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Cultures may be different, but food is the one thing that connects everyone. That’s the premise of Los Angeles chef Alisa Reynolds’ new Hulu show Searching for Soul Food. It debuted on June 2 and it takes Reynolds around the world to search for authentic cultural meals.
It’s one of the latest projects from Onyx Collective, Disney’s slate of content with BIPOC creators. Reynolds travels from Appalachia to Jamaica to sample various dishes and culinary traditions. The proprietor of LA restaurant My 2 Cents, Reynolds is looking for authentic food in varied places.
“One of the significant similarities I found was how many of these cultures had a history of creating something from nothing, which we know comes from colonization,” she told the Huffington Post. “I also saw how dedicated people were to keeping the tradition alive and fighting erasure because the meals were created during tough times and meant so much to many people.”
American soul food has taken a beating in recent years because it’s blamed for the disproportionately high rates of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes that plague African Americans. But Reynolds hopes her show dispels the narrative around food that sustained Black people for centuries.
“Do you realize we had more gardens back then than we do today? Did you realize that that was the first physical farm-to-table? That, and we ate way more greens and vegetables back then because meat was a commodity. I just want us to talk more about keeping the traditions alive and how that can still be good and healthy,” she said.
Searching for Soul Food‘s eight episodes are available on Hulu now. Watch the trailer below.
