Chef Dee Lavigne is following in Chef Lena Richard's footsteps
In February of 2022, Chef Dwynesha “Dee” Lavigne founded Deelightful Roux School of Cooking, following in the footsteps of her heroine, the late Chef Lena Richard. It’s been over eighty years since a Black woman has owned a cooking school in New Orleans, ever since Richard closed hers—the first—to pursue opportunities in New York City in the 1940s.
Richard’s remarkable career as a chef, cookbook author, restaurateur, frozen food entrepreneur, and cooking school operator set the standard for New Orleans cuisine and Creole cooking during the first half of the twentieth century—a time when Black people, especially Black women, faced the historic oppression and obstacles of the Jim Crow South. In 1939, she self-published New Orleans Cook Book, the first Creole cookbook written by a Black person—which was later republished by Houghton-Mifflin. In 1949, Richard became the first Black woman to host a television cooking show, Lena Richard’s New Orleans Cook Book, altering the perception of Creole food by highlighting its Black roots. Her show, taped at WDSU in New Orleans, preceded Julia Child’s The French Chef by over a decade and challenged the perceptions of wealthy white families who watched her (the ones who could own a television), who were used to Black women’s presence in the kitchen solely as domestic workers.
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By last year, Chef Dwynesha “Dee” Lavigne, a lifelong cook, was already a well-established culinary presence in New Orleans. She had worked in the industry for years, owned a pastry business and hosted a periodic cooking segment on WWL-TV.
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Chef Dee Lavigne is following in Chef Lena Richard's footsteps
December 22, 2022
In February of 2022, Chef Dwynesha “Dee” Lavigne founded Deelightful Roux School of Cooking, following in the footsteps of her heroine, the late Chef Lena Richard. It’s been over eighty years since a Black woman has owned a cooking school in New Orleans, ever since Richard closed hers—the first—to pursue opportunities in New York City in the 1940s.
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Chef Dee Lavigne learned to cook at the age of seven. After a brief career in accountancy, she decided to ditch the world of spreadsheets and focus on her true passion: food. Now she runs the first African American-owned cooking school New Orleans has seen in over 80 years, whipping up Cajun and Creole classics for hungry travellers.
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The Black Creole Chef Who Paved the Way for Food TV
May 19, 2022
A belated celebration of Lena Richard. In 1949 — more than a decade before Julia Child’s television debut — a boisterous Creole chef put on a cook’s uniform and made history.
