Chef Elle Simone Scott, a beloved face on PBS’ “America’s Test Kitchen” and a trailblazer for Black women in food media, has died at 49.
The chef and TV personality passed away on January 5 after battling ovarian cancer.
Fellow chef Carla Hall shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram, calling Scott “a friend, a force, and a trailblazer” who showed up “with excellence, generosity, and deep love for food and community.”
“At ‘America’s Test Kitchen,’ Elle helped open doors that had long been closed—becoming one of the first Black women audiences saw in the test kitchen, and doing so with grace, authority, and joy,” Hall wrote. “She didn’t just test recipes; she changed what representation looked like in food media.”
Hall added, “Her voice mattered. Her work mattered. She mattered,” noting that Scott faced ovarian cancer “with courage and honesty,” using her platform to educate and advocate “even while fighting for her life.”
Scott didn’t start out in food. She began her career in social work before following her heart into the kitchen, first working as a line cook and later becoming a chef for Norwegian Cruise Lines.
“The thought occurred to me, if I have to do something for the next 25 years of my life, it better be something I love,” she told WBUR in 2019. “The only thing I could think of was cooking. It was the one thing that brought me peace and joy.”
She graduated from the Culinary Academy of New York in 2010 and went on to create SheChef, an organization for women chefs of color to connect and support one another. She also earned a master’s degree from Full Sail University.
“It’s important for us to see ourselves represented in this industry. That’s how we know we can do it,” Scott told WTOP News in 2019. She explained that SheChef was designed to bring “underrepresented people together to see how we could support each other,” calling it “a glass window for all of us to look through and see ourselves being successful on the other side.”
Over the years, Scott worked behind the scenes and on camera for Food Network, CBS, and Bravo before joining “America’s Test Kitchen” in 2016. The show later documented her move to Boston and her ovarian cancer diagnosis, giving viewers a glimpse into her life beyond the studio.
“Having cancer, or just having a terminal disease in general, really makes you think about your life and how you want to live it for whatever time you have left,” she told WBUR. “I promised the Creator that if I survived cancer, I would utilize the rest of my life to make a change and be impactful.”
In a 2020 interview with the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, Scott said she wanted to be “a face for survivorship for Black women in ovarian cancer, or women of color in general.”
She was also clear about the legacy she hoped to leave.
“No more Black and brown girls — or any girls of color — will have to search for an image that makes them feel encouraged toward their cooking or TV dreams,” she told Food & Wine in a resurfaced interview. “There’s no work if you’re not leaving a legacy. Otherwise it’s self-serving, and once you’re gone, it’s gone.”
For countless cooks and viewers who finally saw themselves on screen when she stepped into the test kitchen, Elle Simone Scott’s legacy is very much alive.
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