The Making of ‘High on the Hog,’ Bringing Black Food History to TV

The new Netflix series tapped years of scholarship and the life experience of its creators to chart how African Americans have shaped the country’s cuisine.

There is a breathtaking moment near the end of the first episode of “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” a new four-part Netflix documentary based on the 2011 book by the scholar Jessica B. Harris. The scene unfolds in Benin, a country Dr. Harris has visited a dozen times in her work chronicling the connection between the foods of West Africa and the United States. She tenderly leads the series’ host, Stephen Satterfield, to the Cemetery of Slaves. The beachfront memorial marks the mass grave of thousands who died in captivity before they could be loaded into ships at one of the most active slave-trading ports in Africa. Mr. Satterfield, a reserved 37-year-old who moved from a restaurant career to one in media, begins to cry. “I’m so glad I can tell them thank you,” he says. “And I’m so glad that finally, I get to bring them home with me. They get to come home.”