Black Chefs Who Have Changed the Way We Eat

Mar 27, 2023 12:00PM ● By Boitumelo Masihleho

Before 2018, Black chefs had gone 17 years without winning in any of the best chef or outstanding restaurant categories of the James Beard Awards — the Oscars of the restaurant industry. In 2019 and 2020, six Black chefs won in those categories. A rapidly-growing number of chefs and culinary experts are fighting to break down racial barriers in the food industry and make their mark on American cuisine. We’re sharing Black chefs, both past and present, who broke barriers by achieving firsts, penning top-selling cookbooks, earning nominations for awards, and more in the competitive world of food.

Robert W. Lee

Many Black chefs stand on the shoulders of Robert W. Lee. He started cooking at seven and refined his skills in some of the best hotels in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. A wealthy chef benefactor brought Lee to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1939 to be executive chef at the Harrisburger Hotel. There, he created the menus and trained hundreds of Black chefs. During WWII, Lee received a medal from former president Franklin D. Roosevelt for teaching many troops to cook as a mess sergeant and instructor.

Mariya Russell

Mariya Russell is the first Black woman ever to receive a Michelin star in September 2019 while working as a chef at Kumiko and Kikkō. She specializes in plates authentically showcasing Japan’s rich technique, ingredients, and flavors. Her contribution to the restaurant’s success has contributed to winning the Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Restaurant Award. Russell moved to Chicago and studied at The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, graduating in 2008.

Edna Lewis

Born in a small farming settlement of formerly enslaved people and their descendants in Virginia, Edna Lewis became a cook in New York City in the late 1930s. Still, she didn’t achieve fame until 1976, when she wrote her book The Taste of Country Cooking. The cookbook shared traditional Southern recipes, stories, and information about Southern and African-American food, and it helped cement her reputation as the Grand Dame of Southern Cooking. She returned to restaurants in the late 1980s, leaving her mark at historic restaurants, including Fearrington House in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn, which recently reopened with several homages to her influence on the menu.

Patrick Clark

Patrick Clark was the first black chef to win a James Beard best chef award, which he took home for the mid-Atlantic region in 1994. Following this massive accomplishment, Clark was offered the position of executive chef at Tavern on the Green, one of the country's most successful restaurants at the time. Clark then took over the kitchen of Washington, D.C.'s prestigious Hay-Adams Hotel, which led to him later catering meals at the White House. His 1998 obituary names him one of America's most beloved chefs.

Lazarus Lynch

In 2021, Lazarus Lynch became the first Black, queer chef to cook at the Met Gala, but that’s far from his only achievement. He is a two-time Chopped champion, hosting Snapchat’s first-ever cooking show, Chopped U, and the Food Network digital series Comfort Nation. His website was a 2017 Saveur Blog Awards nominee. Lynch is the founder of the culinary brand Son of a Southern Chef and the author of the cookbook Son of a Southern Chef: Cook with Soul. In 2021, he released his debut album, Sanctuary, a tribute to his upbringing in the church and embracing his authentic identity. Lynch wrote and recorded the theme music to the Busy Being Black podcast and scored original compositions for Reebok.

Kwame Onwuachi

After winning Top Chef season 13, Kwame Onwuachi was ready to change the world of food forever. In 2019, he published a memoir titled Notes From a Young Black Chef. His resume is incomparable as he has been named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs, Esquire Magazine's 2019 Chef of the Year, the TIME 100 Next 2019 List, and is a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes. Raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana, Onwuachi was first exposed to cooking by his mother in the family's modest Bronx apartment. After training at the Culinary Institute of America, he opened five restaurants before age thirty, including the groundbreaking Afro-Caribbean restaurant Kith/Kin in Washington, D.C.

Barbara Smith

The first Black woman to be elected to the Culinary Institute of America board, Barbara Smith worked her whole life to break racial barriers as a model and later as a famous restaurateur. Smith’s cookbooks, restaurants, home collection line, and weekly TV show made her a lifestyle icon. In 2012, her advocacy for healthy living helped bring culturally diverse food to the Armed Forces. Often called the black Martha Stewart, Smith translated her sense of style into a series of books on cooking and entertaining, a syndicated weekly television show on NBC, a bedding, tableware, and bath products collection for Bed Bath & Beyond, and a furniture line for the La-Z-Boy company that mingled African and Asian elements.

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Ainsley Harriott

Ainsley Harriott is a British chef and television presenter. He is known for his BBC cooking game shows Can't Cook, Won't Cook, and Ready Steady Cook. Harriott is a best-selling author, publishing twelve books and numerous others in conjunction with his television shows. Including foreign-language translations, he has sold over 2 million books worldwide.

Carla Hall

Carla Hall won over the audience by participating in the cooking contest and emission Top Chef. While modeling in Europe, the Nashville native fell in love with food, and she decided to become a chef, blending classic French techniques with Southern influence. From 2011 to 2018, she co-hosted ABC’s food-focused talk show The Chew, and she brought her Southern favorites, mainly fried chicken, to Brooklyn in 2016 with Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen, which sadly closed a year later. She remains one of the most familiar faces on food TV, most recently hosting Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America and Best Baker in America.

William Chilila

Celebrating his unique Zambian, South African, Ghanaian, and British heritage, Will’s menus are a joyous extension of his infectious personality: playful, gregarious, and instantly likable. In 2020, he went on to head up the kitchen at the West African fine dining restaurant Akoko. He is now working on new projects to fully realize his passion for bringing the cuisine of his homeland to a broader audience. Will has a number of new projects on the go, including a West African-inspired burger brand Chale.

Omari McQueen

Omari McQueen is the youngest award-winning vegan chef in the UK and the CEO and founder of Dipalicious. Omari started Dipalicious at eight years old, after posting a YouTube channell where he filmed himself making his very own vegan pizza. Omari now has a selection of dips, snacks, juice packs, and seasoning and saving for his very own bus-converted restaurant and his balanced pre-prepared vegan meals for children. He has won three notable awards: TruLittle Hero Award for being the Entrepreneur Hero under twelve 2018 by Cause4Children Ltd, the Compassionate Kids award for using his entrepreneurial flair to help animals, and the Proud and Gifted Award in recognition of being a vegan chef and a youth empowerment speaker encouraging other children to become entrepreneurs.

Vusi Ndlovu

Vusi Ndlovu is a young dynamic chef based in Johannesburg. His progressive cuisine has pushed people to explore the boundaries of dishes they thought they would never eat. He worked as a private chef for a well-known businessman for a short period but preferred the social side of the kitchen and returned to The Saxon where he decided to start having some fun with food and experimenting. It was here that he made his award-winning duck dish using skills, techniques, and flavor combinations learned from his tenure in Belgium. Vusi was named one of the top seven in the San Pellegrino Best Young Chef – and the number 1 young chef in Africa and the Middle East.

Leah Chase

Leah Chase, also known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, was the executive chef and co-owner of the Dooky Chase's Restaurant in New Orleans, one of the most historic restaurants in America. Chase has received many awards both for her culinary genius and her community service including the coveted New Orleans Times Picayune 1997 Loving Cup Award, the University of New Orleans Entrepreneurship Award, the Outstanding Woman Award from the National Council of Negro Women, and numerous honors from the NAACP. Chase fed her creole cuisine to many important figures, including U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. She received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement award in 2016 for her lifetime body of work, which had a positive and lasting impact on the way people ate, cooked, and thought about food in New Orleans.

Jason Howard

Born in Barbados, chef Jason Howard is now based in London and specializes in modern Caribbean cuisine, combining his love of native Caribbean ingredients with his classical French training gained as sous chef to Helene Darroze at the two Michelin-starred Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. With over 18 years of experience and studying the art, Howard’s plating techniques have certainly created a beautiful and remarkable memory to the eye and palate, serving you with an experience like never before.

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Boitumelo Masihleho is a South African digital content creator. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Rhodes University in Journalism and Media Studies and Politics and International Studies. She's an experienced multimedia journalist who is committed to writing balanced, informative and interesting stories on a number of topics. Boitumelo has her own YouTube channel where she shares her love for affordable beauty and lifestyle content.