These leading chefs won’t let Atlanta forget Edna Lewis

Justin Dixon, chef and owner of Humble Mumble sandwich shop, has contributed various dishes, from starters to desserts, for all three of the previous annual Edna Lewis Sunday Suppers.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution leading up to the two-seating dinner event planned for Sunday, Feb. 22, Dixon admitted he was proud to prepare the main entree for the first time. Saying he wanted his course to represent an elevated take on Southern cuisine, he decided it would be Cheerwine-glazed duck breast with creamy Logan Turnpike grits, braised turnips and pot likker.

“It gives off the essence of, you know, regality,” Dixon said of his dish. “I feel like that’s the essence of her.”

Chef Justin Dixon, shown outside his Midtown Atlanta sandwich shop Humble Mumble, has contributed various dishes for all three of the Edna Lewis Sunday Suppers. (Courtesy of Alphonso Whitfield)

The Edna Lewis Sunday Supper is in its fourth year of celebrating the life and legacy of Lewis, a pioneering Black chef considered a matriarch of not just Black food but Southern cooking.

Born in 1916 and raised on a family farm in Virginia, Lewis began her career in New York City as a seamstress. While her sewing talent attracted celebrity clientele like Marilyn Monroe, Lewis herself became renowned for hosting salon-style dinner parties where she’d prepare dishes she learned to cook growing up in the South.

In 1948, she opened a 30-seat restaurant in Manhattan called Café Nicholson, which served Southern staples like fried chicken, she-crab soup, country ham and biscuits. Needless to say, she turned New York City out. Café Nicholson became a storied hangout, regularly hosting elites like Eleanor Roosevelt, Salvador Dalí and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Born in 1916 and raised on a family farm in Virginia, chef Edna Lewis began her career in New York City as a seamstress. (Courtesy)

Through Café Nicholson and her time leading the kitchen at New York’s iconic restaurant Gage & Tollner, at the age of 72, Lewis introduced many traditionally Southern dishes to Northeastern diners. She also influenced what’s now known as “farm-to-table” cuisine, focusing intensely on seasonality and advocating for the use and enjoyment of fresh vegetables in all cooking. Revolutionary at the time, her idea has taken hold throughout the U.S.

Lewis lived for several years in Decatur, working with her good friend chef Scott Peacock of Horseradish Grill and Watershed to document her recipes. Chef Matt Marcus, owner of Truth Be Told, worked under Peacock at Watershed and met Lewis in his formative years. Marcus now owns several items formerly belonging to Lewis, including recipes and vintage pie tins.

“It shows up in every single thing that I do,” Marcus said of Lewis’ influence on his style of cooking. “There is a constant underlying understanding of tasting raw product, putting your hands in the dirt, feeling, cooking with your hands — just being involved … with the food at every level.”

Matt Marcus, executive chef at Truth Be Told, met Edna Lewis in his formative years. “If Edna ever me taught me anything, it’s good food knows no bounds,” he says. (Courtesy of Lauren Lynn/Truth Be Told)

Marcus said he, too, likes that Atlanta has recurring opportunities to learn more about Lewis.

“If Edna ever me taught me anything, it’s good food knows no bounds,” he said.

Many culinarians, including Dixon and other affiliates of Stolen Goods, an Atlanta-based crew of mostly Black chefs and people of color, believe Lewis should be a household name.

“I mean, if you think about it, she is to the South what Alice Waters is to the West Coast,” Dixon said.

Sunday’s dinner will highlight Africa’s influence on American cuisine and culture, and its diversity across the diaspora. But it’s all through a lens of appreciation for this Southern matriarch of American food, according to Stolen Goods founder Max Hines, executive chef of Breaker Breaker.

Chef Max Hines is the founder of Stolen Goods, an Atlanta-based chef collective. “If you enjoy food in the South, and they’re cooking with intention and seasonal, then there’s probably a little bit of Edna Lewis in there,” he says. (Courtesy of Alphonso Whitfield)

“I don’t think you could look at Southern cooking without her being a part of that conversation; that’s no matter what color you are,” Hines said in an AJC interview. “If you enjoy food in the South, and they’re cooking with intention and seasonal, then there’s probably a little bit of Edna Lewis in there.”

Hines is preparing the first course of the dinner: roasted sweet potato mezzaluna with crispy Brussels sprouts, salsa macha and Parmesan cheese. He said the dinner is particularly meaningful in a city like Atlanta.

“If you look at some of the members of Stolen Goods and other chefs, they’ve taken what we would consider soul food and given it more international influences. I feel like that’s Atlanta. That’s Buford Highway. That’s the Civil Rights Movement. That’s the melting pot, and that’s why it makes sense for it to be here,” Hines said.

Diners enjoy the third Edna Lewis Sunday Supper, held in 2024 at Bread & Butterfly in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood. (Courtesy of Alphonso Whitfield)

In addition to Hines’ pasta and Dixon’s Cheerwine duck, the menu will also feature contributions from chefs Cleophus Heathington Jr., now executive chef at Los Angeles restaurant Lucia, and Demetrius Brown, owner of Bread & Butterfly, where the dinner will be held.

An optional beverage pairing from mixologist Keyatta Mincey is also available at additional cost. Mincey said all guests will receive a complimentary welcome beverage: bourbon punch made with Black-owned Edmond’s Honor bourbon whiskey, cocoa nibs, hibiscus, rose hips and cinnamon.

The Edna Lewis Sunday Supper is in its fourth year of celebrating the life and legacy of Lewis, a pioneering Black chef considered a matriarch of not just Black food but Southern cooking. (Courtesy of Alphonso Whitfield)

Mincey hopes the family-style dinner brings people of different backgrounds to the same table.

“I’m really hoping that there are people in the room that are not Black because I really feel like it’s the time where non-Black people need to see that we’re out here just trying to live and be who we are. We don’t hate anybody. We always want people to be a part of what we’re doing,” she said. “Try something new.”