Evelyn Cheatham, who founded Santa Rosa’s Worth Our Weight culinary training program, has died. According to Chef Duskie Estes, who was a close friend of Cheatham’s, the visionary chef and non-profit director, passed Thursday night.
“Evelyn was a person who was truly good,” said Estes. “She was a role model on how to be. She always picked me up and pulled me forward.”
It’s a huge blow for the culinary community. Cheatham was a mentor both to the at-risk youth who she patiently taught cooking skills at WOW, as well as a touchstone for chefs like Estes and many others.
“She was such an angel,” said Chef John Ash. “She was such an iconoclast, because she had her own vision, and luckily for us, it was about helping young people. She was ahead of her time.”
“She was one of our heroes. I’m just devastated,” said Josh Silvers, of Jackson’s Bar and Oven in Santa Rosa.
Silvers said he met Cheatham at a youth probation camp, where she was a chef. Even then, she was working with youth at the camp to teach them cooking skills.
“She was teaching them to be good people, not just cooks,” said Silvers. “She was teaching them to be kind and generous.”
Silvers also said that many chefs cooked dinners at WOW as fundraisers, and were eager to help whenever they got a call from her.
“Anytime she needed help, we wanted to be there,” he said.
Cheatham and I had a personal relationship as well. She loved it when I wrote about her students, and in turn, she was a mentor and inspiration. Though she could be direct, she also always had a hug and a smile. She didn’t suffer fools, but she was patient when I acted like one. In the first days of the Tubbs fire, as I ran around Franchetti’s restaurant trying to figure out how to organize chefs and feed disaster survivors, she sat quietly at the table next to me offering up help and advice on how to handle the emergency.
A little bit of Evelyn lives in so many that continue her work. We will miss her dearly.
I am truly heart broken as I write this. I talked to my Friend a little over a month ago, when She told me , She was looking forward to coming meet me in New Orleans since She finally had time to travel after the closing of W.O.W.! She definitely inspired me to be a better person after being in Her presence. The world is better because She was in it. Now Heaven is a better place because She is now there. I will truly miss you. Thank you for all that you done for the less fortunate, you were definitely a “True Act of Godliness”!
Chef Joe Durio
La Chef of the Year, from New Orleans!
The Unsung Hero Award Recipient, from President Obama!
Founder of the Kajun Kreol Cafe’ Franchise
Most importantly, Chef Evelyn’s Friend!♥️
Chef was the best a truly great spirit and energy to be award. She was my Miyagi.
Evelyn was a wonderful woman who did so much for our community. She was talented as a chef and as a teacher. I am honored to have worked with her.
she will be missed, she helped us so much when my mom, my sisters and I came to the US from El Salvador, she gave me my first job at Sweets downtown Santa Rosa.
Grateful for having you as a mentor. Miss you already.
Devastated.
Evelyn was a chef, friend and advocate of youth, citizen, and warrior for justice. When she spoke, everyone listened.