Rufus Estes

Rufus Estes was an American chef and cookbook author, born around April 1857 in Maury County, Tennessee. As a young man he worked in Nashville and later moved to Chicago, where his career opened up in the world of luxury rail travel.

He became known for his work with the Pullman Company, cooking on private and deluxe railroad cars for prominent passengers. In 1911 he published Good Things to Eat, a substantial cookbook that included recipes as well as a brief sketch of his life. The book is now widely valued as an early and important contribution to American food writing by a Black author.

Estes died on September 25, 1939, in Los Angeles, California. Today he is remembered not only for his recipes, but also for the way his life story preserves a piece of American culinary and social history.