In a very real sense, Lena Richards helped defined New Orleans and Louisiana cuisine in the twentieth century.

Richard, an #African American, operated several New Orleans restaurants beginning in the 1920s. She also ran a catering business and, in the 1930s, a cooking school. She was a television cooking show pioneer; WDSU featured her program from 1947-49. Through the intercession of James Beard, Houghton Mifflin published Richards’ New Orleans Cook Book in 1939.

article found @http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/text/cookbooks.html