Jill DeGroff - Chef Edna Lewis

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Price: $950.00

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Producer	Jill DeGroff
Country	USA
Item Type	Artwork
Sku	JD0034

By Jill DeGroff
Acrylic on canvas 20" x 40"

Portrait of Edna Lewis with Sunflowers

Edna Lewis was born in 1916 in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia. One of eight children, she lived with her family in a small community of emancipated slaves that her grandfather helped to create. Growing, foraging and harvesting their own food, most of the members of Freetown cultivated their own cooking ingredients.

Along with her friend John Nicholson, Lewis opened and became the head chef of Café Nicholson in 1949. Located on the East Side of Manhattan, this French-inspired restaurant became a staple for artists and celebrities such as Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Greta Garbo, Salvador Dali, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

After suffering a broken leg, Lewis wrote The Edna Lewis Cookbook in 1972. Her second cookbook was a collaboration with Judith Jones, who also edited books for Julia Child. The Taste of Country Cooking, published in 1976. Lewis wrote about pure and fresh ingredients, annual Emancipation Day picnics, and the smells of celebratory meals. It was full of her childhood stories, southern cultural traditions, and African American heritage.

It also started a wave of cookbooks released that celebrated the diversity of southern cuisine. Lewis released third cookbook In Pursuit of Flavor was published in 1988. A few months before her 90th birthday, Dr. Edna Lewis passed away from cancer in 2006.

Excerpted from article about Edna Lewis (1916-2006)
by Kerri Lee Alexander, National Women's History Museum

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