Leah Chase

Leah Chase ran Dooky Chase's in New Orleans for over sixty years. She fed the Freedom Riders in a room where interracial meetings were illegal. She fed Ray Charles, James Baldwin, the Obamas, and the neighborhood. She elevated Creole cooking into a serious, written, teachable cuisine.

Her gumbo z'herbes at Lent is a dish that belongs on any honest list of the great dishes of American cooking.