Biography
Lena Richard was a chef, cookbook author, restaurateur, frozen food entrepreneur, and television host from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1949, Richard became the first Black woman to host her own television cooking show.
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Lena Richard was a chef, cookbook author, restaurateur, frozen food entrepreneur, and television host from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1949, Richard became the first Black woman to host her own television cooking show. Her show aired from October 1949 - November 1950 on local television station WDSU.
Not only was Richard the first Black person to host a television cooking show and to write a Creole cookbook, but she also owned three popular restaurants, established a line of frozen foods, and founded a catering company and cooking school. In 1937 she established a cooking school, where she tested her recipes and provided Black students with the skills to open their own businesses. Among her specialties were crawfish bisque, turtle soup, potato pancakes, stewed eggs and oysters, a 16-pound fruitcake, and lamb chops with pineapple. She began receiving so many requests for her recipes that she published “Lena Richard’s Cook Book” in 1939. (It was later republished as “New Orleans Cook Book.) The book — dedicated to Alice Vairin, who had died in 1931 — included traditional recipes from other Black cooks who influenced Creole cuisine.
She toured the country to promote her cookbook, selling 700 copies priced at $2 each in one month. The book went beyond Southern cuisine to include recipes for chocolate waffles, asparagus sandwiches and tea dainties. Richard quickly catapulted to fame in the culinary world. She was hired as the head chef at the Bird and Bottle Inn in Garrison, N.Y., and at Travis House in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. In 1945, she set up her frozen food business, shipping stews, okra gumbo and other dishes from New Orleans to New York, California and Panama. In 1949 Richard opened Lena Richard’s Gumbo House across the street from a white neighborhood. Known as Mama Lena to her customers, she served 54 gallons of gumbo a week on 12 tables covered with white tablecloths and, defying segregation laws, served Black and white patrons, including the white priest and parishioners from the nearby Holy Ghost Catholic Church. In 1950, Lena died of a heart attack at her home in New Orleans. She was 58. Richard’s legacy lives on as people continue to use her recipes today.
- Lifespan
- 1892-1950
- Nationality
- American
- Occupations
- Chef, Entrepreneur, Television host
- Era
- 20th Century
- Born
- 1892 Reviewed
- Died
- 1950 Reviewed
- Tags
- American, 20th Century, Chef, Entrepreneur, Television host
- Themes
- Arts and Culture, Global History