You may think that food programs aren’t your thing. Or history. Or documentaries. Or travelogues. But High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, which is a wonderful blend of all of the above, will entertain you, even as it informs.
It helps that our guide is food writer and Chef Stephen Satterfield. Why? Because he not only knows his food and history, but he is also an African-American, which makes his trip to West Africa in the first episode extremely personal and poignant.
Satterfield’s visit to the place where slaves were loaded up and taken across the Atlantic is a moving backdrop, but the main subject of the docuseries is how the cuisine of African-Americans started in Africa.
Dr. Jessica B. Harris, whose book High on the Hog inspired the series, walks along the enormous open market in Benin, giving a master class in food history while walking and talking. Later, she and Satterfield sit down for multi-course meals that look amazing and unless Satterfield is a good actor, they taste amazing, too.
Satterfield uses the phrase “myth-busting” as we learn the difference between a Yam and a Sweet Potato, among other “Gee, I didn’t know that” moments. Okra? Came from West Africa.
As a native southerner, I have been well acquainted with macaroni & cheese (love) and collard greens (no, thanks) and other dishes that would be called Soul Food – but as the later episodes come to the United States, we learn just how much of American cuisine is actually African-American cuisine.
As much as I love to eat, I am not a foodie and I don’t think I’ve ever watched a single minute of the Food Network. But it’s the context provided by High on the Hog that makes me lean into the screen to try (unsuccessfully) to smell that delicious food and to soak up the history that is rolled out as enjoyable conversation – absent the stiff Ken Burns/PBS style of storytelling. The series is populated with real people, living characters who you will remember.
If this looks like the kind of series you’d like, you’re right. If this looks like the kind of thing you aren’t interested in, give it a chance. You won’t regret it.
High on the Hog is currently streaming on Netflix| 3 ½ out of 4 stars| Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
