James Hemings

This includes crème brûlée and meringues, but most famously, Hemings is credited with introducing macaroni and cheese to the United States.

[3] In 1784, Thomas Jefferson took James Hemings with him when he went to Paris as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles,[4] as he wanted the young man, then 19, trained as a chef.

However, credit is often incorrectly attributed to Thomas Jefferson's cousin, Mary Randolph, as it was later included in her seminal housekeeping book, The Virginia House-Wife.

[8] Another dish James introduced to American cuisine is Snow Eggs, which is originally French and consists of meringue and custard.

According to the 1873 memoir of Madison Hemings, his uncle James and (future) mother Sally actively considered staying in France for freedom while they were in Paris.

[12][13] In 1789, however, both the Hemingses returned to the United States with Jefferson; he continued to pay James wages to work as his chef.

They lived briefly in a leased house on Maiden Lane in New York City (when the national government was based there), where James Hemings ran the kitchen.

Reluctant to return to a slave state, Hemings negotiated a contract with Jefferson by which he would gain freedom after training a replacement chef at Monticello to take his place.

[6][12][16] In the 1793 agreement, Jefferson wrote: Having been at great expence in having James Hemings taught the art of cookery, desiring to befriend him, and to require from him as little in return as possible, I hereby do promise & declare, that if the said James should go with me to Monticello in the course of the ensuing winter, when I go to reside there myself, and shall there continue until he shall have taught such person as I shall place under him for that purpose to be a good cook, this previous condition being performed, he shall thereupon be made free ...[17]Considering that Hemings had served Jefferson well for years, some historians have described this as a grudging manumission.

[2] For two years, Hemings trained his younger brother Peter, also enslaved from birth, as the chef at Monticello and finally gained his freedom in 1796.

He spoke French and English and was literate; the Library of Congress holds his handwritten inventory of kitchen supplies before he left Monticello.

Sayes reported, "I have spoke to James according to your Desire he has made mention again as he did before that he was willing to serve you before any other man in the Union but sence he understands that he would have to be among strange servants he would be very much obliged to you if you would send him a few lines of engagement and on what conditions and what wages you would please to give him with your own hand wreiting."

"[20] Hemings later returned briefly to Monticello, working for a month and a half in the kitchen and earning thirty dollars before leaving.

Jefferson's friend, William Evans in Baltimore, made inquiries, and on November 5, 1801, he wrote:The report respecting James Hemings having committed an act of suicide is true.

On December 4, 1801, Jefferson wrote to his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, characterizing Hemings' death as a "tragical end".