she had faced.CreditCreditAssociated Press
By Kiera Wright-Ruiz
Black chefs, cookbook authors, restaurateurs and inventors have shaped how we eat, and the culture at large. Here are just a few.
James Hemings
a letter addressed to Jefferson said that the cause was “drinking too freely.” While his time as a free man was short, his legacy has proved to be long.
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George Washington Carver
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The American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver in his lab at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1925.CreditBettmann/Getty Images
Image
The American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver in his lab at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1925.CreditBettmann/Getty Images
Through his research, he discovered that cultivating only one cropstripped the land of its nutrients and yielded less bountiful harvests. By introducing peanuts and soybeans to the nutrient-deprived soil, crops could thrive again — a discovery that also could feed Southerners. Once farmers integrated crop rotation into their fields, the South became a strong new supplier of agricultural products.
You may have heard Carver’s name associated with peanuts (boy, did he love them). Contrary to popular belief, Carver did not invent peanut butter. But he did develop more than 300 other food, industrial and commercial items with peanuts, such as plastics, dyes, soap, milk and cosmetics. He also invented 118 products from sweet potatoes, including molasses and postage-stamp glue.
Marks recounted Wright telling Johnson. (Her husband, Sammy, was Johnson’s driver.) “I have to find a bush and squat. When it comes time to eat, we can’t go into restaurants. We have to eat out of a brown bag.”
When Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Wright was there. After he finished, he gave her a pen he used and said, “You deserve this more than anybody else.”
Wright died in 1988 from heart complications at age 73.
Abby Fisher
You can get lost in it yourself.
Edna Lewis grew up on a farm, where she learned to cook. After her father died when she was 16, she moved to Washington, D.C., living there briefly before finally settling in New York. She worked a series of different jobs until she began cooking at Café Nicholson in Midtown Manhattan, offering a simple menu of dishes like biscuits and herbed roast chicken. She soon became a local legend, and cooked for the likes of Salvador Dalí and Eleanor Roosevelt.
She left Café Nicholson in 1954, and started catering and teaching cooking classes in the American Museum of Natural History. About 20 years later, she wrote “The Edna Lewis Cookbook.” She began working with the renowned editor Judith Jones on a second book. After Jones pushed Lewis to find a more distinctive voice, “The Taste of Country Cooking” was born, which would become Lewis’s most significant cookbook, expanding on her Southern roots and how she would grow, harvest and cook what they planted in Freetown. It is celebrated for its focus on the simplicity of Southern food and emphasis of farm-to-table eating.
She went on to publish “In Pursuit of Flavor” in 1988, and “The Gift of Southern Cooking,” written with Scott Peacock, in 2003. Lewis died in 2006, but she is still recognized today for being a leading food voice in America.
Larry and Jereline Bethune
Jereline and Larry Bethune first opened the restaurant in 1942; back then it was a nightclub, the Siesta Club, that sold food. It later became Brenda’s, named for one of their daughters. The restaurant became an unofficial center for the local civil rights movement, holding N.A.A.C.P. meetings, printing fliers and planning protests.
But even after the bus boycotts, Ms. Bethune quietly held lessons to teach other African-Americans to read so they could pass the literacy test, which functioned as a way to suppress the black vote during the height of the Jim Crow era. Donetta Bethune, the Bethunes’ granddaughter, described it as: “Let’s learn how to read. Let’s learn how to vote. Let’s go after our own rights so we never have to be treated in a way that we’re not equal to again. In the black community, that’s how they lived back then. Everyone helped each other, or else how could you get by or how could you make it through.”
Brenda’s is family-run to this day, and it still feeds locals its popular ribs, pig ears and chopped pork.
And oftentimes history, period.
Zephyr Wright in 1961. Wright, a personal chef to Lyndon B. Johnson, was said to have told the president of discrimination she had faced.CreditAssociated Press
Image
Zephyr Wright in 1961. Wright, a personal chef to Lyndon B. Johnson, was said to have told the president of discrimination she had faced.CreditCreditAssociated Press
By Kiera Wright-Ruiz
- Feb. 28, 2019
Black chefs, cookbook authors, restaurateurs and inventors have shaped how we eat, and the culture at large. Here are just a few.
James Hemings
- First American to train as a chef in France
- Cooked the historic meal between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson (immortalized in the musical “Hamilton” in the song “The Room Where It Happens”)
- Introduced European-style macaroni and cheese, French fries, crème brûlée and ice cream to America
a letter addressed to Jefferson said that the cause was “drinking too freely.” While his time as a free man was short, his legacy has proved to be long.
You have 4 articles left.
Subscribe to The Times.
George Washington Carver
- One of the most influential agricultural scientists and inventors in history
- Invented cotton crop rotation in the South, a technique where different crops are alternated to rejuvenate nutrient-deprived soil
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a national monument built in Carver’s honor
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Had Strong Opinions About Appalachians. Now, Appalachians Return the Favor.
‘XX’? But I Hardly Know Her!
The Meaning of the Scene: Sean Spicer Repents
The American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver in his lab at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1925.CreditBettmann/Getty Images
Image
The American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver in his lab at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1925.CreditBettmann/Getty Images
Through his research, he discovered that cultivating only one cropstripped the land of its nutrients and yielded less bountiful harvests. By introducing peanuts and soybeans to the nutrient-deprived soil, crops could thrive again — a discovery that also could feed Southerners. Once farmers integrated crop rotation into their fields, the South became a strong new supplier of agricultural products.
You may have heard Carver’s name associated with peanuts (boy, did he love them). Contrary to popular belief, Carver did not invent peanut butter. But he did develop more than 300 other food, industrial and commercial items with peanuts, such as plastics, dyes, soap, milk and cosmetics. He also invented 118 products from sweet potatoes, including molasses and postage-stamp glue.
Marks recounted Wright telling Johnson. (Her husband, Sammy, was Johnson’s driver.) “I have to find a bush and squat. When it comes time to eat, we can’t go into restaurants. We have to eat out of a brown bag.”
When Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Wright was there. After he finished, he gave her a pen he used and said, “You deserve this more than anybody else.”
Wright died in 1988 from heart complications at age 73.
Abby Fisher
- One of the first black cookbook authors
- Her cookbook was originally published in 1881 and reprinted in 1995
You can get lost in it yourself.
Edna Lewis grew up on a farm, where she learned to cook. After her father died when she was 16, she moved to Washington, D.C., living there briefly before finally settling in New York. She worked a series of different jobs until she began cooking at Café Nicholson in Midtown Manhattan, offering a simple menu of dishes like biscuits and herbed roast chicken. She soon became a local legend, and cooked for the likes of Salvador Dalí and Eleanor Roosevelt.
She left Café Nicholson in 1954, and started catering and teaching cooking classes in the American Museum of Natural History. About 20 years later, she wrote “The Edna Lewis Cookbook.” She began working with the renowned editor Judith Jones on a second book. After Jones pushed Lewis to find a more distinctive voice, “The Taste of Country Cooking” was born, which would become Lewis’s most significant cookbook, expanding on her Southern roots and how she would grow, harvest and cook what they planted in Freetown. It is celebrated for its focus on the simplicity of Southern food and emphasis of farm-to-table eating.
She went on to publish “In Pursuit of Flavor” in 1988, and “The Gift of Southern Cooking,” written with Scott Peacock, in 2003. Lewis died in 2006, but she is still recognized today for being a leading food voice in America.
Larry and Jereline Bethune
- Their restaurant, Brenda’s Bar-B-Que Pit, became a center for civil rights in Montgomery, Ala.
- The oldest barbecue restaurant in Montgomery that’s still in operation
- Their efforts contributed to the success of the bus boycotts
Jereline and Larry Bethune first opened the restaurant in 1942; back then it was a nightclub, the Siesta Club, that sold food. It later became Brenda’s, named for one of their daughters. The restaurant became an unofficial center for the local civil rights movement, holding N.A.A.C.P. meetings, printing fliers and planning protests.
But even after the bus boycotts, Ms. Bethune quietly held lessons to teach other African-Americans to read so they could pass the literacy test, which functioned as a way to suppress the black vote during the height of the Jim Crow era. Donetta Bethune, the Bethunes’ granddaughter, described it as: “Let’s learn how to read. Let’s learn how to vote. Let’s go after our own rights so we never have to be treated in a way that we’re not equal to again. In the black community, that’s how they lived back then. Everyone helped each other, or else how could you get by or how could you make it through.”
Brenda’s is family-run to this day, and it still feeds locals its popular ribs, pig ears and chopped pork.
