Edna Lewis, The Grande Dame Of Southern Cookery, Is Honored In 2012 By Namesake Foundation

On January 15, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida, Chef Joe Randall, of Chef Joe Randall's Cooking School in Savannah, Georgia, announced the official creation of The Edna Lewis Foundation. "The Foundation is dedicated to honoring, preserving and nurturing African American's culinary heritage and culture," said Chef Randall, "and to elevating the appreciation of our culinary excellence." Chef Randall is the newly appointed chairman of the foundation's board of trustees. Atlanta is the city chosen for the Foundation's headquarters, a city that is the de facto capital of the south and where Ms. Lewis spent many of her later years.

The Edna Lewis Foundation will host its first fund-raising reception to celebrate the birth of Edna Lewis on Friday, April 13, 2012, 6:30 p.m. at the City Club of Buckhead, 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia. All attendees will receive a copy of the Edna Lewis' cookbook "The Taste of Country Cooking," autographed by Edna Lewis Foundation board of trustees. Net proceeds from the birthday celebration will benefit The Edna Lewis Foundation and its programs. For information, contact the foundation chair, Chef Joe Randall at 912-303-0409.

Who Was Edna Lewis?
Edna Lewis, the granddaughter of a former slave, was the author of three seminal cookbooks that, to quote The New York Times, February, 2006, "revived the nearly forgotten genre of refined Southern cooking while offering a glimpse into African-American farm life in the early 20th century." Ms. Lewis died in 2006 at the age of 89.

Her cookbooks include: The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972), The Taste of Country Cooking (1976) and In Pursuit of Flavor (1988). Among her many awards were: "Who's Who in American Cooking," (Cook's Magazine, 1986); "Dr. Edna Lewis is lauded as one of the great women of American cooking. A specialist in Southern Cooking, She received an honorary Ph.D. in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University-Norfolk College of Culinary Arts,
May 26, 1996"; "James Beard Living Legend Award" (their first such award, 1999), and being named "Grande Dame" (Les Dames d"Escoffier, 1999).

Ms. Lewis was born in 1916 in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia, one of eight children. Her grandfather, an emancipated slave, helped found the community, hence its name. The family lived on a farm that had been granted to her grandfather and central to the family's life was food in all its phases: growing, foraging, harvesting and cooking. Without any modern cooking conveniences-everything was cooked over wood and, lacking measuring spoons, baking powder was measured on coins-food preparation called on creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity.

At 16, after her father died, she left Freetown for Washington, D.C., and then New York City where her culinary journey got off to a rocky start with her first job ironing in a laundry. She had never ironed before and was fired after three hours. She may not have ironed but she had sewed, and quickly found work as a seamstress. She copied Christian Dior dresses for Dorcas Avedon (the wife of photographer Richard Avedon), made a dress for Marilyn Monroe and became well known for her African-inspired dresses.

Cafe Nicholson
Shortly after her marriage to Steve Kingston, a retired merchant seaman, she met John Nicholson, an antiques dealer who opened Cafe Nicholson on Manhattan's East Side. Ms. Lewis was the cook and became known for her mussels, cheese souffles, Boston lettuce salad and perfectly roasted chicken. The Cafe became an instant success with the likes of William Faulkner, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Marlene Dietrich.

She stayed at the restaurant until 1954 and during her tenure her husband was always critical of the restaurant's bourgeois nature. He reportedly complained,