Nat Fuller: 1812-1866 From Slavery to Artistry: The Life and Work of the "Presiding Genius" of Charleston Cuisine

In the 1840s a culinary genius emerged in Charleston, S.C. Nat Fuller, a slave, trained by the free black pastry chef Eliza Seymour Lee, became the foremost private chef in the antebellum city. In the 1850s he negotiated a kind of semi-liberty from his master, financier William C. Gatewood, and with his master's aid became superintendent of the city's game market, Charleston's foremost caterer of public events, and finally Charleston's greatest restaurateur. His eating-house, the Bachelor's...