Elizabeth Terry
Born
Elizabeth Bennett

1942 or 1943 (age 80–81)[1]
Salem, Ohio
SpouseMichael H. Terry (deceased)
Culinary career
Cooking styleCuisine of the Southern United States
Rating(s)
Current restaurant(s)
    • Elizabeth on 37th
Award(s) won

Elizabeth Terry (née Bennett, born c. 1943)[2] is an American chef who was best known as owner and head chef of the Elizabeth on 37th restaurant in Savannah, Georgia.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Terry was born in Salem, Ohio,[1] the first of six children of Gordon Flagg and Nanee Gibbs Bennett.[2][3] She remembers the influence her grandmother's Louisiana home cooking from when she was child.[1] Terry graduated with a degree in psychology from Lake Erie College in 1966.[1][2][4] There, she met her future husband, Michael H. Terry, who was attending neighboring Kenyon College.[1][2] They married in 1966, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, while Michael studied at Harvard University.[1]

Career

Terry's first jobs before college had been selling bridal clothes and dressmaking in a fabric store.[2] While her husband pursued his studies, she obtained jobs as a probation officer and lab assistant.[2] Following his graduation, they moved to Atlanta, where their first daughter was born. With her husband's encouragement to find something new to do, Terry began working in a cheese and wine shop,[1][2][4] then ran her own lunch shop called Thyme For You.[2] They travelled through France on six occasions, where Terry picked up cooking techniques from many chefs.[1] In 1980, they moved to Savannah where she planned to open a sandwich shop.[1] This eventually became a restaurant housed on the ground floor of a mansion built in 1900, while the family (now including a second daughter) lived upstairs.[2] The restaurant, Elizabeth on 37th, opened on May 14, 1981.[2][4] She had researched historical recipes from families living in the local area at the Georgia Historical Society.[1][5]

The year after opening, Atlanta Magazine described the restaurant as "the finest restaurant anywhere in coastal Georgia."[2] It won several awards, including the 1995 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southeast,[6] "in part because she [had] redefined Southern cuisine for the '90s".[2] Terry was featured in magazines including Food & Wine,[7] Lear's,[7] and Delta Air Lines SKY magazine.[6] In 1996, she wrote the cookbook Savannah Seasons with her daughter Alexis.[6][8][9][10] Some of her recipes had previously been published in newspapers,[7] and one, for boned shad, was included in a book by Craig Claiborne after she had cooked it for him in 1987.[1][7] In 1998, the Terrys entered into a business partnership with brothers, and longterm employees, Gary and Greg Butch.[11] In the early 2000s, Terry was a visiting chef at cooking demonstrations in New York[12] and at the Kellogg Center, Michigan State University.[13] By 2005, Terry had retired,[14] and the Butch brothers continued to run Elizabeth on 37th, using some of Terry's old recipes.[5] Following the death of her husband in 2012, Terry moved to live near her daughter on the West Coast.[8]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Claiborne, Craig (May 13, 1987). "Blending Old and New in Savannah". New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Eddy, Kristin (20 August 1995). "The accidental chef". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia. p. M3. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  3. ↑ "Bennett-Terry Vows Are Spoken In Garden". The Salem News. Salem, Ohio. 5 August 1966. p. 6. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Cooper, Ann (1998). "A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen": The Evolution of Women Chefs. Van Nostrand Reinhold. pp. 131, 212, 252. ISBN 9780442023706. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 Addison, Bill (June 26, 2015). "Three New Restaurants Change the Game in Savannah". Eater. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Barnes, Joy W. (20 May 1998). "From cookbook to restaurant, couple travels road of good taste". The Times and Democrat. Orangeburg, South Carolina. p. 1C. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Nesbit, Martha Giddens (19 March 1990). "Shad's history is as rich as its full-flavored taste". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia. p. W6. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  8. 1 2 Wade, Kim (November 9, 2013). "Chef Elizabeth Terry returns for Savannah Food + Wine Festival". Savannah Now. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  9. ↑ Rice, William (22 August 1996). "Three female chefs speak volumes with new works". The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, Florida. p. H2. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  10. ↑ Hearne, Jan (11 September 2002). "Overlook chef's pretentiousness; dive into her food". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. p. 21C. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "Elizabeth on 37th – Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A. The Queen of New Southern Cooking". Must See Places. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  12. ↑ "Delicate pan-seared catfish in just half an hour". The Bismarck Tribune. Bismarck, North Dakota. AP. 17 January 2001. p. 4E. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  13. ↑ Rook, Christine (28 February 2002). "Chefs to go". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. p. D1. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  14. 1 2 "Awards". Food Arts. 18: 59. 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
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