Martha Lou Gadsden, a self-taught chef whose “roll-your-eyes-it’s-so-good” soul food made her a Charleston culinary legend, has died. She was 91.
Gadsden died Thursday morning, her oldest daughter Joyce Taylor confirmed to WCSC. No cause of death was given.
In 1983, Gadsden opened Martha Lou’s Kitchen inside a modest Pepto-pink building at 1068 Morrison Drive, just north of downtown Charleston. Her unassuming, family-run restaurant became an institution in Charleston’s food scene.
And it served up home-made soul food for 37 years, closing in September 2020 when Gadsden was 90. The family said then that the land the family rented
