Estes, Rufus

In 1911, a black Chicagoan named Rufus Estes published his own cookbook, Good Things to Eat as Recommended by Rufus. Estes had worked for years as a chef in deluxe private railroad cars, where he honed his culinary skills preparing lavish meals for industry magnates and even American presidents. Estes ran a more stationary kitchen as a caterer to executives with the U.S. Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation in the world, by the time his cookbook appeared. Sadly, this man described in a black Chicago newspaper as "one of the best known chefs of Chicago" died in obscurity.