Published originally in KCRW in March of 2025.
By Evan Kleiman
Influential Southern chef Edna Lewis finally gets the documentary she deserves
That scene we filmed at Middleton Place, which, as you said, Miss Lewis actually cooked at, as she was hired to recreate plantation cooking and plantation food. That was really interesting to shoot, because, as you said, it was incredibly emotional. Once you set foot on the property, it’s very, I think “heavy” is probably the word that I would use. Everyone from the crew to Amethyst Ganaway, who was our guest during that segment, every single person just felt this overwhelming presence of just… I’m not into spooky things, but people who were there before. I don’t quite know how else to explain it.
Getting through that interview was definitely challenging because we’re not just speaking to Miss Lewis, we’re also speaking to the enslaved people who came before, and who worked where we were sitting. It was incredibly important to shoot there but it was also incredibly difficult.
Not only did she work there at the restaurant, she actually lived on the premises. So she would walk from the millhouse to the restaurant, to and fro every single day. One of the things that I kept thinking about was, “What was that like? What did that mean for her?” She’s the granddaughter of enslaved people to basically not only work but live and work where those sort of atrocities were going on every single day. So it really was very weighty. But I think it is an important thing to know, not only just in her life, but in the film as well.
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Influential Southern chef Edna Lewis finally gets the documentary she deserves
