James Hemings (1765–1801) was the first American to train as a chef in France. He was African American and born in Virginia in 1765. At 8 years old, he was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson . He was an older brother of Sally Hemings and a half-sibling of Jefferson's wife Martha Jefferson, with whom he shared John Wayles as father. It was said that Wayles had taken James's mother, who was his slave, as his mistress. Being his slave, she could not consent and the term mistress may be misleading. As a young man, Hemings was selected by Jefferson to accompany him to Paris when the latter was appointed Minister to France. There Hemings was trained to be a French chef; independently, he took lessons to learn how to speak the French language.