Hattie Moseley Austin (April 23, 1998
) was an American chef and
restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...
. She was the founder-owner-chef of
Hattie's Chicken Shack in
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...
.
Personal
Hattie was born Hattie Gray in
Saint Francisville, Louisiana, around 1900. Her mother, Lydia, died in childbirth. The wife of a local
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
, Hattie Leopold, who had employed Lydia took an interest in the child and helped Hattie's father Harry raise her. Hattie was named after Mrs. Leopold.
She moved to
for school, and then to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. In Chicago she went to work as a cook for the family of A.E. Staley, known as "The Starch King", founder of
the corn processing company of the same name. The Staleys owned homes in Chicago,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, and Saratoga Springs and when they travelled Hattie accompanied them.
Hattie was married twice, first to Willie Moseley, and after his death in 1971 to Bill Austin, She had no children of her own, but took in several needy neighborhood children.
Hattie's Chicken Shack
In 1938, Moseley Austin decided to settle permanently in Saratoga Springs and opened ''Hattie's Chicken Shack'' on Federal Street, a racially mixed neighborhood, with a total investment of $33.
Her specialty was a simple
fried chicken
Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or ...
recipe, although later she added other items of New Orleans cooking such as shrimp, scallops, and
barbeque
Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...
.
At this time Saratoga Springs was a "wide open" town with an active night life— much of it centered in the Federal Street area. During the summer season Moseley Austin operated her restaurant around the clock, seven days a week. She catered to all classes of people from wealthy gamblers to
backstretch Backstretch refers to either: (1) the portion of an oval racetrack on the far side of the grandstand, parallel to the homestretch, or, (2) particularly in North America, the area near the racetrack where horses are stabled and the daily work of main ...
workers from the
Saratoga Race Course
Saratoga Race Course is a Thoroughbred horse racing track located on Union Avenue in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. Opened in 1863, it is often considered to be the oldest major sporting venue of any kind in the country, but is actua ...
. She was also noted for feeding anyone who was hungry, even if they had no money to pay.
Moseley Austin operated the restaurant on Federal Street until 1968, when
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
wiped out the entire neighborhood. She then moved to Phila Street, where the restaurant still operates today although Moseley Austin sold it in 1993.
See also
*
A. E. Staley
References
External links
"Hattie (Gray) Austin Moseley" at the National Women's History Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Hattie
1900s births
1998 deaths
African-American chefs
Chefs from New York (state)
American women chefs
People from Saratoga Springs, New York
People from St. Francisville, Louisiana
Chefs from Louisiana
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
20th-century American women