The Culinary Legacy of Leah Chase
The late chef and owner of Dooky Chase’s restaurant in New Orleans changed the landscape of African American cuisine.
It has become common practice to baptize one and all as “icons” and “activists.” Leah Chase, the legendary chef of New Orleans’s famed Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, was indeed both at a time before today’s reduction of the terms. Chase, who died on June 1 at the age of 96, quietly changed the culinary and political culture of New Orleans with her work, leaving behind a rich legacy of African American innovation and civil-rights leadership. I met
