Elle Simone Scott, 'America's Test Kitchen' chef and cookbook author, dies at 49

Elle Simone Scott, a cook and cookbook writer champion known for her enactment connected “America’s Test Kitchen,” has died. She was 49.

Describing her arsenic “one of [the organization’s] brightest stars,” “America’s Test Kitchen” main contented serviceman Dan Souza confirmed successful a connection Thursday that Scott died Monday aft a agelong conflict with ovarian cancer. The quality was archetypal announced Wednesday connected ATK’s Instagram.

“Scott brought warmth and a vibrant tone to everything she did,” Souza said. “Friends and colleagues volition retrieve [her] for her quality to make assemblage and supply opportunities for others, some wrong and extracurricular of enactment ... Her bequest volition unrecorded connected astatine America’s Test Kitchen and successful the homes and hearts of the millions of location cooks whose lives she touched.”

A Detroit native, Scott joined “America’s Test Kitchen” successful 2016 and became the archetypal Black pistillate formed subordinate connected the fashionable PBS cooking show. In summation to authoring cookbooks “Boards: Stylish Spreads for Casual Gatherings” and “Food Gifts: 150+ Irresistible Recipes for Crafting Personalized Presents,” she hosted “The Walk-In” podcast and worked arsenic a nutrient stylist.

In a tribute connected Instagram, person and chap TV cook Carla Hall praised Scott for being “a force” and “a trailblazer.”

“At America’s Test Kitchen, Elle helped unfastened doors that had agelong been closed —becoming 1 of the archetypal Black women audiences saw successful the trial kitchen, and doing truthful with grace, authority, and joy,” wrote Hall. “Her dependable mattered. Her enactment mattered. She mattered.”

According to WBUR, Scott, who lived successful Boston, pivoted to a vocation successful nutrient successful 2008 aft she mislaid her home, car and occupation arsenic a societal idiosyncratic during the recession.

“The thought occurred to me, ‘if I person to bash thing for the adjacent 25 years of my life, it amended beryllium thing I love,’ ” Scott said during a 2019 vigor segment. “The lone happening I could deliberation of was cooking. It was the 1 happening that brought maine bid and joy.”

She became an advocator for practice successful nutrient media and the culinary world, co-founding SheChef Inc., an enactment for women chefs of colour that provides mentorship to young women pursuing a vocation successful the field, successful 2013.

“I thought it would beryllium a large mode to make a web to bring those underrepresented radical unneurotic to spot however we could enactment each other, make a web wherever we tin assistance each different turn professionally — besides to conscionable woody with the angst of being women successful kitchens wherever we are the lone women successful the kitchen,” Scott told WTOP News successful 2019.

Scott was archetypal diagnosed with ovarian crab successful 2016, according to the Detroit News, but told the outlet she was cancer-free successful 2020.

“Elle faced ovarian crab with courageousness and honesty, utilizing her level to educate, advocate, and uplift adjacent portion warring for her life,” Hall said successful her tribute. “We grant you, Elle. Your bequest lives connected successful each room you inspired and each navigator who yet saw themselves reflected back.”