Edna Lewis
“In the beginning Blacks were really the only cooks, and they were the ones who developed the food of the South which they called Southern hospitality. . . And through their cooking they developed techniques and flavor and they call it the great Southern food. And then the depression came and people had, hardly had food to eat. And then the World War II and then the alot of then men went off to war and the women too went to work in the war plants. And they left the big children home to take care of the little ones and they never came back. And while they were out in came Kentucky Fried Chicken and all of those fast food places.””
Illustration by Brittanie Mitchell for Seeds & Receipts.
(April 13th 1916 - Feb 13th 2006)
Edna Lewis was born in 1916 into a town founded by former enslaved people of the African diaspora which included her grandfather. These freed people bought the land and founded a vibrant farming community there. Here Ms. Lewis would master a Virginia-style of Southern cooking, anchored in the use of farm-fresh ingredients.
When Lewis was a teenager she moved to Washington D.C. then later to NYC, and wrote for the Communist Party paper The Daily Worker. She would eventually go on to open the restaurant Cafe Nicholson in 1949 as the head chef.
Later on she would write several cookbooks centering Southern cuisine and foodways, particularly those of her hometown in Virginia. A Taste of Country Cooking is one that goes into great detail about her life growing up in Freetown, VA. Lewis was cooking and writing about the use of fresh ingredients and supporting local food systems long before White-savior types like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, who are often credited with bringing such concepts to mainstream attention.
When Lewis began to reach old age, she retired to Georgia to live with her good friend Scott Peacock, who cooked with Edna and took care of her until she passed away in 2006.
DIG DEEPER
The Edna Lewis Foundation website
The People of Freetown by Mayukh Sen
The Edna Lewis Cookbook by Edna Lewis
A Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis
Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original edited by Sara B. Franklin
It’s Not All Fried Chicken and Greasy Greens by Mashama Bailey