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Starting with a single recipe at a church fundraiser, Lucille Smith eventually launched a food empire at a time when Black women's cooking was not recognized or rewarded. In 1937, Smith created the first college department in commercial foods and technology at Prairie View A&M University. She published her first cookbook shortly thereafter, and, in the 1940s, developed Lucille’s All-Purpose Hot Roll Mix. The first of its kind, the packaged mix established Smith's national reputation, leading to a lucrative deal with American Airlines and friendships with Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and boxer Joe Louis. Often recognized as Texas's first African American businesswoman, her legacy includes the Houston restaurant Lucille's, opened by her great-grandsons in 2012. More»