Edna Lewis is the Touchstone

Source:ednalewisfoundation.org

“One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been that I have never stopped learning about good cooking and good food.”- Edna Lewis, “In Pursuit of Flavor”

Edna Lewis is credited as the first person to write about Southern food as a cuisine worthy of study and admiration. She was a committed “locavore” and practitioner of “farm-to-table” eating decades before those words became culinary buzzwords. The chefs and writers who operate in the world of Southern food owe a debt to Ms. Lewis for her scholarship and evangelism. Her influence can also be felt in the ethos of American culinary professionals and home cooks who revere the glories of simple ingredients cooked with techniques passed down from generation to generation.

Edna Lewis' culinary point-of-view on local food and seasonal cooking continues to be a philosophical cornerstone of American food culture. The genre of culinary memoir is imbued with her intimate storytelling style. Despite her monumental role in American culinary history she remains a niche interest like Dixieland Jazz.

 "Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie" - Film

The recognition Ms. Lewis receives in mainstream publications is scant in relation to her enormous influence on American food culture. Francis Lam took a step to correct that error in a beautiful October 2015 article for The New York Times Magazine. The piece is a thoughtful examination of the forces that shaped her journey to becoming a culinary pioneer. It ends with a call to action by Ms. Lewis directed to "The Jemima Code" author Toni Tipton-Martin after the two had met at an event.

"I told her that I wanted to tell the world that there were more women like her than just her,’’ she [Ms. Tipton-Martin] said. A while later, Lewis sent her a letter, written on the same kind of yellow legal pad that she used to write ‘‘The Taste of Country Cooking.’’ ‘‘Leave no stone unturned to prove this point,’’ she wrote. ‘‘Make sure that you do.’’

Source: nytimes.com via Knopf

Writers like Ms. Tipton-Martin, Jessica B. Harris (“High on The Hog”), Adrian Miller (“Soul Food”) and Leni Sorenson took Ms. Lewis’ encouragement to “Leave no stone unturned to prove this point” very seriously. The effort to bring black cooks and chefs into the cultural consciousness is as relevant today as it was the day Lewis wrote to Ms. Tipton-Martin.

Interview with Chef Edna Lewis

The next generation of black women chefs and cooks influenced by the work of Ms. Lewis are cooking food steeped in Southern culinary traditions to create a new cuisine. The food they’re making has several diverse influences including the demographic shifts created by the Great Migration nationwide, post 1965 immigration to the U.S., the “Black is Beautiful” movement and the rise of “Foodie” culture. Here is a short list of some of the women working in this evolving tradition:

·         Jocelyn Delk Adams: Baker, author of “Grandbaby Cakes” and creator of Grandbaby Cakes blog.

·         Christine Arel: Creator of No Goji, No Glory blog and freelance food writer.

·         Erika Council: Creator of the Southern Soufflé blog.

·         Angela Davis: Creator of The Kitchenista Diaries blog and personal chef.

·         Tanya Holland: Chef and owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen, and author of “Brown Sugar Kitchen: New-Style Down-Home Recipes from Sweet West Oakland.”

·         Demetra Overton: Personal chef and creator of Sweet Savant blog.

·         Nicole A. Taylor: Author of “The Up South Cookbook: Chasing Dixie in a Brooklyn Kitchen,” principal of NAT Media, and creator of the Food Culturist.

·         Sanura Weathers: Creator of My Life Runs on Food blog and freelance food writer.