2/2/22 | Week 1 | 5 Black Caterers Who Were Influential in the Catering and Events Industry

Charity “Duchess” Quamino (1739 – 1804)

Providence, RI

Charity “Duchess” Quamino, was born in 1753, possibly in Senegal or Ghana. She was initially a slave who cooked for a wealthy family in Newport, Rhode Island. She founded a catering company and eventually bought her own freedom. A gifted baker, she was known to many as the pastry queen of Rhode Island even catering twice to President George Washington, offering him her specialty, a frosted plum cake, made for the wealthy and the influential people who passed through Newport.

While Working as a cook for the Channings, a prominent Rhode Island family, Quamino was allowed to start and expanded her own catering business. She became, like countless other enslaved Africans who had access to kitchens, an entrepreneur. By 1782, Quamino eventually earned enough money to purchase her own home. Living next door to the Channings she was allowed to use their large oven for major baking projects. In 1792, Quamino became the first black woman invited to join a black male organization in New England, when she purchased a one-sixth share in the business of the Palls and Biers Society of the African Union, an organisation whose main goal was to raise consciousness and funds within the African community to someday return to their native Africa.  She died in 1804 and remained a prosperous, respected, and a well-connected figure in the community to the very end.

Rod Westmaas, CPCE Emeritus chose these 5 Black Caterers because he decided to look first at the influences of 18/19th century Black Caterers in segments. These 5 caterers are located on the east coast of the U.S. These were simply the five that stood out in his research that made a significant difference to there city/state within the fledging catering world. He is currently looking into other parts of the US also where Black caterers have also shone.