- Hi, my name is Karis Jagger.
I'm the Executive Producer of "High on the Hog".
- Hi, I'm Fabienne Toback.
And I'm an Executive Producer on "High on the Hog".
- I think a lot about food.
How it connects us through time, across geography.
So good.
From generation to generation.
It tells stories about where we've been,
where we are, and where we're going.
The truth is a lot of American food has its roots
in African-American food, traditions, and ingenuity.
From the earliest days to the darkest decades of struggle,
we persevered.
These are our stories.
(upbeat music)
- "High on the Hog" is a four-part documentary series
about the history of African-Americans
told through the lens of food.
(gentle upbeat music)
- The inspiration was through a friend
who sent me the cover of the book and said,
"Read this book, it'll change your life."
I sat down in one sitting and read the book
and was blown away by all the information
that I did not know about the African-American influence
on the American kitchen and American culture.
It was around the time of Michael Brown and Ferguson.
And we wanted to make something deeper
and a little bit more resonant.
And when the book showed up in our lives,
we realized like this is it.
These are stories that needed to be told.
And when you look at a story like this
through the lens of food, everyone eats.
So it kinda made a natural gateway
to show this resilience and empowerment.
And that was really what we wanted to do with the series.
We also wanted to change the way people view certain foods
that are deeply embedded in our culture.
- We really wanted to start in Benin,
Jessica's book started there.
I think a lot of people aren't familiar
with that country and that space.
And Charleston was so important
in terms of the story of the Carolina Gold rice.
And then I think when we get into episode three
was where we had our first break away from the book,
which was up in the North, but also dealt with New Orleans.
And we decided that was too much to include.
I think those are good editing choices.
And our amazing show runner, Shoshana Guy,
we were listening to her to say like,
we just can't go any place else.
Like it's too much.
It's a team effort.
You have to listen to everyone on your team
and respect people's ability to intake
too much information is overwhelming.
- Being in Africa it was truly life-changing experience.
And then it was the culmination of like a seed of an idea.
We started shooting the first day we were there
And I think we were there for 10 days.
There were two cameras, it was pretty lean.
I think we were a crew of 10, including us.
So that's not that big.
- It rained a lot and we would just think like,
holy macro is this ever gonna let up?
And then it would like miraculously.
And then we would like run to the market and shoot.
That and the language was...
Fabiana and I both speak French,
but most of everyone else on the crew didn't.
So we were doing a lot of translating.
- As a research for the series,
we started a food blog called Hey Sista.
And the amount of people emailing us or Dm-ing us
it's just amazing.
And really everyone is saying like,
"Thank you for making this."
"Thank you, I feel seen, this is so important."
And also, "I had no idea."
- You must have grown up eating Mac and cheese.
- Oh sure, we all did, didn't we?
- Yeah, we all did.
And so, how did it feel once you realized
that you were a descendant of the person or the family
that helped popularize this dish in the US.
- Well, first of all, I didn't grow up with that knowledge.
I didn't learn that until recently.
And now that I know that
I'm wondering where my royalties are. (chuckles)
- We're all wondering that, actually.
- Beyond that, listen, it's really an honor.
I'm lucky enough to know that history.
But every black American has something like that
in their backgrounds.
They just don't know it.
- I think that when Fabiana and I both read the book,
we were so blown away.
And I think people are having that experience
watching the show.
And it's very incredible to see like that same joy
that we felt when we read the book.
Now, people experiencing for themselves.
- Thanks for watching.
- And go check out "High on the Hog" now on Netflix.