Top 12+ Black Chefs Who Have Changed the Way We Eat
Alexander Smalls
Chef Alexander Smalls also has bragging rights as a Grammy and Tony Award winner from his days as an acclaimed opera singer. This food visionary makes cuisine and music with equal passion and ingenuity. His Afro-Asian-American edibles seem so right, it's as if they always existed. Smalls also turns Low Country fare into highfalutin cuisine, all with a nod to the South Carolina heritage and music that inspired him.
Robert W. Lee
So many Black chefs stand on the shoulders of Robert W. Lee. He started cooking at 7 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 FDR for teaching so many troops to cook in his role as mess sergeant and instructor.
Barbara "B." Smith
B. Smith initially broke racial barriers in modeling and later as a successful restaurateur and the first Black woman elected to the Culinary Institute of America board. 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.
Deborah VanTrece
Although Southern food was popularized by Black women, the Atlanta restaurant scene has been dominated by white men. Deborah VanTrece is attempting to change this through her restaurants Edible Art and Twisted Soul, which she runs with her wife and daughter. The award-winning chef has been featured on the Food Network and several leading food publications.
