Learn about the chef with the longest career who inspired the Disney princess Tiana!
At the dining tables of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, dozens of famous faces have eaten Leah Chase’s (USA) food: from Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, singers like Nat King Cole and Ray Charles, and writers and revolutionaries such as James Baldwin and Thurgood Marshall.
Through the years, and no matter who came in the door, Leah was ready to serve them some of her classic Creole cuisine – using the flavours of New Orleans and the resilient culture of Black America to define the dining experience as patrons devoured her gumbo and shrimp clemenceau, and stared at arguably the best collection of African-American art in Louisiana.
Leah was the driving force behind Dooky Chase’s for 72 years, working right until her death in 2019 at the age of 96 – making her the Guinness World Records title holder for the longest career as a chef (female). But thanks to the long, dedicated hours she put in at the kitchen, the legacy of Creole cuisine was forever changed because of the award-winning chef, who uplifted and invested in her community up until the very end.
The determined girl was born in Madisonville, Louisiana on 6 January 1923, where she lived until the sixth grade, when she moved to New Orleans since her hometown had no schools for African-Americans past that age.
Described as exceptionally smart, Leah graduated high school at the age of 16 and started working at a restaurant in the French Quarter, which inspired a love for cooking that she would maintain for her entire life.
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In 1945, she married jazz musician Edgar "Dooky" Chase II, whose parents owned a sandwich shop in the Treme, one of America’s oldest African-American neighbourhoods. Leah began working there after her children went to school, helping her husband take over the stand and converting it into Dooky Chase's Restaurant, a fine-dining establishment that served the Black community while other segregated upscale eateries turned them away.
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant soon became an important spot for the Civil Rights Movement, as diners discussed culture and politics while Leah served food to activists, the Freedom Riders, and even Martin Luther King, Jr.
The restaurant was also notable because of Leah’s impeccable choice of art, which is displayed all across the walls and demonstrated her commitment to showcasing African-American artists. For someone who had never stepped foot into an art museum until they were 54 years old, according to the New York Times, she was a passionate collector, who spent her (albeit limited) free time sitting on the board of the New Orleans Museum of Art.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005, the family was miraculously lucky, and even though the restaurant flooded and their lives were upheaved – everyone was okay, and somehow the water damage did not reach Leah’s fabulous collection.
And while the restaurant was being rebuilt, Dooky and Leah lived in FEMA trailers parked across the street from their place, always keeping a careful eye on the establishment that they loved so dearly.
In 2009, Leah’s incredible career inspired the first Black princess in a Disney movie, the character of Tiana in Princess and the Frog, the hard-working waitress who dreams of opening her own restaurant.
And even as Leah’s fame as a chef and restaurateur increased – as she won awards such as the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and numerous honours from the NAACP – her friends and family say her grounded demeanor and unending curiosity never changed.
She remained in the kitchen until the very end, when she passed away at the age of 96 at her son’s home just nearby the restaurant where she put in her life’s work. Her husband Dooky preceded her in 2016 at the age of 88, and the pair are survived by three children, 16 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and one incredible restaurant.
Header image: Bill Haber/Associated Press/Alamy