High on the Hog_ A Culinary Journey From Africa to America - Jessica B. Harris [114]
New waves of immigrants have arrived from the African motherland, set up restaurants, and reacquainted us with tastes of our long-departed homeland. Morou Ouattara cooks recipes learned from his Ivoirian grandmother in the Washington, D.C., area and Pierre Thiam reinvents Senegalese classics in Brooklyn, New York. Bryant Terry creates vegan soul food in Oakland, California. Around the country, African American chefs are stepping up to stoves and creating foods that are expressions of the sum total of the black cultural experience: African, Southern, Caribbean, and more. And it seems that we are finally on our way to having our media superstars. The four currently most likely to succeed all represent different aspects of black diversity and are unlikely standard-bearers for the centuries-old traditions of African American cooking: a couple and a former hotel chef from Atlanta and an Ethiopian raised in Sweden.
Pat and Gina Neely are the more traditional of these chefs. They began their journey to fame in 1988, when the four Neely brothers opened a barbecue restaurant in downtown Memphis, a city known for its mastery of the genre. The Neelys’ place prospered, and soon the family businesses numbered three. A segment with weatherman cum food critic Al Roker of the Today Show took news of the brothers’ way with barbecue national. In 2008 Pat and Gina were given their own television show on the Food Network—the cable media juggernaut that created such culinary superstars as Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, and Paula Deen.
Down Home with the Neelys cemented their national prominence, and thanks to the power of television, they have become arguably the best-known African American cooks in the country. However, their renown did not come without controversy. As one of the very few African American cooking shows with national distribution, Down Home with the Neelys came under close scrutiny, especially from blacks. The virulence of the critics amply demonstrated how complex the world of black food had become. The format of the show, the dishes prepared, and the patter Pat and Gina Neely engage in while cooking have all been analyzed on culinary Web sites. At the show’s inception, most viewers were outraged by everything from the dishes prepared on the air to the dialogue. A strawberry cake prepared with cake mix, Jell-O, strawberries, and whipped cream came under particular fire, as did the family’s “loud and boisterous” manner. The level of sexual innuendo in the couple’s banter and the personal style of Gina Neely were other points of dismay. African American viewers were particularly concerned that the show not be a throwback to behavior considered stereotypical and not a representation of the diversity and sophistication of African American lifestyle and cooking. Changes were made, and today Down Home with the Neelys remains one of the Food Network’s most popular shows and indeed one of the few shows by black chefs that is available to a national television audience.
While the Neelys’ food riffs on the classic Southern tastes of the African American past, G. Garvin’s food and presence are designed for the black audience that watches TV One—the black television station that was begun in 2004 as an alternative to BET. Garvin trained in the kitchen, working his way up the ranks from dishwasher to line cook to sous chef and beyond. After a two-year stint in European kitchens, he returned stateside to work in hotel kitchens and private restaurants in Atlanta and on the West Coast. Mediagenic and as smooth as chocolate crème brûlée, Garvin has become a media presence complete with appearances on late-night talk shows, sponsorship deals with food brands, and a foundation that helps young men by teaching them discipline through cooking. Garvin’s success, though, seems restricted and has not yet reached