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Leah Chase Biography

Leah Chase was a New Orleans chef, author, and television personality. She was known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, and she advocates both African-American art and Creole cooking.

Her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was known as a gathering place during the 1960s among many who participated in the Civil Rights Movement and was known as a gallery due to its extensive African-American art collection.

In 2018 it was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food and Wine.

She has been the recipient of a multitude of awards and honors. In her 2002 biography, Chase’s awards and honors occupy over two pages.

Leah was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America in 2010. She was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance in 2000.

She received honorary degrees from Tulane University, Dillard University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Madonna College, Loyola University New Orleans, and Johnson & Wales University. Chase was awarded Times-Picayune Loving Cup Award in 1997.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana named a permanent gallery in Chase’s honor in 2009.

Leah Chase Age

Leah Chase was born on January 6. 1923 was a New Orleans chef, author, and television personality.

She was known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, and she advocates both African-American art and Creole cooking. She died on June 1. 2019 at an age of 96 years old.

Leah Chase Death

Chef Leah Chase, civil rights activist and legendary ‘Queen of Creole Cuisine,’ dies at age 96

She fed presidents and Freedom Riders. She broke New Orleans’ segregation laws by seating black and white patrons together. And she helped mend the country’s divisions, one meal at a time.

In her seven-decade culinary career, Leah Chase did far more than introduce thousands to Creole cuisine.

The chef and civil rights activist died Saturday, her family said. She was 96 years old.
“Leah Chase, lovingly referred to as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, was the executive chef and co-owner of the historic and legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant,” her family said in a written statement.

“Her daily joy was not simply cooking, but preparing meals to bring people together. One of her most prized contributions was advocating for the Civil Rights Movement through feeding those on the front lines of the struggle for human dignity.

She saw her role and that of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant to serve as a vehicle for social change during a difficult time in our country’s history.”

‘We gonna do like we do on the other side of town’

Born and raised in Louisiana during the segregated Jim Crow era, Chase worked as a server in New Orleans’ French Quarter in the early ’40s.

After she married local jazz musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr. in 1946, the couple took over his father’s bustling sandwich shop in the predominantly black neighborhood of Treme.

They transformed it into an elegant sit-down Creole restaurant and African American art gallery — something virtually unheard of during a time of rare black-owned businesses.

Chase drew upon her childhood in Madisonville, Louisiana and her years as a server in New Orleans to reshape the restaurant.

Even though her family was poor, the finery came out on Sundays.

“On Sunday we did have a white tablecloth and napkins, and we had that fried chicken and the baked macaroni, so Sunday was what you looked forward to,” Chase told CNN last year.

She wanted to bring those traditions to Dooky Chase’s, as well as some of the customs she observed in French Quarter restaurants.

There would be no ketchup bottles on the table. “When I came I said, ‘No, we gonna do like we do on the other side of town. We gonna change things,’ ” she said. “That took a lot of doing, but we did it, and I insist on service.”

In the 1960s, Dooky Chase’s became one of the few public places acceptable for races to mix while mapping strategy during the civil rights movement — including black voter registration, NAACP meetings, and other political gatherings.

Activists had a safe haven at Chase’s restaurant.

“Nobody bothered them once they were in here. The police never ever bothered us here,” she said. “So they would meet and they would plan to go out, do what they had to do, come back — all over a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken.”

She inspired a Disney character

Chase’s talent and contributions led to a mountain of accolades, including from the prestigious James Beard Foundation, the NAACP, and Southern Foodways Alliance.

Leah Chase fed Quincy Jones, Jesse Jackson, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, Ray Charles and presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum has a permanent gallery named after Chase.

The chef even inspired the character Princess Tiana in Disney’s 2009 movie “The Princess and the Frog.”
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Chase left a profound legacy.

“She was a culture-bearer in the truest sense,” Cantrell tweeted. “We are poorer for her loss, and richer for having known and having loved her. She will be badly missed.” News adopted from CNN.

Leah Chase Funeral Arrangements Announced: Report

The family of chef Leah Chase Monday night (June 3) announced details of her funeral arrangements, according to a report from WWL-TV.

A public viewing will be held Saturday in the Xavier University Convocation Center, 7910 Storelitz St., from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and will be followed by a program to celebrate Mrs. Chase’s life at 6 p.m.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held noon Monday at the St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, 1923 St. Phillip Street. Visitation will be from (8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.), followed immediately by the Rosary.

Seating at the church is limited, WWL reported.

Leah Chase Family

She was born to Catholic Creole parents in New Orleans and grew up Madisonville, Louisiana. her’s dad was a caulker at the Jahncke Shipyard and her grandmother was a registered nurse and midwife.

She was one of 11 children. Leah was six years old when the Great Depression struck and later recollected surviving on the produce.

They grew themselves—okra, peas, greens—and clothes made of sacks that had held rice and flour. The kids helped cultivate the land, especially on the 20-acre strawberry farm her father’s family owned, which “The 96 years old” describes as forming an integral part of her knowledge of food.

Her family made the announcement late Saturday night, releasing the following statement:

The Chase family’s statement mourning beloved chef Leah Chase’s death

“Mrs. Chase was a strong and selfless matriarch. Her daily joy was not simply cooking, but preparing meals to bring people together,” the family said.

“The Chase family is heartbroken to share the news that our Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother, Leah Chase, passed away surrounded by her family on June 1. 2019.

Leah Chase, lovingly referred to as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, was the executive chef and co-owner of the historic and legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant.

She was a major supporter of cultural and visual arts and an unwavering advocate for civil liberties and full inclusion of all. She was a proud entrepreneur, a believer in the Spirit of New Orleans and the goodwill of all people, and an extraordinary woman of faith.

Leah Chase Husband | Leah Chase Children

She married musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase II in 1946. They have 3 daughters Stella Reese Chase, Emily Chase Haydel, and Edgar Chase III.

She also has sixteen grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren. They have one son called Leah Chase-Kamata.

Chase started working in the kitchen at the restaurant during the 1950s, and over time, Leah and Dooky took over the stand and converted it into a sit-down establishment.

Leah Chase Net Worth

After high school, Chase held many jobs involving managing two amateur boxers and became the first woman to mark the racehorse board for a local bookie.

Chase’s favorite job was working as a waitress at the Colonial Restaurant in the French Quarter in New Orleans. She has an estimated net worth of $14.7 million dollars as of 2019.

Dooky Chase Prices

Dooky’s offers a delicious lunch buffet that changes daily. You can always find New Orleans’ staples such as red beans and rice and hot sausage on the buffet.

On Fridays, we offer shrimp and lima beans instead of the red beans. You may also order Creole favorites such as Gumbo, Poor Boys, Shrimp Clemenceau, and Stuffed Shrimp.

Friday Nights

Our “regular” menu features those Dooky Chase favorites like Fried Chicken, Shrimp Clemenceau, Chicken Creole, and Stuffed Shrimp

The Dooky Chase Cookbook

Delectable Creole recipes from both the restaurant menu and personal files. She spices her cookbook with stories that reflect her Creole heritage and document the origin of various recipes.

Leah Chase Menu

Tuesday – Friday (lunch)

Dooky’s offers a delicious lunch buffet that changes daily.

You can always find New Orleans’ staples such as red beans and rice and hot sausage on the buffet.

On Fridays, we offer shrimp and lima beans instead of the red beans.

You may also order Creole favorites such as Gumbo, Poor Boys, Shrimp Clemenceau, and Stuffed Shrimp.

Friday Nights

Our “regular” menu features those Dooky Chase favorites like Fried Chicken, Shrimp Clemenceau, Chicken Creole, and Stuffed Shrimp.

The Culinary Legacy of Leah Chase

The late chef and owner of Dooky Chase’s restaurant in New Orleans changed the landscape of African American cuisine.

It has become common practice to baptize one and all as “icons” and “activists.” Leah Chase, the legendary chef of New Orleans’s famed Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, was indeed both at a time before today’s reduction of the terms.

Chase, who died on June 1 at the age of 96, quietly changed the culinary and political culture of New Orleans with her work, leaving behind a rich legacy of African American innovation and civil-rights leadership.

I met Chase for the first time more than 25 years ago, and always reveled in her company.

She had an insatiable curiosity about food and loved to go to the city’s new restaurants as soon as they opened. There is a hole in the fabric of New Orleans, but it is smaller than the one in my heart.

Dooky Chase History

‘Dooky’ Chase Jr., a husband of Leah Chase, patriarch of Chase family, dies at 88years old.

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., husband of Leah Chase and patriarch of the Dooky Chase restaurant family, has died.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu confirmed his death on Twitter.

Leah husband restaurant in Treme is world famous, thanks to the hard work of Dooky Chase Jr. and his wife, Leah. It’s known for classic Creole cuisine and African-American art.

“Dookie” Chase Jr. married Leah Chase in 1946, according to the restaurant’s website. He was also known as a popular musician who fronted the Dooky Chase Orchestra that performed throughout the city during the 1940s. Dooky Chase Sr. opened Dooky Restaurant in 1941.

It started in 1939 as a sandwich shop and place to buy lottery tickets and eventually blossomed into a renowned Creole eatery.

Leah Chase Recipes

The 10 Dishes That Made My Career: Leah Chase

Talking to the 96-year-old grand dame of the historic Dooky Chase restaurant offers a glimpse into what New Orleans cuisine is all about.

“Lemonade,” in which the silver-haired Creole matriarch looks dignified in a throne-like chair and stares deeply into the camera.

The restaurant is less than two miles from the heart of the French Quarter, but in a neighborhood where New Orleanians live, not where visitors tend to explore.

Why is she so important to this city? Leah Chase cooks New Orleans food, supports New Orleans causes, and exemplifies New Orleans values. She was like a grandmother to the whole city.

For more than 70 of those years, Leah has been at the helm of that kitchen, where she serves a very personal combination of typical Southern food “fried chicken, greens, fried catfish”, Creole specialties (red beans, shrimp Creole, redfish court bouillon), and her own brand of fare” butter fried quail with grits, stewed turtle, leg of lamb with okra”.

Leah Chase Restaurant

Leah Chase, famed New Orleans chef who fed civil rights leaders, dies

NEW ORLEANS – Legendary New Orleans chef Leah Chase always had problems when customers asked if she served “soul food.” Well, that would depend on where your soul was, she’d say. If it was in China, she couldn’t really help you.

But if your soul was in New Orleans, well that was different.

“If your soul is in New Orleans, I know what to give you,” Chase said during an interview. “I’m going to give you some jambalaya. I can give you some stewed chicken. I can give you some shrimp Creole.”

Chase, who fed generations of New Orleanians and tourists alike at Dooky Chase’s restaurant, died Saturday. She was 96.

Chase’s family released a statement to news outlets Saturday night, sharing that the woman they called a “believer in the Spirit of New Orleans” died surrounded by family.

“Her daily joy was not simply cooking, but preparing meals to bring people together,” the family’s statement read. “One of her most prized contributions was advocating for the Civil Rights Movement through feeding those on the front lines of the struggle for human dignity.”

Leah Chase transformed the restaurant bearing — like her husband — her father-in-law’s name from a sandwich shop where black patrons could buy lottery tickets to a refined restaurant where tourists, athletes, musicians — and even presidents — of all races dined.

Chase’s determination propelled her from a girl with a small-town Louisiana upbringing to a celebrated chef who authored cookbooks, appeared on cooking shows and fed civil rights greats such as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr.

Well into her 90s, Chase could be found every day at the restaurant, using a walker while greeting customers and supervising the kitchen.

“I love people and I love serving people. It’s fun for me to serve people. Because sometimes people will come in and they’re tired. And just a little plate of food will make people happy,” she said during a 2015 interview with The Associated Press.

At a time when other black Creole women were working in the city’s garment industry, Chase worked as a waitress in the French Quarter, which exposed her to the segregated city’s pricey restaurants frequented by white people.

When she married Dooky Chase in 1946, his family restaurant had been open for five years — largely under the guidance of his mother.

But Leah Chase wanted to make it a fine dining experience for black patrons, along the lines of what she had seen in the Quarter. Gradually, she introduced silverware on the table, tablecloths and Creole dishes.

“I said well why we can’t have that for our people? Why we can’t have a nice space? So I started trying to do different things,” she said.

Dooky Chase’s became known as a place where white and black civil rights activists could meet and strategize about voter registration drives or legal cases.

Although Chase and her husband were breaking the law by allowing whites and blacks to eat together, police never raided the restaurant.

“I love people and I love serving people. It’s fun for me to serve people. Because sometimes people will come in and they’re tired. And just a little plate of food will make people happy.”

She would also send food to jailed civil rights leaders, sniffing her nose at the notion of them eating prison food.

Sybil Morial, a longtime friend of Chase’s, said she’s eaten hundreds of meals at Dooky Chase’s where she was courted by her late husband and the city’s first black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial.

On visits to New Orleans, Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers would work with Morial’s husband and NAACP lawyer, A.P. Tureaud, and then head to Dooky’s for lunch or dinner.

“It was a haven for them to refresh themselves with wonderful gumbo and it was a place where they could strategize after a hard day’s work,” Morial said.

Chase never boasted about her works, saying simply that she did what she thought she had to do.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 devastated her restaurant, where 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water lingered in the dining room for weeks. When the waters eventually receded, mold was everywhere.

Chase was already into her 80s, but there was little question regarding the restaurant’s fate. Having evacuated to Birmingham, she and her husband returned to live in a FEMA trailer next to the restaurant for months, while they rebuilt Dooky Chase’s.

She and her husband had been married for seven decades when he died in 2016.

Her food always reflected her city, a Creole mixture of Spanish, French, African and other cultures that have influenced New Orleans. She also enjoyed new culinary influences in the city, like the growing number of Vietnamese and Jamaican restaurants.

With the exception of two photographs of former President Barack Obama, the restaurant has little evidence of the celebrities and dignitaries who came to eat. Instead of surrounding herself with the past, Chase tended to look forward.

“I want to do better,” she said. “I want to have the finest restaurant with the finest food. That’s all I want.”

2301 Orleans Avenue New Orleans La

Dooky’s Restaurant opened its doors for business in 1941.

What was initially a sandwich shop and lottery ticket outlet in 1939 blossomed into a thriving bar and later a respected family restaurant in Treme.

Founded by Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., Chase’s Restaurant soon became the meeting place for music and entertainment, civil rights, and culture in New Orleans.

Today his’s remains family owned and operated. After Hurricane Katrina Dooky’s did close for two years to rebuild, but with the assistance of many, Dooky ’s remains the premier restaurant for authentic Creole Cuisine

The Chase Family enjoys serving its regular customers, tourists, and locals. They also remain a stopping place for politicians, musicians, visual artists, and literary giants.

Chase’s has had the pleasure of serving both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, Hank Aaron, Ernest Gaines, Bill Cosby,

Leah Chase Chef | Why Did Leah Chase Become A Chef

After she got married to local musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., whose father had opened a street corner stand selling lottery tickets and his wife’s homemade po’boy sandwiches.

Eventually, they took over the business, which by then had become a sit-down restaurant and a favorite local gathering place.

In a town deeply divided by segregation, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant was one of the only public places in New Orleans where mixed-race groups could meet to discuss strategy for the local Civil Rights Movement.

Although such gatherings were illegal through most of the 1960s, Chase’s was so popular; it would have caused a public uproar if local law enforcement had interrupted the meetings.

Black voter registration campaign organizers, the NAACP, backdoor political meetings and countless others often found a home at Dooky ’s, and Leah cooked for them all.

Leah Chase Quotes

Chase Top Four Most Famous Quotes

“You’ve got to live life to the fullest. You just enjoy every beautiful thing there is to enjoy.” …
“You worry too much about what goes into your mouth and not enough about what comes out of it.” …
“Everyone can cook. …
“I tell people all the time, you have to be in love with that pot.

Leah Chase CBS News

Remembering Leah Chase, the “Queen of Creole Cuisine”

The city of New Orleans and the culinary world are remembering legendary chef Leah Chase, who died Saturday at age 96. She was known as the “Queen of Creole Cuisine,” and her palace was the famed New Orleans restaurant Dooky Chase’s, which she ran for more than seven decades.

“If I wouldn’t come in this kitchen every day, I think I would be miserable,” she told “CBS This Morning Saturday” co-host Michelle Miller in 2015.

Chase was a giant in the culinary world whose signature dishes of Louisiana gumbo, southern fried chicken, and shrimp Clemenceau brought her worldwide fame.

But there was so much more than food that made her an American legend. One of her most famous sayings was: “To be a woman, you have to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog.”

It’s memorialized on a mural in New Orleans — advice from her mother she says she carried with her throughout her life.

Born in 1923, Chase started out as a waitress in the French Quarter before marrying Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., a musician whose parents ran a small sandwich shop. Leah took over and transformed it into a fine dining restaurant for African Americans in the 1950s.

Miller asked Chase in 2015, “What did this place mean?”

“This was like a safe haven for all of us,” she replied.

During the civil rights era, Chase broke segregation laws by providing a space for both black and white activists to meet.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Dooky Chase’s. “People said, ‘What are you gonna do at your age?’” Chase recalled. “There was only one thing for me to do.”

She reopened the restaurant two years later. “No matter what you do on this earth, you have to do it well,” she said.

Ray Charles sang about her, and she even served as the inspiration behind Disney’s first African American princess, Tiana, in the animated “The Princess and the Frog.”

Her customers included Martin Luther King Jr., and two U.S. presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, whom Chase had to chastise.

She recalled: “He ordered the gumbo. The first thing he does, he takes the hot sauce [and pours it] in the gumbo. ‘Mr. Obama, you don’t put hot sauce in my gumbo, you don’t do that!’”

In 2016, Chase received a lifetime achievement award from the James Beard Foundation for creating food that changed the course of history for good.

In the recent PBS documentary “Leah Chase: The Queen of Creole Cuisine,” Chase said, “In this restaurant, in some ways, we really changed the course of America, and I’d say we changed the course of America over a bowl of gumbo.”

Leah Chase Farewell

New Orleans bids a final farewell to Leah Chase with funeral Mass, second-lines

New Orleans said a final goodbye to Leah Chase, its queen of Creole cuisine, on Monday (June 10) in a day filled with nods to her passions: family, faith and food.

Friends and well-wishers stood in a line that snaked around the corner of St. Peter Claver Church on St. Phillip Street to pay their respects to Chase, who died June 1 at 96.

The visitation was followed by recitation of the rosary and a Mass at noon.

In a tribute before Mass, Mayor LaToya Cantrell called Chase “not only a real woman of God, but a matriarch, not only of the Chase family but of the city of New Orleans.”

Chase was a “beautiful soul” with a spirit of humility, compassion, and empathy, Cantrell said, calling her “a true culture bearer for our beloved city.”

“She served presidents and celebrities. We know that. She served generations of locals and business owners. She served us all — she did.”

Cantrell recalled the plentiful advice that Chase gave her throughout her political career: “Sometimes I find myself saying what would Leah do, instead of what would Jesus do…. She had the faith of a mustard seed. She was a tough piece of leather that was truly well put together.”

Cantrell presented a key to the city to the Chase family, recalling that Chase unlocked and opened doors all her life.

Leah Chase’s son, Edgar “Dooky” Chase III, recalled his mother’s time growing up in segregated Madisonville, where as part of a large and faithful family, she lived through the death of two siblings, the Depression and World War II.

“God guided Leah to become an iconic example of justice and compassion for all,” he said, describing her life as “magical, almost dreamlike.”

His mother, who was named Leyah by her parents, “Americanized her name to Leah and began to believe she could do anything a man could do and do it much better.”

He described her evolution into a businesswoman, an arts patron, and a civic leader, recalling that how at her well-attended 75th birthday celebration at the New Orleans Museum of Art, his mother said, “I owe so many people for this honor that I will have to work another 20 years to pay it back. Well, she did.

“Mother comprehended gratitude as the actionable equivalent of love,” he said.

As she lay dying, he said he wished he could take her on a tour of New Orleans and this country so she could once more see the strides that had been made in her lifetime.

Deacon John performed a stirring rendition of “There Will be Peace in the Valley” in the packed church, where several pews had been set aside for New Orleans chefs, some of whom — Alon Shaya of Saba restaurant, John Folse of John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux, Nina Compton of Compere Lapin, Leon West of the American Culinary Federation and Joe Randall of Savannah, Georgia — wore their white chef jackets.

After Mass, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and trumpeter Terence Blanchard played “I’ll Fly Away,” leading the family and mourners out of the church.

The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club then led a dirge second-line to Dooky Chase’s restaurant, where Chase and her husband, who died in 2016, fed civil rights leaders, musicians, celebrities and U.S. presidents.

Chase’s grandchildren lay flowers at the business and then the family gathered for a private burial at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.

After the burial, the family rejoined with the public in another, more joyful, second-line along Esplanade Avenue and into New Orleans City Park, where everyone was invited to join the family for food and drink behind the New Orleans Museum of Art.

At the service for his mother earlier that afternoon, Edgar “Dooky” Chase III had encouraged those at in attendance to come to the repast that afternoon.

“We will feed you,” he said. “However, the mother will not with us physically, but the face of her soul will be all aglow.”

Leah Chase gets a heartfelt tribute as New Orleans says goodbye

Since her death on June 1 at age 96, New Orleanians have honored Chase with second-lines, touching personal stories on social media and through public tributes in newspapers, on TV and radio.

Leah Chase Singer | Leah Chase Musician

The daughter of trumpeter and bandleader Dookie Chase and restaurateur and namesake Leah Chase, vocalist Leah Chase grew up surrounded by music and undoubtedly good food.

She cites her father’s love of jazz and her mother’s penchant for vocalists like Johnny Mathis as influencing her musical preferences – jazz and ballads.

As a child, she became aware of her vocal abilities after winning praise for performance and thereafter she was often called on to sing at various events.

Chase joined the high school choir at Xavier Prep and studied voice and piano at Xavier University Junior School of Music. Singing in the New Orleans Recreation Department Theater’s production of Hallelujah Baby offered her further experience.

She considers her first “professional” gigs as singing pop hits with a group called Market and also portraying a “woman of the blues” in a Las Vegas-type show.

While Chase was majoring in classical voice at Loyola University, where she earned a degree in vocal performance, she also participated in the jazz band.

The mezzo-soprano went on to study classically at the Julliard School of Music but after a year, she says she realized that the style “wasn’t where I think I live.”

It was the late 1970s when Chase came back home and got a job at the Chateau Sonesta, where she spent a year doing what she describes as a cabaret show. When her pianist, Craig Fisher, decided to head to California she went, too.

During her 12 years on the West Coast, she had the opportunity to sing more jazz. “I’m most comfortable with jazz,” she says. “I like the freedom you have to create.”

After the sudden death of her sister in ’90, Chase returned to New Orleans to help out at her mother’s restaurant, Dookie Chase, “It was time to come back – it was good to have my daughter around family.”

She got back into singing again when Dolores Marsalis, the wife of pianist Ellis Marsalis, asked if she would perform at a program for St. Mary’s High School. Afterward, Dolores said, “You really ought to be doing this.”

She has been back on the scene ever since, leading groups filled with New Orleans’ finest. Chase is also an adjunct professor at Loyola and Tulane universities and the University of New Orleans, as well as being involved with Delfeayo Marsalis’ children’s theatre program.

She is a staple of the New Orleans music fabric, performing with such luminaries as Michael Pellera, Philip Manuel, Harry Shearer, Jesse Boyd, Larry Sieberth, Matt Lemmler, and Ed Petersen.

She can be heard at the Windsor Court Hotel, Sweet Lorraine’s, Snug Harbor, and notable festivals such as the French Quarter Fest and the Jazz and Heritage Festival.

After Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, she, along with pianists David Torkanowski and Tom McDermott and clarinetist Evan Christopher was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to perform in Paris and throughout France.

Her sense of humor blends with her inimitable stagecraft and vocal skills, rending her one of jazz’s most sought-after vocalists.

Leah Chase FOX NEWS

Creole cuisine queen Leah Chase gets New Orleans sendoff

NEW ORLEANS – For celebrated Creole chef Leah Chase, the goodbye had all the ingredients of a typical New Orleans sendoff: warm reminiscences and mourning mixed with a Mardi Gras-style celebration of her life.

Fellow chefs, musicians, family, and friends were among hundreds who filed through a New Orleans church on Monday to pay last respects to Leah Chase, who ran a family restaurant where civil rights strategies were discussed over gumbo and fried chicken in the 1950s and ’60s. She died June 1 at age 96.

The rosary and funeral Mass at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church was marked by the spirited gospel from the choir and a soulful rendition of “Peace in the Valley” from longtime New Orleans musician and singer Deacon John.

“Today is Leah’s last freedom ride,” her son Edgar said.

Afterward, a brass band, pallbearers and members of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club slow-walked beside her hearse as it drove the few blocks to Dooky Chase’s restaurant — her last trip to the place where she earned renown as a chef, civil rights icon and patron of the arts.

Dirges gave way to an upbeat “I’ll Fly Away” and, as the procession approached, vendors sold snacks, water, beer and cocktails from streetside trailers or ice chests on wagons.

Before the funeral, Ti Martin, co-proprietor of Commander’s Palace restaurant and a member of New Orleans’ famed Brennan family of restaurateurs, stood in a line that snaked around the block.

She was among a diverse crowd that included politicians, notable chefs, and musicians, including Marsalis family patriarch Ellis Marsalis.

“I don’t know if God realizes he’s about to gain 20 pounds,” Martin joked, “I can count on one hand the number of people who inspire me as much as this lady. And I wouldn’t need all my fingers.”

“I started eating in the restaurant in the ’60s when I was a little kid,” recalled Jonathan Bloom of New Orleans, who said his mother was a friend of Leah Chase.

State Sen. J.P. Morrell said he met and learned from an older generation of politicians while sitting at Dooky Chase’s — and heard a multitude of stories. “It took very little to prompt her to go into very lengthy stories about all the different people,” Morrell recalled. “She remembered and shook hands with every single person that came through her restaurant.”

“It’s impossible to overstate what she meant to our city,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a rosary service ahead of a midday Mass.

The mournful-turned-festive march to Dooky Chase’s was followed by a motorcade to a local cemetery. After that, there was to be a traditional New Orleans “second line” parade — with watchers falling in behind the procession — to the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Monday’s was the last in a series of goodbyes to Chase. A brass band led a parade by the restaurant last Monday, and a public memorial was held at Xavier University on Saturday.

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant Changes

After Leah Chase’s death, these changes are coming to Dooky Chase’s Restaurant

The Chase family has some changes in store for their landmark Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, including expanded hours, a larger menu and the restoration of a room that played an important role in New Orleans history.

They’re confident Leah Chase would have approved. After all, the beloved New Orleans chef and family matriarch, who died Saturday at age 96, had been urging them to pursue these projects for years.

“Some things will change, but they’re changes that began with her,” said Stella Chase Reese, the late chef’s daughter, and longtime manager at Dooky Chase’s.

“These are things she wanted to see happen,” she said.

They include the restoration and reopening of the restaurant’s second-floor dining room, which served as a hub for activists during the civil rights struggle in New Orleans.

The Chase family gathered for a press conference at the restaurant on Tuesday afternoon, just before they reopened Dooky Chase’s for regular business.

They discussed funeral plans, including a public viewing from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Xavier University’s Convocation Center, followed by a celebratory program at 6 p.m.; and a burial Mass at noon Monday at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, following visitation from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Plans for a second-line parade following her burial and other details are still in the works.

Even as these plans were taking shape, family members said, they knew they had to reopen their restaurant.

“It’s what she would have wanted. She would have been so disappointed if we didn’t do this,” said Leah Chase Kamata, referring to her mother.

As a chef and restaurateur, Leah Chase was known for her compulsive work ethic. Defying age, she was in her restaurant until practically the end, directing and sometimes chastising her staff, chopping food items, tending the gumbo pot. Every day that the restaurant was open, she insisted on being part of it, her family said.

The primary reason Dooky Chase’s has kept limited hours in recent years was the family’s effort to protect their mother from her own work ethic and let her have some days off, Edgar Chase III acknowledged.

Soon, though, the restaurant will expand its hours, with details still to come.

“I know people have been disappointed that we weren’t open longer hours or on Saturday,” said Stella Chase Reese. “We want to be able to accommodate everyone with our hours.”

The restaurant’s menu, now served alongside its weekday brunch buffet and at Friday dinner, will also expand soon. Edgar Chase IV, the chef who goes by “Dook,” is overseeing a menu revamp intended to bring back many dishes from the restaurant’s past repertoire of Creole classics.

Dook Chase, the late chef’s grandson, runs the restaurant Dook’s Place at Louis Armstrong International Airport. When the airport’s new terminal opens, now scheduled for the fall, he will run a new Chase family restaurant there called Leah’s Kitchen.

“Our restaurant is really going to tell her story,” said Dook Chase. “It’s all inspired by my grandmother.”

The family said the chef was happy that her name will be over the door of the new restaurant.

“Here, it was always Dooky Chase’s, because she married into the Chase family,” said Stella Chase Reese. “For her, it was special to have her name on this one.”