Rufus Estes

Illustration by Brittanie Mitchell

Rufus Estes was born in Tennessee to a family of ten, him being the youngest, however due to the Civil War he was separated from his siblings for the most part. Wanting to take care of his mother he started working at the age of ten doing odd jobs for white families, and by the time he was a teenager he’d started working in kitchens including Hemphill’s Restaurant in Nashville. Rufus went on to become one of the first Black chefs to write an extensive collection of recipes and memories related to cooking in his book Good Things to Eat.