Tina Hedin, 62, has laid bare in unflinching honesty the reality of her life ever since the devastating death of her daughter Kierstin at the age of 25.
With all due respect to barbecue, Ben & Jerry s and TikTok s baked feta pasta, the way to humanity s heart is not just through our stomachs. The heart needs nutrients. The brain requires refreshment. The soul must be sustained.
Fortunately for the portion of humanity that is hooked on food TV shows, Netflix has delivered a new series that is not content to wow us with fabulous food and charismatic chefs.
Over four illuminating episodes, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America nourishes viewers on multiple levels. As it explores the influence of Black American foods on the way America eats, the series serves heartening portions of history and perspective, along with an appreciation of culinary traditions, pioneering chefs and mouthwatering dishes that will stick to your ribs like a bottomless bowl of rice and beans.
In the first episode of the new Netflix series High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, host Stephen Satterfield explores a West African open-air market with historian and author Jessica B. Harris. NETFLIX/TNS
With all due respect to barbecue, Ben & Jerry s and TikTok s baked feta pasta, the way to humanity s heart is not just through our stomachs. The heart needs nutrients. The brain requires refreshment. The soul must be sustained.
Fortunately for the portion of humanity that is hooked on food TV shows, Netflix has delivered a new series that is not content to wow us with fabulous food and charismatic chefs.
When the opening sequence of the first episode of High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America began to roll, my face flushed and my stomach dropped into the pit of my abdomen. I was overwhelmed by the panning scenes of the marshes of Benin and the clips of churchgoers catching the spirit, gleefully dancing in praise. It felt intimately familiar to me. Benin is not my home, but it felt like North Carolina.
The history of Black American food is the topic of the new Netflix documentary, but food is the center of life, and the show conjures a broad and profound sense of familiarity and reverence. The four-part series takes place across the Atlantic and around the U.S. as the food writer Stephen Satterfield navigates the ways in which Black Americans created the backbone of America’s cuisine and its economy. It’s a fresh lens on a centuries-old truth: Without us, there is no America.