Stephen Satterfield begins and ends the second season of his starring role on “High on the Hog” staring out into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. This expanse of sea saw the abduction and enslavement of millions of African Americans, beginning in 1619. Four centuries later, Satterfield, a food writer and ex-sommelier, stands to recount the narratives of Black resilience through food.
Dr. Jessica Harris, the author of the novel “High on the Hog” and the muse for this Netflix series, often accompanies Satterfield, as well as fellow gastronomical experts, while he examines the groundbreaking nature of African American cuisine, which continues to revolutionize the way this country dines today. The previous season took the two to North and South Carolina, Virginia, Texas and the coast of Benin. Released on November 22, 2023, its second season journeys through New Orleans, Edgard, Chicago, Harlem, Atlanta, Los Angeles and the Bronx. “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America” pays a thoughtful homage to the timeline of Black liberation through food, and its second season links Black cuisine from directly after the emancipation of slavery to the civil rights movement during the mid-to-late 1900s. Satterfield delves into Black history from all across the U.S., including how Black-owned restaurants like Paschal’s in Atlanta, Georgia served as safe havens for civil rights activists such as Malcolm X and the stories of Chicago’s Pullman Porters, Black men who toiled under despicable working conditions as servers on trains managed by the Pullman Company post-emancipation.
“High on the Hog’s” cinematography is full of love, clearly directed by both a foodie and a humanitarian. Eddie Belaval and Joshua Makela’s cameras linger on every detail of each mouth-watering dish and capture the spark in every chef’s eyes. This delightfully empathetic lens is exactly what gifts this series its trademark sentimentality. Many chefs Satterfield meets concur that creating food is an art form of resistance. Buoyant and joyful, the creative visions of Belaval and Makela secure this glorious portrayal with pride.
This season approaches culinary excellence, both with an admiring nod to the often unsung legacies of Black innovation and a reassuring salute to the legacies that trailblazing Black chefs are building today. Satterfield visits numerous Black visionaries who are centering sustainability, social justice, intersectionality and land reclamation in their work with food and drink. Satterfield’s expert interviewing skills also ensure that every conversation he has with a chef equally catalogs the disparities and triumphs that make up Black history. There is no neat way to package trauma, so “High on the Hog” tells it like it is. Nevertheless, Satterfield leaves his audience with hope, which is proved to be the most valuable currency through the stories of countless Black Americans who fought valiantly for that very thing.
“High on the Hog” is the much-needed exploration of how Black culinary excellence has traversed, resiliently and passionately, through countless generations. This series does justice to the stunning radicality of finding joy through food and cultural connections. Moreover, it proves that community lies at the heart of resistance. To build that community, perhaps we should all consider what we can bring to the table.
