11 Facts About Edna Lewis

Edna Regina Lewis was a renowned American chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking.

Edna Lewis wrote and co-wrote four books which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants.

Edna Lewis's father died in 1928 when she was 12, and at 16 she left Freetown on her own and joined the Great Migration north.

When Edna Lewis left Freetown she moved to Washington, DC, and eventually to New York City in her early 30s.

At some point, between DC and New York City, Edna Lewis married Steven Kingston, a retired Merchant Marine cook and a Communist.

Edna Lewis had never ironed and lasted three hours before she was dismissed.

Edna Lewis had experience in sewing and soon found work as a seamstress.

In 1948 on 58th Street, in East Side Manhattan, Nicholson opened Cafe Nicholson with Edna Lewis as cook, which became an instant success among bohemians and artists.

At the Cafe, Edna Lewis served a neat menu of simple, Southern inspired dishes, including a chocolate souffle, for which she was known.

Edna Lewis opened and closed her own restaurant, catered for friends and acquaintances, taught cooking lessons, and even became a docent in the Hall of African Peoples in the American Museum of Natural History.

In 1986 Edna Lewis adopted a young adult, Dr Afeworki Paulos, after he arrived from Eritrea to study in the United States.