Chase, Leah
1923-2019 · Contribution: 1941-2019
"Queen of Creole Cuisine" who built Dooky Chase's Restaurant in New Orleans into a civil-rights meeting place and fine-dining landmark; James Beard Lifetime Achievement honoree (2016) and the inspiration for Princess Tiana, Disney's first Black princess
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Known as the 'Queen of Creole Cuisine,' Chase turned her New Orleans restaurant into one of the few places where Black civil rights organizers could safely meet and plan strategy during the movement, and her life story inspired Disney's Princess Tiana, the first Black Disney princess, in the 2009 film 'The Princess and the Frog.'
Life & background
A chef and civil rights figure, Chase built Dooky Chase's Restaurant in New Orleans into both a culinary destination for Creole cuisine and a vital meeting place where civil rights organizers could plan activism in a period when most restaurants in the city would not serve Black patrons together with white allies. Her life and restaurant later served as the inspiration for Disney's Princess Tiana, making her story the basis for the studio's first Black princess character.
Sources
- National Geographic; Southern Foodways Alliance; James Beard Foundation
More in Household & Domestic Inventions
Alexander, Nathaniel
unknown
Improved folding chair with a pivoting, integrated book rest, designed for churches, Sunday schools, auditoriums, and choirs
Ammons, Virgie
1908-2000
Fireplace throat damper
Ashbourne, Alexander P.
c.1820-1915
Spring-loaded biscuit/cake cutter (hinged molding board with interchangeable shaped plates to cut a whole batch at once); pioneering processes for refining, treating, and preparing coconut oil for domestic use
Bailey, Leonard C.
1825-1918
Folding cabinet bed (U.S. Patent 629,286, 1899), adopted by the U.S. Army; also patented an Army-adopted hernia truss and a rapid mail-stamping machine, and co-founded Washington's Capitol Savings Bank