Stormé Supper Club’s Nia Lee Is High On The Hog

Michele Stueven

November 28, 2023

High on the Hog on Netflix has returned for a second season with hosts Stephen Satterfield and Dr. Jessica B. Harris, exploring how African-American cuisine has played a critical role in fueling social justice movements, transforming communities, and inspiring cultural creativity in America.

Following the award-winning first season that traced the roots of a culinary history born in Africa and shaped by slavery in America, the four-part docu-series explores the creative renaissance that flourished in the U.S. post-emancipation and will travel to Louisiana, Chicago, New York City, Atlanta and Los Angeles. From the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program in the 1960s to community gardens that are fighting food apartheid today, the series is adapted from food historian Harris’ book of the same name.

High on the Hog (Courtesy Netflix)

Now streaming, the show spotlights Shennari Freeman from Ubuntu in West Hollywood and Nia Lee, founder of the Stormé Supper Club in L.A.

“Food is energy,” Lee tells L.A. Weekly over the phone. “Food is that connective tissue that weaves us all together and has played a massive role in the survival of Black folks throughout the diaspora. Being part of the Black American experience, I think about food as a beautiful reflection of the ways in which Black Americans are extremely adaptable and resilient in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”

Taking lessons from the past, Lee’s culinary inspiration comes from Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor’s 1970 cookbook on vibration cooking, which centers on cooking with purpose and intention in an indigenous and intuitive way. Her underground word-of-mouth supper club is named after the Black queer drag king Stormé DeLarverie who lived through the Harlem Renaissance, was a fierce protector of queer folks in New York City and is said to have thrown the first punch at the Stonewall Inn riots in 1969. The club is dedicated to Black and Brown women and the gender-expansive community in Los Angeles.

Tracing the roots of a culinary history born in Africa (Courtesy Netflix)

“Holidays can be a difficult time,” says the food futurist. “There’s not always a seat at the table for us to be our complete selves with our biological families. The supper club is a chance to break bread and share a meal with people in a beautiful way, celebrating the resilience and adaptability of our community.

“There are misconceptions of Black food in this country,” she says. “Black chefs get pigeonholed into that traditional Black American cooking and what we come to expect from Black southern cooking — your macaroni and cheese and fried chicken. It’s the backbone of why I'm here today, but there’s so much expansion and creativity and recipes that have been lost through time because we weren’t able to archive our history the way that other cultures have been able to. I’m really passionate about that archival work because it plays a key role in the queer world as well. I want to make sure that we are honoring the legacy of those who have come before us with intention and purpose.”

Nia Lee (Courtesy Nextflix)

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