I done decided I'd get me a cook job: becoming a cook -- From collards to puff pastry: the food -- Long hours and little pay: compensation and workers' resistance -- Creating a homeplace: shelter, food, clothing, and a little fun -- Mama leaps off the pancake box: cooks and their families -- Gendering Jim Crow: relationships with employers -- If I ever catch you in a white woman's kitchen, I'll kill you: expanding opportunities and the decline of domestic work.