Netflix abounds with food series, some starring chefs, others celebrities, and a number that focus on travel as well as cuisine.
The ones that look at history tend to either be jovial or like homework, and while you may learn something from them, you might gravitate to the ones that are more entertaining.
High On The Hog is a completely different type of series. Its subtitle is, “How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” a sweeping topic that has roots in historian Jessica B. Harris’ book with the same name.
When I finished watching the four episodes, my first reaction was, “I want to see more.” It left me hungry, not just for the food depicted on screen, but for more of the stories and the characters to whom the show introduces us.
I have met both the show’s host, Stephen Satterfield, the founder of Whetstone Media, and Dr. Harris, the noted culinary educator, who appears in the first episode.
Her buoyant personality is perfect for the screen. Stephen, however, is quieter, and you can see him absorbing and feeling everything he hears.
Those feelings translate into joy and tears, and I can’t remember the last time I was so moved by a program. In fact, I had to take a break between the first pair of episodes and the concluding ones.
Reviews are comparing it to Anthony Bourdain’s various series, but there’s a big difference. While Bourdain was a chef and a writer, he was not primarily someone who specialized in interviews.
Stephen might come across as a little shy, but knows how to draw out people and make them the focus of a segment, rather than himself.
Slave roots in Africa
The program opens in Benin, in West Africa, with scenes of lively markets, colorful fabrics and expressive people.
But Benin is also where enslaved Africans were rounded up and put on ships for America, for a life from which few people escaped.
No matter how many books you’ve read or programs you’ve watched, you still find yourself in shock realizing the reality of what transpired.
I was weeping as I watched Stephen walk the road that led to the docks, realizing anew what the people who were forced to take that journey experienced.
In the following episode, which takes place off the coast of South Carolina, we learn how those slaves took the substandard food that their masters gave them to cook and turned it into something that could become a community meal.
Although High On The Hog has come to mean living in a luxurious way, there’s a functional meaning to it as well.
Slaves were given pieces of pigs, sheep and cows that their owners deemed unappetizing, like ears, cheeks, the heads, and so on. These were then combined with available vegetables or spices or grains.
You might wonder how these food ways are relevant to a modern audience, and writer Michael Twitty has the answer.
“It’s about a connection between us and our dead and us and those who are waiting to be born,” he says, as he and Stephen cook crab soup with okra over an open fire.
At Gullah Grub, a restaurant that celebrates local South Carolina cuisine, owner Bill Green offers his own perspective. “You can feel the food when you eat it,” he tells Stephen.
Historic meals, prepared by slave chefs
Those episodes are so sobering that it’s a surprise when the next one starts in an elegant dining room, with china and crystal and silver.
We learn about two of the most important chefs in American history, who were both slaves — Hercules Posey, George Washington’s chef, and James Hemings, who played the same role for Thomas Jefferson.
James was the brother of Sally Hemings, who bore six children for Jefferson, and he was the first American who studied cuisine in Paris.
Each man could merit a documentary of their own (let alone a musical). “They are two of the most important chefs in America and they’ve never gotten any credit for it,” historian Adrian Miller tells Stephen.
Hercules might have wound up as the first White House chef, but he disappeared while Washington was entertaining at Mount Vernon. For a year, Washington fretted over his disappearance and tried to find him, a quest taken up by Martha Washington after his death.
Historians later discovered that Hercules went to New York City, and I won’t spoil what happened to him.
James, meanwhile, wanted his freedom and was offered it by Jefferson on one agonizing condition, which you’ll find out when you watch.
In the same episode, we learn that catering most likely started with Black entrepreneurs in Philadelphia in the 1800s. They were able to go into business because Philadelphia was a free city and Pennsylvania the first state to abolish slavery in 1780.
The story winds up in Texas, with Black cowboys, barbecue and an explanation of Juneteenth. (It has just been made a holiday in Ann Arbor, and that movement is spreading.)
High On The Hog is a documentary that will resonate with you, for the images, the people and the reality it presents.
At a time when all kinds of history is being rethought, it’s important that we consider the events and experiences that shaped the American food world, as well.
How lucky we are to have guides like Stephen, Dr. Harris and all the people presented in High On The Hog. I would happy watch many more seasons, and I now know to have a box of Kleenex nearby.
A Chef Sharing His Skills On Instagram
During the sweeping restaurant shutdowns that took place during the pandemic, a number of chefs and authors embraced social media as a way to share their skills and views.
The group includes everyone from Joanne Chang at Flour Bakery and Cafe in Boston, to Chicago’s Rick Bayless and David Lebovitz, who regularly appears from Paris.
One of my favorites is Jason Goodenough, the New Orleans chef who most recently owned Carrollton Market.
He was named chef of the year in 2017 by New Orleans Magazine, and many diners loved Carrollton' Market’s twists on traditional Southern food. This red snapper with coconut rice was his most-requested dish.
Unfortunately, some patrons disagreed with Jason’s beliefs, including his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. A nasty tiff with one customer, coupled with the stress of trying to deal with Covid restrictions, prompted him to close his restaurant in January.
Since then, he’s cooked privately and publicly, in the form of his Instagram Stories. Every night or two, Jason demonstrates the food he is cooking at home, or the dishes he is making for one of his customers.
He jokes that his young daughters can’t stand his food, but everything he’s made looks pretty delectable. He was kind enough to send me the instructions for making tamarind sauce, which I’m going to test out on my own veggies and fish.
You can follow him on Instagram @chefgoodenough and it’s likely you’ll pick up some useful tips. And, if you need an event chef, get in touch.
Farewell To A Very Lovely Artist
Readers across the country breathed a collective sigh of sadness last week, when they heard that Eric Carle had died.
He illustrated more than 70 books, and wrote at least 50 of them, selling more than 145 million copies around the world.
You probably own or at least know about The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was translated into 66 languages and sold 50 million copies on its own. His library also included Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Papa, Please Get The Moon For me.
One theme across Eric’s books was food. Many young children got their first glimpses of fruits and vegetables through him, and learned to count.
For instance, the caterpillar ate one apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, three plums on Wednesday, and a massive meal on Saturday that included chocolate cake, cherry pie and a slice of watermelon.
In fact, he wrote four children’s books that focused exclusively on food — Walter the Baker, Pancakes, Pancakes!, My Apron, and Today Is Monday.
In 2011, Eric’s museum in Northampton, Mass., put on a display of his food illustrations from those books, which you can revisit in this piece from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Goodbye to Eric, but his books and lovely food drawings will be with us always.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
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Follow me on Instagram @michelinemaynard and on Twitter @culinarywoman. We also have a CulinaryWoman Facebook page.
Email me at culinarywoman at gmail dot com.
The CulinaryWoman podcast will launch season two soon; meanwhile, get caught up on season one wherever you get your podcasts.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend, get vaccinated if you haven’t yet, and see you next week.
I would not recommend watching "High On The Hog" on an empty stomach. I caught the first episode last night after reading your newsletter. It made me 1) Very hungry! and 2) Want to visit West Africa.