Chef Alisa Reynolds was about to lose her prized My 2 Cents restaurant when she got an idea that would take her career worldwide.
In her eight-episode Hulu series “Searching for Soul Food,” which dropped June 2, Los Angeles-based Reynolds travels the world, shedding light on marginalized cultures while dining in native cuisines. Coming from Onyx Collective, the series pushes Reynolds — whose food has been enjoyed by well-known figures such as Barack Obama, Lena Waithe, A$AP Rocky, among others — into the TV space as one of the few black women to host their own show in the travel and food genres.
Her international journey takes Reynolds through Mississippi, Oklahoma, Appalachia, South Africa, Italy, Jamaica, Peru and Los Angeles, as she connects people from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds through one common trait: good food.
As viewers understand from the first episode, soul food was born out of black people’s need to survive. That willingness to adapt and ability to innovate created the food that remains a staple of the community. That’s what Reynolds discovers and emphasizes in every episode and new town.
To quote Reynolds in the series opener, “It’s about making something out of nothing, with nourishment and love in every bite.”
“I came up with the idea at a time when I was struggling with the restaurant, and I was about to lose it. It came from trying to come up with a concept, primarily to take me out of the stress I was dealing with, but also just asking the question what is sublime soul food? Reynolds said. “I just started thinking, what does it mean — and how does this make me feel so good when it came from such a challenging beginning?”
Reynolds’ soul food eatery in LA was inspired by her parents’ Southern roots and has become known over time for its spin on classic dishes. The menu includes gluten-free fried chicken, quinoa mac and cheese, and “grits fries.”
Then she almost lost the restaurant in 2017 after getting caught up in a costly legal battle with her former business partner. As a result of their legal troubles, Reynolds resorted to a GoFundMe to raise money for their settlement. At the time, Elle reported that she was able to raise more than $18,000 online, but her community of powerful friends also offered some help. Artists Solange and Earl Sweatshirt came together to sponsor a musical event called “Wind and Grind” to raise the remaining funds for Reynolds’ cause.
The Reynolds community helped keep its doors open – and that same community opened new doors for her.
Five years before she was able to share her journey around the world with Hulu, Reynolds sat down with her friend from the past decade, soon-to-be “Queen and Slim” director Melina Matsoukas. Matsoukas had met Reynolds, whom she affectionately calls Chef, through the restaurant she had heard about through social media. Their meeting turned into regular foodie outings and adventurous leaps into new realms together – which led to the idea for “Searching for Soul Food”.
After their conversation, they entered into an uphill battle, trying to sell the show and getting turned down — that is, until the project reached Tara Duncan, president of Onyx Collective.
“It was really like this beautiful coming together,” Matsoukas said of their relationship with Onyx Collective. “Black women who support black women and our stories – and can tell and expand our own stories.”
Matsoukas continued, “Many of my projects focus on stories about people of color, but if you don’t have people on the other side who can identify with them and see the value of the story for the audience and serve that audience, then it really hard. Or if they take it, you might not get that big of a budget, or of course the same kind of value, that someone from that same world will see and understand.
But somewhere between eating squirrel in the Appalachians and tasting buffalo meat in Oklahoma, Reynolds found a piece of “her people” in every new plate she tried and in every conversation she had. In her conversation with Oklahoma chef Nico Albert, she linked roast bread (which was made in response to Native Americans’ struggles after they were expelled by the U.S. government) with black Americans’ use of hot water cornbread. In Peru, she found a melting pot of cuisines that grew out of the roots of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, Japanese and Chinese workers, and Italian immigrants who invented and passed on new recipes.
But of all the discoveries she’s been able to uncover, Reynolds says the biggest lesson from her experiences has been patience and acknowledging and accepting her potential for greatness.
“I say we make our lives ‘threat proof’ and know that people make mistakes. I always thought ‘that wasn’t good enough,'” Reynolds said. “Are [‘Searching for Soul Food’] that taught me that my words move people, and I had something to do with that. It takes me back to my debutante prom, and my talent was a stand-up comedian. I look back at my little self – and it was clear I wasn’t scared back then.
“Give yourself a pat on the back and understand that if you have talent, you may not always see it,” Reynolds continued. “Every day I feel like I’ve learned a new lesson about my storytelling.”