The Legacy of Edna Lewis

Edna Lewis was a chef, teacher and writer who profoundly shaped American culinary identity by preserving and elevating Southern cooking traditions to new heights, yet still rooted in seasonal and local ingredients.

Born in Virginia in 1916, Edna broke barriers as a Black woman in fine dining, influencing generations of chefs to honour authenticity, culture, and storytelling in cuisine. Through her restaurant work and books she documented and celebrated the foodways of rural Black communities, and embodied the values of regional heritage and nose-to-tail, farm-to-table practices long before they became trends.

Fifty years on from the publication of Edna Lewis’s seminal work, The Taste of Country Cooking, chef, author, and broadcaster Andi Oliver and guests explore Edna's legacy and her influence upon modern cookery across the globe.

The event begins with a screening of Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary Finding Edna Lewis, after which Andi is joined by celebrated food writer Felicity Cloake, journalist and culinary historian Deb Freeman, who hosted and executive produced the documentary, and Lewis’s niece Nina Williams-Mbengue, who typed the manuscript for The Taste of Country Cooking at age 12 and chef and facilitator Safiya Robinson in an event that explores and celebrates Lewis’s extraordinary impact upon the way we cook and eat today.