Re-Thinking Soup honors chef and author Edna Lewis, (1916-2006) long considered an African American trailblazer in the culinary world. Ms. Lewis co-owned and cooked at Café Nicholson, a restaurant in New York City, renown for its fabulous cuisine and frequented by bohemians and artists throughout the 1940s and 50s. During the mid-twentieth century, female chefs were few and far between and black female chefs were a rarity. And yet Edna Lewis became well known and beloved for her creative, resourceful and delicious Southern cooking, a style that can be traced to her early life on her family’s farm in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia.

Chef Kocoa Scott-Winbush will read excerpts of Chef Edna’s writings from two of her highly acclaimed cookbooks, The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Flavor. Readings will be paired with the violin virtuosity of Samuel “Savoirfaire” Williams, a local, classically trained jazz violinist.

Join us for a Lewis soup recipe, dramatic readings and soothing sounds, all to warm your soul on a February afternoon.

More information here.