Justin Wilson (chef)

Justin Wilson was married four times. His third wife died and his three other marriages ended in divorce. He had one son and three daughters: Harry D. Wilson II, Sara Sue, Pam, and Menette. Wilson's last residence was in Summit in Pike County, Mississippi. He died on September 5, 2001, of heart failure in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is interred beside his third wife at Port Vincent Community Cemetery (also known as Saint William Catholic Cemetery) in Port Vincent in Livingston Parish.

Wison appeared in a series of television commercials for Cajun Spice Ruffles potato chips duuring the late 1980s. In 1997, he published the cookbook "Looking Back", which combined his first two cookbooks in a hardcover format, with additional photos, and notes on how his cooking techniques had changed (e. g., using olive oil instead of oleo) since those early cookbooks were published. A companion series was produced, also titled "Looking Back" and broadcast nationwide on PBS, which was a repackaging of Wilson's first cooking show from 1971, with new intros by Wilson himself. This was the first time the 1971 programs were ever seen nationwide, as they were originally produced by Mississippi Educational Television and, at that time, were only broadcast regionally.

Known for his emphasis on patriotic themes, Wilson over the years became involved in numerous Louisiana political campaigns. Former State Senator Don W. Williamson of Caddo Parish recalls Wilson having cut a commercial for Williamson's Democratic challenge in 1979 to incumbent Insurance Commissioner Sherman A. Bernard. Williamson recalls that Wilson just volunteered to help him. Williamson only narrowly lost to Bernard, who later was imprisoned for fraud in the handling of his state job duties.

He composed ten songs, as well as composing the background music for his cooking show, and recorded one album of Christmas songs with a jazz band. Wilson wrote seven Cajun cookbooks and two books of Cajun stories. He hosted several cooking shows on Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) and at least one in 1975, for Mississippi Educational Television (ETV), that combined Cajun cooking and humor. Most were aired from the studios of WYES-TV in New Orleans.

As the son of the former agriculture commissioner who died in office in 1948, Wilson was politically active in his early years. In 1951–1952, Justin Wilson was the manager of the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial campaign of Lieutenant Governor William J. "Bill" Dodd. He and Dodd were close though they often disagreed on political philosophy. Wilson's brother-in-law, Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr., was the Democratic attorney general of Louisiana from 1948 to 1952, while Dodd was lieutenant governor. Kemp served between the two terms of Attorney General Fred S. LeBlanc of Baton Rouge.

Wilson was born in Roseland near Amite, the seat of Tangipahoa Parish, one of the "Florida Parishes" of southeastern Louisiana. He was the second youngest of seven children of Harry D. Wilson, the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry from 1916 to 1948 and a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Justin E. Wilson (April 24, 1914 – September 5, 2001) was a Southern American chef and humorist known for his brand of Cajun-inspired cuisine, humor and storytelling.

While Wilson presented himself as Cajun in his act, it is unclear if he had any actual Acadian or French ancestry. His father Harry Wilson was of Welsh descent. Justin Wilson described his mother, the former Olivet Mintern Toadvin (1880–1976), as Cajun, but she has no known ancestors who either were Acadian, lived in the Cajun regions of Louisiana, or emigrated from France. (She did, however, teach Justin how to cook.) Her surname Toadvin derives from a native of Guernsey who immigrated to Maryland circa 1675. The Florida Parishes, where the family lived, were not part of the French or Spanish colonies of Louisiana.