Throughout the 1990s, she won several awards (see below) and befriended a chef named Scott Peacock, after meeting him while he was a cook in the Virginia Governor's Mansion in 1990. The two formed a deep friendship, with Lewis moving to Atlanta to be near Peacock in 1992, and they eventually collaborated on the book "The Gift of Southern Cooking" (2003). Their long standing friendship – and seemingly at odds personas (he – a young, white, gay male and she – an older, widowed African American woman) resulted in them being referred to as "The Odd Couple of Southern Cooking". For the rest of her life, Lewis and Peacock would work together to try and ensure that classic Southern dishes and details would not be forgotten – as they were both deeply dedicated to the preservation of Southern cooking. As Lewis aged, Peacock would go on to become her caretaker up until her death in 2006.