Julia Child's forerunners in popularizing French cuisine to Americans were … two slave women. Edith Fossett and Fanny Hern were French-trained chefs whom Thomas Jefferson chose to head up the White House kitchen:
"They were at the absolute top of the chef’s game," says [historian Leni] Sorensen. "But because they were women, because they were black, because they were enslaved and because this was the beginning of the 19th century, they were just known as ‘the girls.’ But today, anyone with that amount of experience under their belt would be Julia Child."
A Kitchen Sisters series digs deeper into the topic of African-American chefs in the young republic. On the fascinating rise of black caterers in early-1800s Philadelphia, an excerpt from WEB DuBois:
The whole catering business, arising from an evolution shrewdly, persistently and tastefully directed, transformed the Negro cook and waiter into the public caterer and restaurateur, and raised a crowd of underpaid menials to become a set of self-reliant, original business men, who amassed fortunes for themselves and won general respect for their people. The first prominent Negro caterer was Robert Bogle, who, early in the century, conducted an establishment on Eighth street, near Sansoin. In his day he was one of the best known characters of Philadelphia, and virtually created the business of catering in the city. He was the butler of the smart set, and his taste of hand and eye and palate set the fashion of the day. This functionary filled a unique place in a time when social circles were very exclusive, and the millionaire and the French cook had not yet arrived.
The Dish 