James Hemings

James Hemings (c. 1765–1801) was the first American to train as a chef in France. Three-quarters white in ancestry, he was born into slavery in Virginia in 1765. At eight years old, he was purchased by Thomas Jefferson at his residence of Monticello.

He was an older brother of Sally Hemings and a half-sibling of Jefferson's wife Martha Jefferson. Martha, Sally, and James shared John Wayles as a father. It was said that Wayles had taken James's mother Betty Hemings, who was his helper, as his forced concubine. As a young man, Hemings was selected by Jefferson to accompany him to Paris when the latter was appointed Minister to France. There, Hemings was trained to be a French chef; independently, he took lessons to learn how to speak the French language. Hemings is credited with bringing many French cooking styles to colonial America and developing new recipes inspired by French cuisine. This includes crème brulée and meringues, but most famously, Hemings is credited with introducing macaroni and cheese to America.^[1]

Hemings returned to the United States with Jefferson, likely because of kinship ties with his large Hemings family at Monticello. Jefferson continued to pay Hemings wages as his chef when he worked for Jefferson in Philadelphia. Hemings negotiated with Jefferson for his freedom, which he gained in 1796 after training his brother Peter for three years to replace him as a chef. Said to suffer from alcoholism,^[2] Hemings died by suicide at age 36.^[2]