Today’s episode is with food writer, producer, and media entrepreneur Stephen Satterfield. Stephen is the host of Netflix’s critically acclaimed docuseries “High on the Hog” and the founder of Whetstone, a magazine and media company dedicated to food origins and culture from around the world. In this episode, he shares the importance of food origins as a space for reclamation and what it means to examine who and what’s being left out of the story.
We explore Stephen’s own origin story–growing up in Atlanta in the ’80s–along with topics that range from his start as a young sommelier, the implications of citizens being divorced from food culture, and ultimately how being crushed by a series of life events propelled his career forward; leading him from self-doubt to conviction.
Things to read
Oysters originated because of a Black man
James Hemings invented baked Mac and Cheese
Whetstone Magazine, Summer 2021
What to check out
Kara Washington and food apartheid
Environmental factors that affect a crop - Terroir
Stephen Satterfield became a Sommelier before his 21st birthday
What to listen to
Episode mentioned by Dario - The Morality of Meat
Point of Origin Podcast
Who to follow
Stephen Satterfield on IG
This conversation was recorded on March 4th, 2022
Host Dario Calmese
Producer Carmen D. Harris
Production Assistant: Coniqua Johnson
Visual Art Direction and Designs:
Original Music composed by Dario Calmese
