Originally born out of a Scotch-Irish recipe in the 1700s, she-crab soup was later transformed into an iconic dish by a Charleston chef named William Deas who had a knack for experimentation.

But, it's widely accepted that she-crab soup was first made at the John Rutledge House in the 1920s by William Deas, the butler and cook for Charleston's mayor at the time, Robert Goodwyn Rhett.