User:Sedoug/sandbox

Lena Richard grew up the daughter of a servant in upper class New Orleans society. She went on to become a very accomplished chef after her employers sent her to a cooking school first in New Orleans and then in Boston. She opened her own business as a caterer, then a sweet shop and cooked at the Orleans club. She then went forward and opened a cooking school in 1937. Her cooking school had a higher purpose than it may seem, she wanted to create a foundation for men and women to be capable of cooking and serving for any occasion, create an appreciation for the art of food and also put them in a position to be able to demand higher wages because of their skill. Richard relocated to New York for a short while then upon returning to a still segregated New Orleans, Richard opened an eatery in which she served both black and white clientele. In the last part of her life Lena had her own cooking show on WDSU which aired every week, this made her one of the first black women to ever have their own show. She died shortly after, in 1950.