Date with a Dish

In 1946, home economics teacher Freda DeKnight baked a rose petal pudding for a dinner party attended by John H. Johnson, founder of the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC).

The dessert—bread pudding–like, infused with rose petals, and topped with a rose and currant sauce—was so delicious that Johnson hired DeKnight as the first-ever food columnist for JPC’s new magazine, Ebony.

JPC would grow to become the largest Black-owned media company of the 20th century, publishing 14 magazines, hosting innovative fashion shows, founding a groundbreaking Black cosmetics brand, and pursuing many other business ventures. And DeKnight’s food column in Ebony, “Date with a Dish,” would become a hugely popular feature throughout JPC’s run and would even spur the construction of a state-of-the-art test kitchen in JPC’s Chicago headquarters.

The food column’s flavor develops, melds, and sets

After impressing Johnson with her narrative-style recipes and landing the food columnist job, DeKnight became Ebony’s home service director (an in-house food and lifestyle expert) and created the historic Fashion Fair traveling runway show that paved the way for Black models and designers. She would be best known for her work as a food editor, though, and a compilation of her popular recipes, A Date with a Dish (1948), later republished as The Ebony Cookbook (1962), was the first major cookbook written by an African American for African Americans.

After DeKnight’s passing in 1963, Ebony editors assigned “Date with a Dish” to freelancers, until Charla Draper joined the magazine in 1982 as its new food editor. Draper convinced Johnson to add a “Your Favorite Recipe” feature, its selections decided on by JPC employees. Charlotte Lyons succeeded Draper in 1985; she got the job after Johnson asked her to prepare an impromptu pound cake during her interview. Lyons made “Date with a Dish” recipes even more accessible to Ebony readers and remained the publication’s food editor for 25 years.

Ebony’s dream kitchen

Both Draper and Lyons worked in the Ebony Test Kitchen, built in JPC’s Chicago headquarters at 820 S. Michigan Avenue in 1972 so that recipes could be tested and photographed for the food column. The boldly patterned tangerine-orange and avocado-green kitchen, designed by Palm Springs–based interior designers William Raiser and Arthur Elrod, featured then cutting-edge appliances such as a microwave, grill, dishwasher, and trash compactor. You can learn more about the setup in “The Ebony Test Kitchen,” an interactive digital presentation by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

As NMAAHC’s presentation recounts, recipes that would emerge from the Ebony Test Kitchen went far beyond soul food and other stereotypically Black fare; the magazine offered diverse American and international recipes. Celebrity favorites were developed too: Nat King Cole’s Tamale Pie, Lena Horne’s East Indian Chicken, and Michael Jordan’s Macaroni and Cheese.

Archiving decades of DeKnight’s culinary work

Archival materials that represent “Date with a Dish”—color transparencies and slides, recipes, etc.—are scattered throughout the vast JPC Archive. In early 2025, Jacob began sorting through these materials, arranging them in alphabetical order, cataloging them, and capturing the date of publication, photographers, formats, copyright information, and other details. To ensure the long-term preservation of color transparencies, color slides, and other fragile items, Jacob removed them from decaying, sticky plastic sleeves and placed them in archival sleeves and boxes.

Jacob reports that the work was tedious, but that delving into the collection was rewarding and intriguing. Food trends over time revealed themselves. The 1970s saw the emergence of Caribbean and African fare, reflecting a strong interest in the African diaspora. Columns from the 1990s and 2000s featured more health-conscious recipes. Some dishes looked delicious, while others left much to be desired. Overall, though, the photos were dynamic and diverse, and Jacob is excited to have folks engage with these materials and see their breadth for themselves.

Sharing the archive with communities

With such a wealth of material to draw from, archivists have begun outreach efforts relating to “Date with a Dish.” In 2023, Jehoiada collaborated with Beet Street Zine (BSZ), the art-based organizing and community-led publication he cofounded, to host dinners in Chicago with queer and trans Black individuals and other people of color. Inspired by DeKnight’s work as JPC’s food editor, these programs resulted in a publication created in solidarity with movements for food sovereignty (the right to have healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods).

BSZ’s community dinners, “Date with a Zine,” drew from DeKnight’s recipes, shared information about her and “Date with a Dish,” and created space for making art that was submitted to BSZ’s third issue. The meals were led by Chef Fresh Roberson, who is also the founder of Fresher Together, described on its website as “a collaborative food and farming project for healing, economic development, training, and retreat.” BSZ’s third issue features recipes, collages, writings, and resources created in response to conversations at the dinners about DeKnight’s impact on movements for food sovereignty.

DeKnight’s dedication to Black food and culture, supported by her experiences growing up in a family of caterers and farmers in South Dakota—has been carried forward by Draper, Lyons, the journalist and culinary historian Donna Battle Pierce, Fresh Roberson, and others. “Date with a Dish” and DeKnight’s cookbook set the stage for Black chefs to publish recipes created by and for their own communities. Food is an important aspect of any culture, and the connections drawn across the Black diaspora by “Date with a Dish” highlight how Black foodways move through space and time. Hopefully, as the archive is made public, DeKnight’s impact on Black food and culture will only continue to grow and be celebrated.