High On The Hog Reader
“We planted seeds, we toiled the fields, and we watched as our hard work sprouted gold. We nourished a nation through our cooking and baked our traditions in the cuisines that would define America. Our story is America. ”
Introduction
High on the Hog is the docuseries you didn’t know you needed, and if you pay attention, it will show you the soul of America.
The first time I read High on the Hog by Dr. Jessica B. Harris was a revelation. I was a few years out of culinary school, finding my way as a chef asking myself serious questions about identity. They were questions about how I would fit into a culinary industry that seemed to have a marginal affection for Black foodways and questions about how I would define my culture through the complicated prism of America’s dismissive melting pot mentality. This work of self-discovery was even trickier because, in the food world of 2011, there wasn’t a clear starting point.
Before High on the Hog, I can count on one hand the heavily researched nonfiction books that centered an essential Blackness to American cuisine. Dr. Psyche Forson-Williams’ brilliant book Building Houses out of Chicken Legs was published in 2006. In that book, she offered a beautifully nuanced story of Black entrepreneurship and female empowerment through food service. Dr. Fred Opie had written Hog and Hominy, in 2008 which analyzed the tropes and mythology around Black food culture. While it was a deeply rooted and well-researched book, it was about making sense of cultural diffusion.
There were also the cookbooks. As Toni Tipton Martin showed us in her book The Jemima Code, cookbooks were the principal place where some deference was paid to Black culture even if it was often marginal or, in some cases, grudgingly given. She chronicles 200 years of cookbooks written by Black creatives. There were undoubtedly standouts like chefs and culinary luminaries Edna Lewis and Vertamane Smart-Grosvenor, who were explicit about their heritage. Still, until High on the Hog, there hadn’t been a book that overtly made a case for a wholesale reevaluation of what we considered American cuisine through the lens of the Black experience and often dismissed any expansive narrative of primary creation.
Dr. Harris created a straightforward linear story of how Black culture contributed to this country’s culinary identity. She had already written 12 cookbooks spanning 25 years that had explored the African diaspora. In 300 pages, she introduced a popular non-fiction book on food history that lived outside of the academic setting or the cookbook section, and she did it all in the graceful, relatable, and conversational style she had come to be known for.
A decade later and the media landscape has evolved. With it, room for the new High on the Hog docuseries is made. Executive produced by the Hey Sistah producing team of Fabienne Toback & Karis Jagger in partnership with director Roger Ross Williams and his One Story Up production company, the series explores the first half of Dr. Harris’ book in a 4 act narrative that tracks the Black culinary experience from West Africa through the middle passage to America through to emancipation.
Hosted by the eternally charming Stephen Satterfield of Whetstone Media, the series creates a visual and sonic representation of the book’s spirit while juxtaposing the historic themes with contemporary voices and locations. Through Stephens’s kind and charismatic presentation style, he engaged with a global network of Black creatives that bring the text to life.
High on the Hog has gone from revelatory to prophetic because it has made way for a completely new posture of engaging Black foodways. The docuseries has expanded the possibilities for Black foodways in the space of film and television, to be sure. Still, the book has ushered in a whole new wave of diaspolically centered restaurants like Eduardo Jordan’s Junebaby and Kristi Brown’s Communion in Seattle, Mashama Baily’s The Grey in Savannah, and Erick Williams’ Virtue in Chicago just to name a few. There is also an emerging publishing appetite for Black culinary nonfiction in both print and digital publications like For the Culture, Whetstone, and While Entertaining Magazines, as well as the recently announced creative imprint at Ten Speed Press from Bryant Terry, called 4 Color Books which will have as its first offering the anthology Black Food.
The natural evolution of the argument Dr. Jessica B. Harris made a decade ago about the true soul of American cuisine is at the core of this series. It’s taken two Obama presidential terms, an evolving food media landscape, and a reawakening of social conscience to convince the media zeitgeist she was right. Still, in the lifecycle of culinary evolution, the question is, what will the food world do with this new information? What will Black creatives do with this affirmation? Only time will tell, but if the decade post-High on the Hog is any indication, this is a great time to be thinking critically about Black foodways, and this series will be marked as a watershed moment.
Breakdown of the Reader Methodology
This reader is meant to supplement the docuseries and guide you through using the book throughout the series. Each episode is broken down, offering location context, subject bios, and supplemental reading that will help make each episode richer. There are also culinary suggestions that will add to your viewing experience and will give culinary context to the themes explored in each episode.
Season One
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Our Roots
Directed by Roger Ross Williams
The series kicks off in Benin with Stephen and Dr. Harris exploring the Dantokpa open-air market, talking through the diasporic pantry that made its way through the middle passage to the US. There is a beautiful synergy to Dr. Harris guiding Stephen and passing on her wisdom in a tender and profoundly spiritual way. Her work has given the world a cultural and culinary grounding that we feel through Stephen exploring and absorbing the art and culture and communities that Black ancestors would have come from in a profound and tangible exercise in Sankofa.Locations:
Cotonou, Benin - modern port city. West African port of departure
Dan-Tokpa Market, the largest open-air market in West Africa
Saveurs Du Benin - Valerie Vinakpon Chef/ Owner
Chill N’Grill - Sedjro Ahouansou Chef/Owner
Abomey, Benin - an interior village where enslaved would have been walked from
Ganvie, Benin - water village site for freedom think sea islands off sc ga and fl
Ouidah, Benin - beginning of the middle passage
Episode Subjects:
Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Author High on the Hog
Valerie Vinakpon Writer, Owner/Executive Chef Saveurs Du Benin Cotonou Benin
Karelle Vignon-Vullierme, Food Blogger
Sedjro Ahouansou, Owner/Executive Chef Chill N’ Grill Cotonou Benin
Eric Kiki, tour guide Ganvie native
Romuald Hazoume, Artists
Episode Reading:
For this episode, you should read chapters 1 & 2. Dr. Harris’ uses these chapters to share her thoughts on the power of diaspora and the experience of the foodways, cultural language, and relevant geography of West Africa. She also contextualizes the middle passage and lifts up the direct links from West Africa to the American south that the transatlantic slave trade created. As mentioned earlier the series only covers the first half of the book so keep in mind you’re reading can continue with the bibliography throughout.
Additional Materials:
The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty
Aesthetic Vibes:
Episode Menu:
Omo Tuo (Rice Balls) with Tomato Jam
Lamb Suya with Groundnut Gremolata
Fried Snapper with Red Palm Aoli
Grilled Okra with Blistered Pepper Sauce
Plantain Fufu with Peanut sauce
Coconut Pannacotta with Pineapple compote
Palm Wine Cocktai
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The Rice Kingdom
Directed by Roger Ross Williams
We go from Benin to its cultural, culinary cousin, the low country of South Carolina, where Stephen explores the sea islands around Charleston. We are introduced to Chef Bill and Mrs. Sara Green of Gullah Grub Restaurant and chef, author, and historian Sallie Ann Robinson. These legendary keepers of Gullah heritage are the perfect beginning to the American leg of this journey. The series also balances the gravitas of these elders with younger, equally brilliant voices sharing their expertise. They include culinary historian Michael Twitty, chef, local Gullah culinary ambassador Benjamin ‘BJ’ Dennis, and preservationist and food activist Gabrielle E.W. Carter. Each of them is carrying on the tradition in their unique ways.
Charleston as the point of origin for episode 2 makes a lot of sense because there is an essentialness to the low country as the financial epicenter of American wealth via the rice trade, but also the tension between preservation of cultural identity and the cooptation of that identity all juxtaposed with the forces of capitalism and gentrification that make that cultural work more difficult each generation.
Locations:
Charleston, South Carolina
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina
Columbia South Carolina
St. Helena Island, South Carolina
Daufuskie Island, South Carolina
Apex, North Carolina
Episode Subjects:
Chef Benjamin BJ Dennis, chef
Michael W. Twitty, writer, historian
Glenn Roberts, Owner Anson Mills founder Carolina Gold Ricer Foundation
Chef Bill and Mrs.Sara Green, owners of Gullah Grub Restaurant
Sallie Ann Robinson, chef, writer, historian
Gabrielle E. W. Carter chef, preservationist, co0founder Tall Grass Food Box
Andrew Woodard
Episode Reading:
Chapter 3 of high on the hog takes us on a journey through enslaved life and how critical it is to our understanding of how west African traditions evolved into America. Charleston is the site of the greatest wealth and the most
Supplement Materials:
Gullah Home Cooking by Sallie Ann Robinson
Vibration Cooking or the Travel Notes of a Geechie Girl by Vertamae Smart Grosvenor
American wealth explained through the lens of the rice coast
The preservation of Gullah communities
Gabrielle’s Family Farm Legacy
Aesthetic Vibes:
Episode Menu:
Okra Soup
Smoked Mullet and Crab Fritters with Pickled Pepper Sauce
Dandelion Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Mushrooms, and Herb Vinaigrette
Grilled Chicken with Onion Soubise
White Lima Bean and Field Pea Cassoulet
Carolina Gold Rice
Cornmeal Poundcake with Fresh Berries and Chantilly Cream
Plum Wine or Cide
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Our Founding Chefs
Directed by Roger Ross Williams and Johnathan Clasberry
From the low country and our diasporic connection to West Africa, we next to dig into the building of American gastronomy through the colonial era and through the chefs, caterers, bartenders, and entrepreneurs that gave themselves over to professional hospitality work long before it was a revered industry. This episode is perhaps my favorite because it showcases culinary historian and living legend Dr. Leni Sorenson, who is mainly responsible for unearthing and shepherding research at Monticello that reclaims the legacy of the enslaved through the records of Thomas Jefferson. Her research and efforts are primarily responsible for why we know so much about Black life there and that these producers gave room for Dr. Sorensen is powerful in and of itself.
The episode also stands out because it offers a glimpse into how modern chefs pick up the cultural baton of Black culinary history and infuse it into their work. Chef Omar Tate of Honeysuckle Projects, who is fresh off his Stone Barns residency, uses Black culture, art, and history to create highly conceptual pop-ups. Ben Harney, artist, oysterman, and owner of The Real Mother Shucker, reclaims and decolonizes the seafood industry by using the legacy of famed NYC oysterman and restauranteur Thomas Downing as the inspiration for his business. And perhaps most overtly, chefs Brian Dunsmoor and Martin Draluck of Los Angeles restaurant Hatchet Hall focus on the techniques and methodology of the early American kitchens of Hercules Posey and James Hemings.
Locations:
New York, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Staten Island, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Charlottesville, VA Monticello
Los Angeles, CA Hatchet Hall
Episode Subjects:
Adrian Miller, writer, historian
Omar Tate, chef writer, Owner/Chef Honeysuckle Projects
Dr. Leni Sorensen, historian Indigo House
Niya Bates, Director of African American History, Monticello
Gayle Jessup White, Community Engagement officer, Monticello, Hemings Descendant
Sylvia D’Alessandro, Executive director Sandyground Historical Society
Valarie Erwin, chef
Ben Harney, artists, oysterman, owner/ Chef The Real Mother Shuckers
Brian Dunsmoor, Owner/Chef Hatchet Hall
Martin Draluck, Chef de Cuisine Hatchet Hall
Lauren Monroe, Descendant of the Philadelphia catering family the Dutrieuilles
Patricia Wilson Arden, Former President, The African American Museum of Philadephia
Episode Reading:
Chapters 4, 5, and the first half of 6 of High on the hog are required to absorb this episode. Dr. Harris uses these chapters to talk about the professional lives of Black people free and enslaved from plantation life to entrepreneurship particularly during the colonial era.
Supplement Materials:
The President’s Kitchen Cabinet by Adrian Miller
Aesthetic Vibe:
Episode Menu:
Sweet Potato Biscuits with Virginia Ham and Pickled Mustard Seeds
Oyster Stew with Crispy Oysters and Green Apple Salad
Roasted Veal Chops with Crab Veloute
Macaroni Pie with Truffles and Brie
Braised Artichokes with White wine and capers
Vanilla Ice cream with Baked Meringues, Fresh Fruit, and Gooseberry sauce
Pale Ale or IPA preferably Black-owned, Dry White Win
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Freedom
Directed by Yoruba Richen
The series ends on Freedom taking us on a trip through Texas. It’s an appropriate place to conclude the story because so much of the unfulfilled promise of America to the Black people who gave themselves to build this nation can be seen through the cowboys and frontiersmen of Texas. These brave men and women saw possibility and the power of self-determination as a birthright and traveled west searching for personhood.
In the final episode, we end with Anthony Bruno, trail boss of the Northeastern Trail Riders. He shares the legacy of the Black cowboy through his father, the elder Mr. Bruno, and the passing on of traditions intergenerationally through the ritual of trail riding. We also meet BBQ pitmasters and restauranteurs and conclude with Toni Tipton Martin using one of the stops of her abbreviated book tour for her cookbook Jubilee to share the stage and highlight chef Chris Williams who is carrying on the legacy of his great grandmother, the late chef, and restaurateur Lucille B. Smith.
Locations:
Hempstead, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Fresno, Texas
Huntsville, Texas - New Zion Missionary Baptist Church & BBQ,
Houston, Texas
Rosenburg, Texas - Black Cowboy’s Museum
Wharton Country, Texas - Wharton County Youth Fair
Episode Subjects
Jerrelle Guy, writer, cookbook author
Anthony Bruno, Trail Boss, Northeastern Trail Riders
Pastor Clinton Edison, Pastor, pitmaster, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church & BBQ
Greg Gatlin, Co-Owner, Gatlin’s BBQ
Mary Gatlin, Co-Owner, Gatlin’s BBQ
Michelle Wallace, Executive Chef, Gatlin’s BBQ
Eugene Thomas, Juneteenth Descendant
Toni Topton Martin, author, historian, journalist
Chris Williams, Owner/Chef, Lucille’s Restaurant
Larry Callies, Founder, Black Cowboy Museum
Episode Reading:
The secong half of chapter 6, the “O! Freedom” section, and 7 Westward Ho! are the chapters to focus on in this episode. Episode 4 concerns itself with Texas as the thematic manifestation of emancipation and the articulation of a visceral language of freedom. Texas bcomes the site of the promise, if not the actualization of black agency and the symbolism of cowboys, manifest destiny, and Black authorship of BBQ tradition round out thus episode.
Supplement Materials:
Black Smoke by Adrian Miller
Aestetic Vibe:
Episode Menu:
Pickled Shrimp with Okra and Tomatoes
Fried Green Tomatoes with Goat Cheese and Red Pepper Remoulade
Smoked Brisket
Warm Sweet Potato Salad
Kale and Collard Green Salad with Chili Vinaigrette
Sweet Corn and Jalapeno Spoonbread
Red Velvet Cake
Lavender Tea Cakes with Lemon Sorbet and fresh berries
Hibiscus Tea and Citrus Mint Tea