In all of the places I have had the good fortune of living in around this country, I have never seen a community more committed to a wide variety of causes like I have here in Savannah. From the tremendous turn out they get every April for Susan G. Komen to the popularity of any number of smaller events that pop up across the landscape. They all raise a ton of money. The community rallies. I have mentioned that in this space before, but it happens to be true. When there is a great cause, the Coastal Empire rallies. Every time. I’m about a share a cause and a vision that you may have never heard of. And, yes, it has everything to do with fantastic food.
Are you familiar with Edna Lewis?
By many accounts, Edna Lewis was one of the first people to bring true “Southern Cooking” to the big city of New York. The granddaughter of a freed slave, Ms. Lewis moved to New York City at the age of 16. By 1950 she was a cook at one most popular spots in Midtown Manhattan. In the early 70s she wrote, and had published, “The Taste of Country Cooking” a book considered a classic among Southern cookbooks. Edna Lewis was, without question, a pioneer in her field. She was the first African American Celebrity Chef.
These days it seems, everyone is a celebrity chef. It doesn’t matter if you are on television for 5 minutes or 5 years. No question, it’s a sign of the times. Everyone with a cell phone and a Snap Chat account wants to be the next big thing. On the other side, you have a generation of chefs, cooks and ‘worker bees’ who are trying to be the best they can be in the kitchen. That is where all of this comes together courtesy of Savannah Chef Joe Randall, with a little help from his friends, of course.
The Edna Lewis Foundation was created in 2012 by Chef Joe and a few other chefs to support and promote culinary talent in the African American community. “We felt like there wasn’t enough recognition of chefs of color.” Chef Joe tells me. “We felt like we could help them and at the same time expose the contributions that Edna made to food in the South.” The Foundation initially had a few board members. “The people that helped me create this were all chefs.” He says. “We put on some great fundraising dinners in Atlanta and Chicago and they all showed up. But that was all they could offer us.”
For the better part of the last four years the Foundation has existed, raised a little bit of money along the way but hasn’t really picked up steam like they had hoped. “We put on seminars in Atlanta for some chefs.” Joe says. “We taught them how to market themselves. How to write press releases.” “How is anyone going to know what you are doing if you don’t tell them?” He adds. A little over a year ago, The Grey’s Executive Chef Mashama Bailey got involved along with her business partner and owner of the The Grey John Morisano. They held a fundraiser last year and were able to collect about $5,000. This year, the plan has changed rather dramatically. For the fundraiser, for the Foundation, for the cause.
There are new board members, including Mr. Morisano and Chef Mashama. Other board members are in Atlanta and New York City. Chef Joe Randall remains the Chair. The short-term goal is to build an infrastructure that the Foundation really hasn’t had to this point. Building infrastructure, heck building anything, takes money. Money all parties involved have committed to raising. “I was doing it all myself.” Joe says. “But we need an Executive Director to handle the day to day operations for the Foundation.”
The first step right now is a big ol’ Savannah style party. The Grey is hosting another event on Monday, September 12th as something of an introduction to the restructured Edna Lewis Foundation. Last year’s event was a sit down dinner with courses prepare by visiting chefs from across the South. This year’s fundraiser will still feature Mashama and visiting chefs, but will be more of a mixer with fantastic food in every corner of the restaurant. Chefs in attendance will include Duane Nutter formerly of One Flew South inside of Atlanta’s airport. Chef Duane is starting a new venture in Mobile, Alabama. Other names include Chicago’s Paul Fehnibach and Orlando’s Bernard Carmouche, a phenomenal talent and a great guy I had the pleasure or working with for a few months when he opened Emeril Lagassee’s spot at Universal Studios once upon a time. The list of talent is wonderful, undoubtedly the food will be as well. The entire evening is a bargain at $100.
Of course, at the end of the day, it is a fundraiser. $100 is a minimum requested donation to attend this event in one of Savannah’s most beautiful settings. The goal is to raise much more than the $5,000 they collected last year. This time around they are shooting for $100,000 by year’s end. That money will go toward hiring that Executive Director and setting the Foundation on a path toward realizing a five-year goal. That is to have, perhaps, an Edna Lewis House in Atlanta that would pay tribute to Ms. Lewis. All the while assisting and promoting African American talent in the culinary field.
It won’t be easy. They knew this before they started on the journey. But in talking to Chef Joe about where they are in the growth of the Foundation versus where they were a few years ago, it’s almost like he feels 2016-2017 is a real launching point toward realizing what the Edna Lewis Foundation can be down the road. Not only to those that were inspired by Ms. Lewis, like Chef Mashama Bailey, but to those that are coming up the ranks that don’t know her legacy and should.
They are calling this night, simply “An Evening of Good Cheer and Good Food” to purchase tickets, please click here.
See you on TV,
Jesse
