{{Short description|English cook}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{For|the Australian actress and novelist|Rosa Lewis (actress)}}[[File:Rosa lewis.jpg|right|thumbnail|Photograph of Rosa Lewis taken at the end of the Edwardian period]] '''Rosa Lewis''' (''née'' '''Ovenden'''; 1867–1952) was an English cook and owner of The Cavendish Hotel in London, located at the intersection of Jermyn Street and Duke Street, St. James.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/rosa_lewis.shtml Rosa Lewis in Women's History Timeline] BBC 4, brief biography with photograph and audio slide show.</ref> Known as the '''"Queen of Cooks"''', her culinary skills were highly prized by Edward VII, with whom she was rumoured to have had an affair in the 1890s.<ref name=Queen>{{cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,729825,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024133948/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,729825,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 October 2007 |title=Queen of Cooks |work=Time Magazine |date=17 January 1927}}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/12/travel/a-gentlemanly-stroll-on-jermyn-street.html?scp=2&sq=JermynStreet&st=nyt&pagewanted=4 "A gentlemanly stroll on Jermyn Street," John Taylor.] ''The New York Times'', 12 January 1986, page A.9.</ref> She was also called '''"The Duchess of Jermyn Street."'''<ref name=Requiem>{{cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897950,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024135534/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897950,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 October 2007 |title=Requiem for Rosa's |work=Time Magazine |date=29 June 1962}}</ref><ref>Fielding, Daphne, ''Duchess of Jermyn Street'', Penguin, 1978.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McAlpine |first=Alistair |title= Bagman To Swagman - Tales of Broome, the North-West and other Australian Adventures |year=1999 |page=5 |publisher= Allen & Unwin |location= Sydney|isbn= 1-86508-104-3 |author-link = Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green | quote = The gateway to the old Dorchester House was bought by Rosa Lewis, better known as the Duchess of Jermyn Street, who specialised in finding nice clean girls for gentlemen. She also sold them, when they were in their cups, large pieces of masonry too large to be taken away.}}</ref>
==Life== She was born in Leyton, Essex, the fifth of nine children. Her father was a watchmaker and later an undertaker.<ref name=Escoffier>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm8iySXrUuwC&pg=PA1891 |title=''Escoffier: The King of Chefs'' |author=Kenneth James |date=January 2002 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=9781852853969 |accessdate=2008-09-14}}</ref>
She left school at 12 to go into domestic service,<ref name=Cavendish>{{cite web |url=http://www.thecavendish-london.co.uk/rosa-lewis-biography |title=Rosa Lewis Biography |publisher=Cavendish Hotel |accessdate=2008-09-14}}</ref> working her way up to cook. She claimed that the great chef Auguste Escoffier, then at the Carlton Hotel, taught her about cooking. It was he who named her the "Queen of Cooks".<ref name=Escoffier/> One of her employers was Lady Randolph Churchill.<ref name=Cavendish/> One day, Rosa chased Lady Randolph's then ten-year-old, red-haired son Winston out of her kitchen, shouting "Hop it, copper knob."<ref name=Escoffier/>
She married butler Chiney Lewis in 1893. However, she did not think much of her husband. "My family said that if I did not marry Mr. Lewis they would shoot me. ... So we were married and I threw the ring at him at the church door and left him flat."<ref name=Queen/>
There are several versions describing how she met Edward VII. According to ''Time'' magazine, it was Lady Randolph who introduced them.<ref name=Queen/> However, the Cavendish Hotel biography states they first met while she was employed by Philippe, Comte de Paris; he complimented her for the excellence of the dinner.<ref name=Cavendish/> In any case, he enjoyed her cooking very much. It was suspected by some that he helped her purchase the Cavendish Hotel in 1902.<ref name=Queen/><ref name=Requiem/> Another admirer of her culinary skills was Kaiser Wilhelm II, who presented her with his portrait. During World War I, she had it hung upside down in the men's toilet.<ref name=Requiem/>
In 1914 it was reported that she "cooked dinners for the regiments of the Household Cavalry... and at one time controlled the kitchen of White's Club", the latter a reference to White's "the oldest and most exclusive gentleman's club in London".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65592622 |title=LONDON'S CLEVEREST COOK. |newspaper=Euroa Advertiser (Vic. : 1884 – 1920) |location=Vic. |date=25 September 1914 |accessdate=7 September 2013 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Richard Hillary knew her during World War II, and wrote in ''The Last Enemy'': :One night when we were in town we walked around to see Rosa Lewis at The Cavendish Hotel. Suddenly caught by a stroke, she had been rushed to the London Clinic, where she refused to allow any of the nurses to touch her. After a week she saw the bill and immediately got up and left.
:When we arrived, there she was, seventy-six years old, shrieking with laughter and waving a glass of champagne, apparently none the worse. She grabbed me by the arm and peered into my face. "God, aren't you dead yet either, young Hillary? Come here and I'll tell you something. Don't you ever die. In the last two weeks I've been right up to the gates of 'eaven and 'ell and they're both bloody!" : :A few weeks later a heavy bomb landed right on the Cavendish, but Rosa emerged triumphant, pulling bits of glass out of her hair and trumpeting with rage. Whatever else may go in this war, we shall still have Rosa Lewis and the Albert Memorial at the end.<ref>Hillary, Richard [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0501181.txt ''The Last Enemy''], 1942 {{ISBN|1-58080-056-4}}</ref>
Lewis died in her sleep on 8 November 1952 at the age of 85.<ref>Obituary, ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', 8 November 1952, page 52.</ref>
Author Daphne Fielding wrote ''The Duchess of Jermyn Street'' (1964) about Rosa Lewis's life, but was not formally credited in the BBC production.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=16 December 1997 |title=Obituaries - Daphne Fielding |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=0ea971a2-47d2-42a8-9449-76ca7cf7a15f&hitCount=113&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=111&docId=GALE%7CIF0500436903&docType=Obituary&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD2&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=6&contentSet=GALE%7CIF0500436903&searchId=R1&userGroupName=64wcl&inPS=true |access-date=16 March 2025 |work=The Times}}</ref>
==In fiction== The 1976-77 BBC television series, ''The Duchess of Duke Street'', starring Gemma Jones, was loosely based on her life.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/movies/film-read-the-book-darling.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm "Read the Book, Darling," Charles McGrath.] ''The New York Times'', 22 August 2004, section 2, page 9.</ref> It is said that some of the scenes in ''Vile Bodies'' by Evelyn Waugh, in which she appears as her fictional counterpart Lottie Crump,<ref>"Standard Written English: A Guide," Philip Gaskell, page 58, {{ISBN|0-7486-1136-3}}.</ref> were also inspired by the Cavendish Hotel under Lewis' management.<ref>[https://www.economist.com/britain/2004/05/27/theyre-back "Britain: They're back; Hotels,"] ''The Economist''. 29 May 2004, page 34.</ref>
==Plaque== right|120px On 16 November 2006, Gemma Jones unveiled Westminster City Council's Commemorative Green plaque to Lewis, near the entrance to the old hotel in Jermyn Street.<ref name="westminster.gov.uk">[http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ Green Plaques Commemorative Scheme Database] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716210428/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |date=16 July 2012 }} on City of Westminster website.</ref> The plaque was the 68th in the Scheme.<ref>[http://www.thecavendish-london.co.uk/rosa-lewis-biography Rosa Lewis biography, The Cavendish], undated.</ref> It honoured Lewis as a Chef de Cuisine and Hotelier.<ref name="westminster.gov.uk"/><ref>[http://openplaques.org/organisations/city_of_westminster Rosa Lewis Green plaque] on Open Plaques</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.flickr.com/photos/44646726@N05/5316903538 Photograph of Green plaque honouring Rosa Lewis] outside The Cavendish Hotel, London W1.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Rosa}} Category:1867 births Category:1952 deaths Category:Burials at Putney Vale Cemetery Category:English chefs Category:English women chefs Category:Mistresses of Edward VII Category:People from Leyton Category:British hoteliers Category:Women hoteliers