Chef Edna

This picture-book biography follows Edna Lewis from her childhood on a farm in Freetown, Virginia, where Mama Daisy taught her to value food that was fresh, nearby, and in season. She also learned practical kitchen knowledge, from using coins to portion biscuit ingredients to judging cakes by sound. The book traces Lewis’s path as an African American culinary figure whose Southern food traditions reached New York City and a wider public.