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Rufus Estes: A Remarkable African-American
He rose from slavery to celebrity as an acclaimed chef and author
Rufus Estes wrote the first cookbook by an African-American chef. You can still find it in print today, thanks to Dover Publications.
Estes was born a slave in 1857 in Murray County, Tennessee. He was the youngest of nine children. After the Civil War started in 1861, all the grown male slaves ran off to join the Yankees. So young Rufus and the other children ended up having to do a lot of the work such as hauling water and taking care of the cows and calves.
After the war, in 1867, the family moved to Nashville. Here Estes went to school for one year, but due to his mother’s failing health, he decided he must go to work. At first he took odd jobs but then he got a job working at a restaurant, and that led to good things for him.
He was such a good chef that by the time he left Nashville in 1881 he was earning $10 a week, which was quite good since factory workers at the time averaged between $2 to $6 a week.
In Chicago, he worked in restaurants before getting a job with the Pullman Company in 1883. This was quite a prestigious position at the time.
Pullman cars were luxury sleeping cars. They were decorated in the style of the Gilded…
