When the Chase family first watched the Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog,” they scoured the credits for one line in particular: the name of the woman who inspired the royal character in the title. Sure enough, Leah Chase appeared in small letters.
Tiana, a culinary virtuoso who came of age in 1920s New Orleans, made history as Disney’s first Black princess. But what many fans of the 2009 film do not know is that Tiana’s story is based on the life of a real person, Chase, who died at age 96 in 2019. Known as the “Queen of Creole Cuisine,” Chase and her family led one of the country’s first African American fine dining restaurants that has become a haven for civil rights and culture.
“She felt great about” seeing her name in the credits, her daughter Stella Chase Reese said in a recent interview. “And not only felt great about that (but) … that she was inspiration for a person that will impact more than just her grandchildren, more than just her community, but impact other children in that she could inspire them to be them and to use whatever talents God gave them to just do what they can to make their community a better place.”
A new exhibit at The Children’s Museum, “Tiana’s Joyful Celebration,” tells Chase’s story as it encourages visitors to connect with their own creativity through dancing, cooking and costume design. The museum produced the exhibit, the first of its kind devoted to the Disney princess, with Walt Disney Imagineering. “Tiana’s Joyful Celebration” will travel to Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, among other cities, after its 10-month stint in Indianapolis.
In early March, IndyStar spoke with Stella Chase Reese, who grew up in New Orleans, about her mother’s background, talents as a chef and seamstress, process for innovating recipes and how she hopes the exhibit will impact children.
‘Each child who comes in here can feel special’
Chase began developing her skills as a seamstress and cook in rural Madisonville, Louisiana, where she grew up with 10 siblings. Chase moved to New Orleans to find work and in 1946 married trumpeter Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., whose family owned Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in the Tremé neighborhood.
Leah Chase was heavily involved in her four children’s schools and activities and taught them to cook dishes that would efficiently feed a crowd, like hot dogs stewed in a rich tomato sauce and marinated chicken baked in crispy potato chip crumbs.
Chase also sewed her girls’ prom dresses. One year, a then-16-year-old Chase Reese begged her mother for a second gown to wear to another prom even though money was tight.
“She found a way to do it,” said Chase Reese, 78, who explained how her mother repurposed a bridesmaid’s dress. “When we talk about Tiana’s celebration, I’ll look at it like that: how each child who comes in here can feel special, that special that I felt that day when my mother completed that dress just for me.”
Likewise, the ambitious Tiana saves her money and even kisses a frog in hopes the efforts will lead to her opening her own restaurant. The waitress’ determination helps her achieve her dream and even a prince.
Chase Reese noted the plethora of activities in the new exhibit that cater to different learning styles. Visitors can learn to tend a garden to grow ingredients for gumbo, concoct their own hot sauce, color a mural, help create costumes for a Mardi Gras parade and play music with a band of critters.
How Chase stirred her ‘special spice’ into Dooky Chase’s
As Chase’s children grew older, she began working fulltime at the restaurant, developing recipes like her famous Gumbo Z’Herbes that includes a special blend of greens and is served on Holy Thursday before Easter Sunday. Chase’s meals fused Creole cooking with what she’d learned by talking to other experts and reading cookbooks.
“My mother had over 200 cookbooks because she would sit down and look at the recipes, but she would always make it her own,” Chase Reese said.
Even when the chef wrote her own cookbooks, she still encouraged people to add their own spin to the recipes.
“She wanted to say, Whatever I’m doing, you can do, and you can only put your own, as Tiana says, special spice into it to make it yours,” Chase Reese said.
Leah Chase’s cooking attracted famous faces
Over the years, luminaries and presidents have pulled up a chair at Dooky Chase’s. When Leah Chase was working, she made sure they ate exactly what they craved, whether she was at the restaurant or not.
“When they came back in town, she would always have what they wanted,” Chase Reese said.
The chef baked sweet potato pies for the Jackson 5. And she left home late one night to cook for singer Nat King Cole, who had ordered an egg dish her husband, who tended bar at the restaurant, didn’t know how to make.
Writer James Baldwin used to post up in the corner of Dooky Chase’s and write, Chase Reese said. And the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis began visiting the restaurant during his days participating in Freedom Rides to protest segregated transportation.
“We had an opportunity, she felt, to give them what they needed at that time, which was a space to come and get nourishment and enjoy good food and strategize,” Chase Reese said.
“And that’s what she felt about the Freedom Bus riders. And that is why John Lewis used to say that every time he was in New Orleans, he came to Dooky Chase’s because that was the place he always felt welcome.”
If you go
What: Tiana’s Joyful Celebration
When: March 7 to Jan. 3, 2027
Where: The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, 3000 N. Meridian St.
More information: childrensmuseum.org
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Sign up here for the newsletter she curates about things to do and ways to explore Indianapolis. Find her on Facebook, Instagram or X: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Children’s Museum exhibit shows inspiration for first Disney Black princess
Reporting by Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
