When I imagine my dream kitchen, I see a simple, 1970s-style kitchen that reminds me of my childhood. But rather than seeing my mother, aunts, and sisters, I am there as part of a constellation of other Black women like me, drawn to the legacy of Edna Lewis.
Carla Hall, the chef, television host, and cookbook author, slides corn kernels from their cobs while the lima beans she shelled earlier simmer on the stove. Mashama Bailey, chef and partner at The Grey in Savannah, Georgia, and L’Arrêt by The Grey in Paris, dredges chicken in a mix of seasoned flour. 2024 F&W Best New Chef Erika Council, owner and chef of Bomb Biscuit Co. in Atlanta, blends flour and butter with practiced hands. Lana Lagomarsini, Top Chef contestant and chef-owner of Creola, an intimate New York City supper club, cuts through garden tomatoes that glisten like rubies. And I spread a thick batter into a pan and toss strawberries with sugar and liqueur. My tabbed and pencil-marked copy of The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis is open on the counter, and together we’re conjuring a feast inspired by Lewis’ description of Sunday Revival dinners, annual summertime church reunions celebrating freedom, food, family, and friends.
Every ingredient is at its peak — the poultry fresh and young, the corn just picked and sweet, the strawberries still sun-warm and fragrant. We taste and talk in an easy rhythm. There’s a feeling of mutual respect that I treasure, one that comes from a shared understanding of what it means to cook seasonally and confidently in a kitchen among fellow Black women…