Edna Lewis was recently honored with the issuance of a postal stamp by
the US Post Office. She is renowned as one of the greatest American
chefs and as an African-American woman who almost single handedly
revived a forgotten world of refined Southern cooking. Another
celebrated American chef, James Beard, remarked: "Edna Lewis makes me
want to go right into the kitchen and start cooking." Lewis won many
industry awards and was often referred to as "the Grande Dame of
Southern Cooking" and the "South's answer to Julia Child." Lewis
(1916-2006) also had a remarkable life story. She was born and grew up
in rural Virginia in an area called Freetown. She learned to cook from
an extended family that included grandparents who had been enslaved. The
Edna Lewis Cookbook, Lewis's first book, published in 1972, contains
over 100 recipes, arranged in menu form and organized according to the
season of the year: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Christmas. With its
focus mostly although not exclusively on Southern food, it began the
revival of true Southern cooking. Lewis went on to publish three more
books: The Taste of Country Cooking (1976), In Pursuit of Flavor (1988),
and The Gift of Southern Cooking, co-authored with Scott Peacock (2003).
Her menus and recipes were featured in a variety of publications,
including the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the
Washington Post, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Cook's, House & Garden, and
Redbook, among others. This edition of The Edna Lewis Cookbook marks the
100th Anniversary of Miss Lewis's birth. Evangeline Peterson studied
with Edna Lewis and assisted her in compiling The Edna Lewis Cookbook.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE
