Have you ever thought about Southern cooking? About why it’s such a popular theme for restaurants? Part of its popularity comes from the comfort it provides diners; part of its uniqueness is its fresh, seasonal ingredients. But have you ever thought about who made it fashionable? Meet EDNA REGINA LEWIS, a Virginia chef who elevated Southern cooking.
Lewis learned to cook from her mother and aunts, using fresh, seasonal ingredients grown in their own garden. Growing up in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia provided her with some unique experiences that included French recipes from the enslaved Black chefs who trained at Monticello, to that of European and Indigenous cuisines. When she left Freetown at 15, however, she did not become a chef. Her route to this calling was circuitous, at best.
Arriving first in Washington, D.C. in the 1930s, then a few years later in New York City, she worked in domestic service, as a laundress, a window dresser, and a seamstress. A skilled dressmaker, she once even outfitted Marilyn Monroe for a photo shoot! But it was her tenure at Café Nicholson that set her on a path to revolutionize Southern cuisine for the masses.
Lewis was hired at Café Nicholson in 1948 as a kitchen supervisor, but the chef quit because he refused to work with a Black woman. So, she became chef and co-owner! The restaurant was popular with the creative set, and soon she was known for her “Virginia-style French” dishes. While she was successful here, her husband berated her for catering to bourgeois capitalists and she left this position and returned to domestic service…but she didn’t leave cooking totally behind. She started giving cooking classes and catering on her own.
In 1976 she published a cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking. Her editor? Judith Jones, of Julia Child fame. This cookbook was different than any other produced before. It combined personal stories of growing up in Freetown, memories of family, as well as recipes passed down through generations.
Lewis wrote other cookbooks, and her farm-to-table approach to creating menus continues to inspire chefs. But her contribution to Southern cooking, to documenting the stories behind the foods, exposing the history behind the dishes, and sharing a personal connection to it all, is what makes Edna Regina Lewis a revolutionary chef.
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