Your favorite Top Chef host is starting a new show, and it features SC Gullah cuisine
Top Chef host and judge Padma Lakshmi is starting a new TV show, and one of her first stops on a worldwide food tour was to the Lowcountry.
“The Gullah Way,” the fourth episode of Lakshmi’s newest show Taste the Nation, premieres on Hulu June 19.
The episode includes a discussion about Gullah-Geechee history in South Carolina — and the food traditions passed down through generations of life on the Sea Islands.
In the episode, Lakshmi “cracks crab with new friends and old, all working towards reclaiming their heritage,” according to Hulu.
Members of the Lowcountry’s Gullah community are descendants of African people who were brought to the U.S. as slaves. Many, especially on Hilton Head Island, try to hang onto generations-old land while passing on traditional foodways and language.
Hulu did not provide details about where Lakshmi dines or which local chefs she meets, but Charleston and Sea Islands such as St. Helena have been profiled by publications such as Bon Appétit in the last year for their rich connections to Gullah culture.
Taste the Nation premieres 10 episodes on Friday on Hulu.
According to the show’s synopsis, Lakshmi “takes audiences on a journey across America, exploring the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups, seeking out the people who have so heavily shaped what American food is today.”
Lakshmi is the host and executive producer of Bravo’s Top Chef, now in its 15th season, and a The New York Times best-selling author, as well as the recipient of the 2016 NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor, according to Bravo.
In a review of the show, The AV Club wrote, “This mode of culinary storytelling isn’t new—Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat, and David Chang’s Ugly Delicious have all interrogated what food and cooking can tell us about culture and our own worldview. But while Taste The Nation is somewhat slicker in presentation than those shows, it benefits from its hyper-focus. As Lakshmi chats and cooks with locals, she’s often met with stories of how American and European ingredients fundamentally altered the diets of these communities.”
