Host and award-winning chef Vivian Howard takes viewers on a culinary tour of the South through cross-cultural dishes that appear on every neighbor’s table.
In six one-hour episodes, chef and author Vivian Howard digs deeper into the lesser known roots of Southern food, Southern cooking, and Southern living. Her curiosity has made her beloved by the millions of people who watched her grow into an award-winning television host, best-selling author, and celebrated chef over five seasons of “A Chef's Life.”
With “Somewhere South,” Howard serves as both student and guide, exploring cross-cultural dishes through the professional and personal relationships she has with southerners of many backgrounds. Each episode of “Somewhere South” explores the connectivity of a single dish, and the ways people of different backgrounds interpret that dish while expressing the complex values, identities, and histories that make up the American South.
“Somewhere South,” lets viewers meet their neighbors while exploring the foods that bind and define the American South — one dish at a time.
Episodes Line-up
EPISODE 101 - American as Hand Pie
Vivian’s crash course in mass producing hand pies inspires her to revisit the applejacks of her youth. Her journey includes a trip to West Virginia for a taste of their signature pepperoni rolls and a look at the world’s most popular hand pie — the empanada.
EPISODE 102 - Porridge for the Soul
At a dinner honoring pioneering chef Edna Lewis, Vivian gives porridge the royal treatment and learns about African American contributions to Southern cuisine. While in the port city, Vivian learns how rice holds the key to slavery’s sordid history.
EPISODE 103 - Dumpling Dilemma
A charity dinner and a trip to the Mississippi Delta and farther south reminds Vivian that not all dumplings are the same. But whether filled with minced meat, chopped veggies, or nothing at all, dumplings stretch our ingredients and our imagination.
EPISODE 104 - What a Pickle
Vivian is asked to lecture on chow chow, a quintessentially Southern relish, at Asheville’s first ever Chow Chow Festival. From there, her preservation education dives into Indian and Sri Lankan pickles, Puerto Rican escabeche and Korean kimchi.
EPISODE 105 - It’s a Greens Thing
At the Lumbee tribe’s annual homecoming, Vivian samples their famous collard sandwich and learns the roots of Southern hospitality. On a trip to Clarkston, Ga., Vivian meets a group of refugee farmers who grows greens that remind them of home.
EPISODE 106 - How Do You ‘Cue?
Every Southerner has a particular way they cook and eat barbecue. While Vivian knows North Carolina’s tradition of whole hog barbecue, she travels to Florida for smoked mullet and Texas for barbecue with Japanese and Mexican twists.
