Remembering Leah Chase, the Storied New Orleans Chef Who Filled Dooky Chase’s Restaurant With Art

What makes a great collector? Leah Chase never appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, but maybe she should have. With her husband, Edgar (aka Dooky), Chase ran the New Orleans Creole restaurant Dooky Chase’s for more than half a century, cooking for jazz greats, civil rights leaders (who sometimes received their meals from behind bars), and, eventually, presidents. It was a vital meeting place for the African-American community and one that defied segregation laws. Artists were a