Chef Edna

March 15, 2023
Grades K-3 This picture-book biography celebrates the life of Edna Lewis, queen of Southern cooking. Edna grew up in Virginia, milking the cows, chasing the chickens, and learning how to cook from her mama. At 15, she moved to New York City and became a seamstress. Soon she was famous for her clothes--both those she made for movie stars and the traditional African outfits she created for herself. But Edna's real love was cooking. She missed the family gatherings back home, so she started cooking, Southern-style, for her city friends. This led to a restaurant and other ventures that won numerous awards. The wonderfully detailed illustrations create vivid scenarios that help impart an overall tone of warm hospitality and celebration, shown outdoors at a picnic table in Virginia or in Edna's ritzy restaurant on the Upper East Side. Back matter includes an author's note, sources, and a recipe for Edna's biscuits. This tribute to a dedicated champion of traditional Southern food and culture makes a wonderful read-aloud.

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May 1, 2023
Chef Edna Lewis (1916�? 2006) brought Southern cooking to the forefront of American cuisine. Growing up in Freetown, Virginia, a place founded by her grandfather and other formerly enslaved people, Edna helped Mama Daisy make meals. With fresh fish in spring, summer garden vegetables, sweet potatoes in fall, and biscuits year-round, Edna and her mother fed their family and community. When she was fifteen, Edna moved to New York, working odd jobs such as typing and answering phones to help support her family. Her work as a seamstress was what got her noticed, however, and she was soon designing and sewing clothes for celebrities. As her star rose in the social circles of New York, she began to host and cater parties using Mama Daisy's recipes, and her food became as famous as her dress designs. She eventually opened her own Manhattan restaurant, where socialites wondered which culinary school in Paris she'd attended. "Her Paris was Freetown, the flavors of home passed down from one generation to the next." Noel makes frequent use of fragmented sentences to punctuate the methodical effort of Edna's work ("Ironing. Cleaning. Cooking. Sending the money she earned back home"). Cabrera's vivid paintings are equally at home depicting the glamour of New York society and the closeness of Freetown's community. Appended with an author's note, additional resources, and a recipe for biscuits. Eboni Njoku

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
Chef Edna Lewis (1916�? 2006) brought Southern cooking to the forefront of American cuisine. Growing up in Freetown, Virginia, a place founded by her grandfather and other formerly enslaved people, Edna helped Mama Daisy make meals. With fresh fish in spring, summer garden vegetables, sweet potatoes in fall, and biscuits year-round, Edna and her mother fed their family and community. When she was fifteen, Edna moved to New York, working odd jobs such as typing and answering phones to help support her family. Her work as a seamstress was what got her noticed, however, and she was soon designing and sewing clothes for celebrities. As her star rose in the social circles of New York, she began to host and cater parties using Mama Daisy's recipes, and her food became as famous as her dress designs. She eventually opened her own Manhattan restaurant, where socialites wondered which culinary school in Paris she'd attended. "Her Paris was Freetown, the flavors of home passed down from one generation to the next." Noel make s frequent use of fragmented sentences to punctuate the methodical effort of Edna's work ("Ironing. Cleaning. Cooking. Sending the money she earned back home"). Cabrera's vivid paintings are equally at home depicting the glamour of New York society and the closeness of Freetown's community. Appended with an author's note, additional resources, and a recipe for biscuits.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)