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Known as the "Queen of Creole Cuisine," Leyah "Leah" Lange Chase has fed Quincy Jones, Jesse Jackson, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Ray Charles, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and countless others as Executive Chef of Dooky Chase's Restaurant - one of the best-known and most culturally significant restaurants in New Orleans. Leah Chase has more recently served as the inspiration for Princess Tiana in Disney's Princess and the Frog.
Born on January 6, 1923 in New Orleans, Chase was one of 14 children. She was raised in nearby Madisonville, LA. At the time, there were no catholic high schools for black girls in Madisonville, so after sixth grade, Chase moved to New Orleans to live with an aunt so that she could attend school. After high school, her favorite job was waiting tables in the French Quarter. It was here that she developed her love for food and feeding others.
In 1945, she met local musician Edgar "Dooky" Chase Jr., whose father had opened a street corner stand selling lottery tickets and his wife's homemade po'boy sandwiches. The couple married in 1946 and eventually took over the business, which had become a sit-down restaurant and a favorite local gathering place.
In a town deeply divided by segregation, the Dooky Chase Restaurant was one of the only public places in New Orleans where mixed race groups could meet to discuss strategy for the local Civil Rights Movement. Such gatherings were illegal through most of the 1960s, but Dooky Chase's was so popular it would have caused a public uproar if local law enforcement had interrupted the meetings. Black voter registration campaign organizers, the NAACP, backdoor political meetings and countless others often found a home at Dooky Chase's, and Leah cooked for them all.
Chase is also a patron of art and her collection - displayed on the walls of her restaurant - was at one time considered New Orleans' best collection of African American art. She served on the board of the New Orleans Museum of Fine Arts until her death, and she has even testified before Congress to lobby for greater funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has participated in countless political campaigns and has used her culinary talents and celebrity status to raise money for a myriad of charities and services. Her cookbooks, including The Dooky Chase Cookbook, And Still I Cook, and Leah Chase: Listen, I Say Like This, are popular and have received great praise among her most famous colleagues.
Chase has received many awards, including multiple awards from the NAACP, the New Orleans Times-Picayune 1997 Loving Cup Award, the Weiss Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Outstanding Woman Award from the National Council of Negro Women. Chase was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2010. She was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance in 2000. Chase received honorary degrees from Tulane University, Dillard University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Madonna College, Loyola University New Orleans, and Johnson & Wales University. She is also the recipient of the Francis Anthony Drexel Medal, the highest award presented to an individual by Xavier University of Louisiana. The medal is not presented annually. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana named a permanent gallery in Chase's honor in 2009. She also serves on many boards, including the Arts Council of New Orleans, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Urban League. She is member of the Women of The Storm and the International Women's Forum. She has four children, sixteen grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren.
Many were attracted to her warmth and mastery of culinary arts, that to this day still excite the minds of those she served. Ray Charles sang about her, and National and International Presidents have sought her out, but in all her ability to excite the palates of Leaders she has remained steadfast in her ministry to all.
