Bed-Stuy Villagers remember TV Chef History-Maker, Friend …
Last month we lost an icon, Chef Elle. She was known nationally as an American chef, culinary producer, test cook and food stylist. She was the first African-American woman to appear as a regular host on PBS’ America’s Test Kitchen. She was a humanitarian, having co-founded in 2013, SheChef Inc., the phenomenally successful mentoring organization purposed to close the equity and diversity gap in the beverage, media and hospitality industries for women of color.
My memories of Elle are grounded here in Brooklyn where I first met her in the kitchen of Monique Greenwood and Glenn Pogue’s Akwaaba Mansion Bed & Breakfast, one fall afternoon. She had just joined the Akwaaba team.
Elle adopted me as “Auntie” and she became my “niecypoo” bonded by our Detroit/Ann Arbor/ Ypsi roots; shared alma mater, and membership in the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (The Deltas).
We celebrated America’s Test Kitchen’s initial offer to her, and the day she made broadcast history as the first African American chef on that popular national show. I visited her home in Boston several times, was honored by her presence at my 2024 birthday dinner, and that same year locked her spirit forever inside as I observed her glee-filled induction into the Deltas, that year.
I along with so many others here in Brooklyn and beyond will miss Elle, a Renaissance Woman for these times, gone too soon.
Multi-faceted Elle was the ultimate Renaissance Woman. She worked as a social worker in Detroit, moonlighted as a prep cook; attended the Culinary Institute of New York; earned a master’s degree in entertainment business, worked as a cook on a cruise ship for two years, mentored women at a homeless shelter; before her entry into broadcasting, where she also worked as a food stylist, video producer and in culinary production for such outlets as Cooking Channel, Food Network and Bravo and Cook’s Kitchen.
Brooklynites may also recall Elle hosting America’s Test Kitch series, 28 Days of Edna, which focussed on the famed Edna Lewis, the late pioneer chef and cookbook author, who created mastepieces for Brooklyn’s Gage & Tollner Restaurant.
— Benita Wynn
I’ve spent hours searching through the photos in my phone trying to find pictures of Elle Simone Scott, my friend, my mentee, my former innkeeper, who started working at Akwaaba Mansion in Brooklyn over a decade ago and continued to freelance as an innkeeper at Akwaaba in DC, in Philadelphia and in Brooklyn, whenever she was back in town from Boston, where she moved to take a job and make us all proud as a TV chef on PBS’ America’s Test Kitchen.
She dreamed of opening her own B&B one day, preferably in her hometown of Detroit. We met up at last year’s annual innkeepers’ conference, where she was still laser-focused on her goal. This week, at age 49, Elle made her transition after a vigilante fight with ovarian cancer.
I had been scrolling on my phone for a picture of Elle’s infectious smile, her glow, while whisking up pancake batter to make breakfast for guests (l always loved the whisk she had tattooed on her arm), or of her fluffing pillows in the parlor for guest arrival. I couldn’t find any, because I rarely take pictures. I stopped and searched my heart instead, where Elle will always be. She was bright in every way-she knew a lot about a lot, and boy could she light up a room. This sunny portrait of her on the porch of Akwaaba in Brooklyn is evidence of that.
Rest well, sweet Elle. We will all miss you. #ellesimonescott #akwaabafamily
— Monique Greenwood
OTP editors’ note: Simone was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2016, at the age of 40. She died at her home in Boston, last month.
