Lee Barnes

Lee Barnes (1951 – November 3, 1992)

Early life Lee Barnes was born in Natchez, Mississippi. After graduating from Newcomb College in 1973, Barnes enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, where she received a degree in culinary arts.

Career After returning to New Orleans in 1974, Barnes opened the Lee Barnes Cooking School in Uptown New Orleans. The school, which remained in operation until 1989, has been noted as the first true culinary school in New Orleans and one of the first in Louisiana. Barnes' cooking school attracted a wide audience because unlike many cooking schools at the time, it was open to both genders and people of all races, classes and ages. Her first students were children and through her career she continued teaching cooking to adults and children. During the fifteen years that her school was operational she sponsored local and international cooks in a kind of exchange, where they learned New Orleans cooking and the New Orleans community learned international cuisine. Barnes produced a radio show for chef Paul Prudhomme She also taught vocational cooking at Delgado Community College.