Introducing the interesting and insightful Dwynesha Lavigne
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dwynesha Lavigne. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dwynesha below.
Hi Dwynesha, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with important influences in our lives. Is there a historical figure you look up to? One of the historical figures I look up to is Chef Lena Richard. I was first introduced to Chef Richard in 2017 by Elizabeth Williams founder of The Southern Food and Beverage Museum. At our introduction Richard had been deceased for over 65 years. Doing research and speaking with historians I tried to find out as much information about her as I could. Looking at how successful she was over her short lifetime was nothing but impressive. Lena Richard was a chef, cookbook author, restaurant and eatery owner, frozen food entrepreneur, and hosted the first cooking segments live on television from New Orleans, Louisiana. Chef Lena has taught me resilience, dedication, determination, and grit. Lena Richard was a black woman who loved food, her family, her community and she grew up in New Orleans just like me. The greatest heights of her career all happened during segregation and in the Jim Crow South. Her determination has truly been an inspiration in my life and has kept me moving forward to change history and the legacy I will leave for the next Black women not just here in New Orleans but in the world.
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The Black Creole Chef Who Paved the Way for Food TV
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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.
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A new cooking school opens at SOFAB
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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— Deelightful Roux, a new cooking school at Southern Food & Beverage Museum (SOFAB) is celebrating its grand opening on February 1st.
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Chef Dee Lavigne Expands The Only Black-Owned Cooking School In New Orleans
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Deelightful Roux School of Cooking is the only African American-owned cooking school taught by a New Orleans native, and her class is a guide to New Orleans’ food culture.
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The Life of Chef Lena Richard, a culinary giant who broke barriers
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NEW ORLEANS —New Orleans is known for its delicious food, but do you know the chefs behind those delicious recipes? One culinary giant who paved the way, but is often left in the shadows, is Lena Richard. The first, known African-American to host a culinary cooking TV show in the U.S. and it aired on WDSU.
