The legacy of Edna Lewis, the renowned African American chef celebrated as the “grande dame of Southern cooking,” will be explored in a new docuseries produced by VPM and Field Studio. “Finding Edna Lewis,” set to premiere on July 19, will delve into Lewis’ profound impact on American culinary history through eight monthly episodes hosted by Style Weekly food editor Deb Freeman.

The docuseries will consist of seven-minute episodes released on VPM’s YouTube channel, wherein Freeman, who also hosts the acclaimed African American cuisine podcast “Setting the Table,” speaks to various guests and cooks Lewis’ recipes alongside them.

Prior to Lewis, there had been a narrower definition of Southern food, consisting of the likes of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and barbeque, Freeman explained. But everyday Southern food actually depended more on ingredients growing at certain times of the year.

“Her cookbooks really changed that percep- tion,” Freeman said. “Particularly, ‘In Pursuit of Flavor,’ in my opinion, really talked about seasonality of cooking and why certain things were made at certain times of the year.” 

The first episode will see Freeman talk to Leah Branch, executive chef of The Roosevelt, a popular Richmond restaurant in Church Hill.

Born in 1916 in Freetown, a small Virginia community that her grandparents helped build after emancipation, Lewis learned creativity and resourcefulness that would influence her

later ventures, including being the head chef of French-inspired restaurant Café Nicholson in

New York City’s Manhattan borough in 1949, according to the National Women’s History

Museum.

Chef Joseph Randall, founder of the African American Chefs Hall of Fame and a friend of Lewis, explained that Lewis was passionate about recognizing African American culinary contributions. He noted that since the era of slavery, there had been a pattern of white people appropriating recipes from African Americans without proper attribution in cookbooks.

Lewis released several cookbooks of her own over the years, including “The Edna Lewis Cookbook” (1972), “The Taste of Country Cooking” (1976), “In Pursuit of Flavor” (1988) and “The Gift of Southern Cooking” (2003). In them, she would unapologetically talk about her life and background in Freetown, Freeman said.

For “The Taste of Country Cooking,” Lewis worked with renowned editor Judith Jones, who had also worked with Julia Child, said Paige Newman, curator at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

“They seemed to have such a good relationship,” Newman said. “Jones made space for Edna to really tell her story and have that focus be from a Black female perspective.”

The episodes will be compiled into a one-hour special for television broadcast next year.