“Take what you have and make it work for you.”
This is the advice that award-winning chef and cookbook author Joseph G. Randall, known as the “Dean of Southern Cooking,” gave young chefs when he and I spoke at my in December 2021 “Corner Table Conversation” Podcast. Perhaps a nod to the humble beginnings of traditional Southern cooking, it was simple advice that he expressed with his typical modesty.
Randall, also known as Chef Joe, died on February 14 at home in Savannah, Georgia, surrounded by his family and loved ones, according to his daughter Carl Randall. He was 79.
His life's work was to champion the contributions of black chefs. And he particularly inspired me as a black restaurateur in Los Angeles and became a beloved mentor and friend to me over three decades.
Randall was a second-generation hospitality professional who grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His father was a Freemason, civil rights activist and country club owner. After a ten-year battle, his father received the first country club liquor license in Pennsylvania in 1959. Randall's uncle Richard, a hotelier, caterer and restaurateur in Pittsburgh, gave him his first job as a dishwasher.
“He teased me about the business. He had very strict policies for employees, no smoking and drinking and no clothing. He threw parties mostly for white people because they could afford to pay,” he said of his uncle on the podcast.
A career in hospitality followed that spanned more than five decades. Randall attended UC Berkeley, where he received restaurant management certificates, and later served as a chef in the United States Air Force. He eventually found a mentor in pioneering African-American chef Robert W. Lee, executive chef at the Harrisburger Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who trained and hired an all-black kitchen staff.
Randall went on to work in many kitchens and was executive chef at the Cloister Restaurant in Buffalo, NY and the Fishmarket in Baltimore. In 1989, Randall opened The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch, a training restaurant at Cal Poly Pomona. A little over a decade later, he founded Chef Joe Randall's Cooking School in Savannah, Georgia, where he continued to mentor young culinary talent.
Motivated to recognize the Black culinary professionals who had long been ignored by the industry, Randall founded the African American Chefs Hall of Fame in 1993 as part of the Taste of Heritage Foundation. In 1998, he co-authored A Taste of Heritage: The New African American Cuisine with author and historian Toni Tipton-Martin, a seminal cookbook that sparked a national conversation about the depth and influence of black culinary traditions. In 2016, his work was featured on a national stage at the Smithsonian Museum alongside other Black food personalities such as Edna Lewis, Leah Chase, Hercules Posey and Patrick Clarke in an exhibition highlighting the major figures in African American cuisine.
I met Randall in the early '90s when he hosted a gathering of black chefs, including renowned chef Patrick Clarke, on the roof of the L'Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills. Several partners (including former Laker Norm Nixon, Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, record producer Lou Adler and myself) were in the planning stages of opening Georgia, an upscale Southern restaurant on Melrose Avenue.
Recognizing our restaurant's high-caliber potential, Randall introduced me to the “Godmother of Southern Cooking,” Edna Lewis, with the intent of having her join our team in Los Angeles. In 2012, he founded the Edna Lewis Foundation in her honor, which is still active today.
Randall also connected us with our opening chef, the talented Jeanette Holly. When we parted ways with Holly, Randall stepped in along with Chef Dave Danhi, who worked at my former nightclub Roxbury, to redesign the menu to focus on more traditional Southern fare.
It was Randall who, in the tradition of Edna Lewis, wanted to distinguish soul food from Southern cuisine, the latter reflecting a broader interpretation of the food that African Americans had historically played a significant role in shaping. As he told me, “Soul food is one part of the contribution – not the entirety of African American cuisine. We have allowed ourselves to be pigeonholed.”
In 2019, my wife Linda and I had the pleasure of visiting Randall at Good Times Jazz Bar & Restaurant in Savannah, where he combined his love of Southern cuisine and live music as executive chef.
“A Taste of Heritage” was inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame by the James Beard Foundation in 2023.
Although we have had many conversations since then, the James Beard event in Chicago was the last time I saw Randall. We met for breakfast the morning after the prestigious award was presented. Randall appeared wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a smile to match. We spoke about our shared appreciation for the inclusivity that the James Beard Foundation had committed to in the years leading up to his award. Without a hint of resentment that recognition had taken so long, Chef Joe repeated something he had said to me in an earlier conversation: “I just don't see any reason not to be joyful in my heart and love people – because I want to be loved.”
“My father set a new standard for balancing a love of family, community and life as a culinary professional,” said Randall’s daughter, Carl P. Randall. “He is a trailblazer, a pioneer and a man who loved all facets of life and it loved him back. As proof of this, my parents' 47-year marriage was a great example of what a long-lasting partnership and commitment can look like.”
Randall deserves credit for championing the important and all too often overlooked culinary contributions of African Americans. I am one of the many who will miss his voice. His legacy lives on through his wife of 47 years, Barbara Randall, and their children, Cari, J. Christopher and Kenneth Randall.
Brad Johnson is the restaurateur and hospitality professional behind numerous LA restaurants and nightclubs, including Post & Beam, Georgia and Roxbury. He is the host of the Corner Table Talk Podcast..
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