A seamstress by trade, Lewis was known for her exquisite dresses, both for “society ladies” such as Dorcas Avedon (then wife of famed photographer Richard Avedon) and Marilyn Monroe, but became known even better for her African-themed dresses.
Later she turned her love of cooking into a new career: she became a chef at a New York restaurant, which became a hit. She stayed on for several years before quitting to work on her farm. After breaking her leg in the 1970s, she spent her time writing, putting down her recipes and thoughts about Southern-style cooking. The Edna Lewis Cookbook * was her first effort.
Her second, The Taste of Country Cooking, published in 1976, “may well be the most entertaining regional cookbook in America” said a New York Times book critic. Her cookbooks “revived the nearly forgotten genre of refined Southern cooking while offering a glimpse into African-American farm life in the early 20th century,” the Times said. With her new-found popularity as a cookbook author, Lewis went back to restaurant work and later founded the Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food. In 1999 the Southern Foodways Alliance gave her its first lifetime achievement award. Miss Lewis, as she liked to be called, died at her Georgia home in her sleep on February 13. She was 89.