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[ Ethereal tune plays ]

[ Flames crackling ]

♪♪

[ Piano plays blues ]
[ Flames continue crackling ]

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

Genesis41:52.

"God has caused me to prosper
in the land of my affliction."

We remind you,
as a child of God,

that your condition
was not your position.

As a patriot, you kept

Thomas Jefferson's
secret in Paris.

But your life and those that
followed in your footsteps

should not and will
not be secret.

We are thankful that we can
share your story with the world.

Your life and your
achievement matter.

[ Exhales forcefully ]

[woman]
If it wasn't for memories,
what would we have?

♪♪

People don't know
who James Hemings is

because he was a slave
and he did not fit the mold.

They could not put his
face on a cereal box

or a rice box or waffle box

and leverage it into something
that was a familiar trope.

In order for us to achieve
any sort of healing,

any sort of redemption,
as a nation,

we have to recognize
our ancestors

and recognize that they are
not the ancestors just

of the Black folks,
but of everybody else.

Every Southern chef--
every single one of them--

has the granddaddy
James Hemings.

Firm ice cream.

You like ice
cream, Doc?

Macaroni & cheese.

Macaroni & cheese?

Hey, you know
what I like!

Bless this highly nutritious,

microwavable macaroni
& cheese dinner.

[McElveen]
Whipped cream.

Yummy.

Crème brûlée.

You order crème brûlée
for dessert.

French fries.

I really like fries.

I always save
them for last.

It went from one slave kitchen

in Charlottesville

around the world.

Jefferson's kitchen was the
premier kitchen in America,

and it all started
with James Hemings...

...from that slave kitchen
in Monticello.

My name is Ashbell McElveen.

I am a native of Sumter,
South Carolina.

[ Cheering and applause ]
I'm a chef.

I'm a patriot.

My story didn't start
when I was born.

My story started
in the 18th century.

I know that there's a ghost
in America's kitchen.

Because he visited me.

James Hemings.

What he brought
to American gastronomy

makes him the archetype
for our agency

in this large sort of
culinary project.

[McElveen]
Not only was he
trained as a chef,

he exhibited
incredible patriotism

by protecting the American
delegation in Paris.

James Hemings is a founding
father of American cuisine,

full-stop.

[ Bright tune plays ]

♪♪

[McElveen]
The things that I've learned
about James Hemings,

everyone should know.

[Johnston]
What was it about the cooking

of Black chefs
like James Hemings?

Well, let's just keep it real.

James Hemings, alone,

they made some of
these dishes so,

not only delectable,
but put into scripture.

Nobody had more
refined training.

Nobody had his palate.

Nobody had his experience.

And nobody had his blues.

[McElveen]
James Hemings was

Thomas Jefferson's
brother-in-law,

but also his enslaved property.

There's an old African
proverb that says,

"Until the lion gets
its own storytellers,

the story of the hunt will
always glorify the hunter."

[ "Yankee Doodle Dandy" plays ]

♪♪

James Hemings, at 19,

an enslaved American
from Virginia,

went to France with
Thomas Jefferson

and not only excelled
in the culinary arts,

he literally is America's
culinary founding father.

James Hemings is one
of those figures

that has always been with us,

always been present,
and yet, invisible.

A ghost in the kitchen.

[Hopkins]
He is part of the most
documented families in America,

and we have no portrait of him.

We have supposedly just one
thing written by his hand--

an inventory list of a kitchen.

I personally believe there are
other things that he wrote.

He was literate--
English and in French.

I can't believe that
there aren't letters

or things or journals
or something, somewhere,

that may have gotten
lost or ruined

or intentionally hidden
because part of that time

that he came from was
to never reveal

how brilliant and talented
Black people were

because, if if other Americans,
non-Black people, knew that,

how do you justify the
conditions you put them in?

We have something that's--

I refer to it as societal
institutionalized racism.

So that means the
entire society is

wrought with
institutionalized racism.

James Hemings is

the most overlooked...

...revolutionary figure
in American history...

...particularly,
for our foodways.

And he's been overlooked for
a very, very basic reason--

racism.

Absolute culinary racism.

[Moe]
Culinary arts.

Culinary arts,
painting.

I always thought culinary
arts was about cooking.

Shows you how
wrong you can be.

Culinary arts has got
to do with color.

[ Mellow tune plays ]

[McElveen]
If you were dining
fine in the South,

like they did on
the plantations,

if a Black hand put it down
on the table in front of you,

that was considered
fine service.

In the counties where you had
the greatest amount of--

of slavery in Virginia,

the population was
60%, 70%, 80% Black.

Williamsburg, the colonial
capital of Virginia...

...52% people of color.

You couldn't live
without enslavement.

You couldn't live
without Black people.

You couldn't live
without Black culture.

[McElveen]
And you won't find
any influences

in Southern regional cooking

from colonial times
to emancipation

where there was a white cook.

You know, the history
of cooking in America,

for me, starts when I
came here in 1959.

At that point, I
work at the Pavillon

and move on to Howard Johnson's.

But when I work at the Pavilion,

I knew many, many of
the chefs in New York,

of big hotel, restaurant,
and so forth.

I did not know one
white American chef.

Those first chefs
that I met in America,

really American,
were Black kid.

I've been very
strongly influenced

by young American
chef who Black,

who never get any recognition.

And we've been marginalized,
we've been downgraded,

our contributions
have been downgraded.

And African Americans
have performed in a way

that is very similar to the way

our celebrity chefs
perform today.

These are people who performed

at a particularly
high level at work.

But when we have thought
about African Americans

in the food world,
the story has been

the reverse.

We have spent most
of American history

focused on the food
that African Americans

prepared at home
in a survival kitchen,

in trying to make
something from nothing,

as part of a
marginalized community.

And what I'm saying is that,
while we want to respect

and appreciate and
honor people for that,

we also want to recognize that
there was a group of people

that performed
at a very high level

and are responsible for what
we know as fine dining today

and we have not
given them credit

for what they accomplished.

Fine food in America
was associated with

having a Black hand lay food
down on the table for you.

[Narrator]
Today, if we visit a social
gathering in the South,

we'll see the separation of
society into distinct groups.

[Twitty]
People who were in the
upper-upper class

had an extraordinary
dinner setting

around 2:00 to 3:00 in the
afternoon in the summer

and maybe slightly
earlier in the winter.

So, to be a cook
for one of those

suites in tobacco,
wealthy plantations,

we're talking about 12
dishes in two settings.

You were in a constant cycle
when you were cooking.

It was never-- it was
a never-ending process.

Selecting the food, ordering
the food, slaughtering animals,

growing the food,
purchasing food at market.

First of all, you got to
raise the chicken, right?

You got to kill the chicken.

You have to kill the chicken

right before you
cook the chicken

because you can't
refrigerate the chicken.

Then you got to pluck
the thing and then--

That's just onechicken.

It took daysto make a meal.

[Twitty]
Somewhere in this
hectic schedule

that our ancestors
were forced to endure,

we not only created
a culture for ourselves,

but a cuisine for the South.

We received, from the
big house on down,

foods that, in our hands,
tastes like nobody else

when we make them.

That's the Hemings legacy.

Blatant absence of
people like Hemings

in historical records
and archives

and-- and acknowledgments

is that we have to understand
that we live in a world,

and, particularly,
in a society, where...

...privilege is enjoyed,

to a largeextent,

by the convincing
portrayal of...

...superiority over others.

When you talk about class,
then the natural step is,

then, to talk about status.

And, when you talk about status,

then the next implication is who
has less and then who has more.

Luxury is a weapon,
it still is,

and I think luxury will
always be a weapon.

What is being actually
weaponized is scarcity.

Scarcity has always
been weaponized,

the things that are
few and far between.

With the world as we
live in it now,

it's critical that, within
each sector of our society,

that we maintain the tenets of

institutional racism.

It's a part of
the business model

and, the more you
start to point out

and illuminate those
from other classes

that have equally
accomplished things

to be at the same
level of recognition,

then you open the
door to the question

about why isn't everyone
enjoying privilege?

So you disrupt the model.

And James Hemings
is a disrupter.

Dinner is ready.

Won't you join us?

[ Whimsical tune plays ]

♪♪

[Twitty]
When we talk about
the Hemings story,

it's-- it's an-- it's an
incredible amalgamation

of two very dedicated
ways of looking at food.

You know, here I am,
going, "Wow!", you know.

In the French system, look
at the food in the market.

Is it peak?
Is it good?

Is it tender enough?

When I cook it, you know,
is it is going to--

is it going to sing on its own?

To translate one-pot
meals into delicacies.

You notice a lot
of those come over.

The-- The idea that
we make big meals

from these grand preparations
that, basically, is one pot.

There's all-- There's
all these conversations

in the ma-- between enslaved
people and free people of color,

in the mind of the enslaved
that have to happen

that are gloriously important,

but we don't-- we've never
focused on those things.

How do we pass on a
legacy to our children?

Somebody had to have that
conversation with each other.

Somebody had to
laugh, for a change,

instead of just cry.

Somebody had to have
a moment where

they were working with
another African woman

and going, "Okay,
we got to make this work,

so that our kids know
what home tasted like."

[Conyers]
Barbecue, for example.

I live in New Orleans,
Louisiana.

I got homesick.

New Orleans got great food...

...but I wanted barbecue
that I was accustomed to.

I couldn't get it.

Only way I could get it
is I prepare it.

The food, the palate,
is your way back home.

[McElveen]
And that was kind of how
a lot of culinary history

and recipes and et cetera

passed down in the
African American community

because it was less
about, "Write this down.

Keep this recipe in the Bible."

And many people did that.

But, in most families, it was,
"Look at what I'm doing."

I had wonderful examples
to learn from.

There were two working
chefs in my family.

My Uncle William,
a World War II vet,

when he came back as a GI,

he went to dental school.

But he couldn't get
a job, after graduating,

as a dentist.

He couldn't get a job,
so he became a chef...

...at a whites-only
country club.

[Narrator]
Many of the ideas that
we still associate

with the people of the South
came from the days

when plantation life
was in full flower.

The food was always the solace.

My mother, Retha Ludd McElveen,

was executive chef
at Gladys [Indistinct].

Back in those days,
you were just the cook.

My mother was the head
cook at the restaurant.

So food was everywhere.

It was home.

It was community.

It was work.

My personal history's--

is kind of like
American history--

there's so much inspiration,

but there's also so much pain.

I was 13 years old when my
mother had a heart attack.

And she was denied being
put in an ambulance

because the ambulance was

the segregated,
whites-only ambulance.

And we watched her die
there for over an hour.

That is, you know,

one of the leftovers from
the Jeffersonian theories

of the differences between
the Blacks and the whites.

Thomas Jefferson
is directly related

to the person driving
the ambulance

[ Siren wailing ]
that denied my mother's

literal humanity.

And so all of these stories
are common during segregation.

And all of this just--
just has a root in America

that I think started
in colonial times.

The references that
Jefferson made

in "Notes on Virginia,"

way back in the 18th century,

which really codified
racism and Jim Crow

and extending that whole
bondage of slavery,

Many people using his
example of, you know,

the differences between
Blacks and whites is

that whites could have taste,

but Blacks could not.

It's the argument that's
been used and overused

for racist pretensions
to this day.

What enslavement really
translates out to--

"I have you in bondage.

I own you.

But I have to have
you cook my food.

Now, any point in time,
you could decide

to make my food a special way

and interrupt my life existence
or my digestive process,

but I'm going to cede to you
something incredibly personal."

[ Blues plays ]

♪♪

My mother, if we
were eating dinner--

and, back then, there
were homeless people

show up on the back porch,

she'd take a spoon of
food from every plate

and make a plate for whomever
that was on the back porch.

That's why I have an open table,

where all races are welcome

to break bread with me,

and I got that from my mother.

I left South Carolina when
my mother died, at age 13,

and we moved to Connecticut,
where my father was.

I had an image of being...

...Black and whole,

but I did not feel
I was an American.

And it wasn't until I was 19,

the same age as James was
when we went to Paris,

when I actually felt
like I was American.

In 1970, when I
first went to France,

I didn't know that I was walking

in the parallel footsteps
of James Hemings,

who didn't have a developed
culinary training

in Virginia cooking at the time,

but came back to America,

as an accomplished
and talented French chef.

Over my career in the
culinary field,

I first learned from master
cooks and chefs in my family

in South Carolina and Virginia

and spent about ten years

living in France,

as well as about 15 years
living in the UK,

where I opened a restaurant
and was blessed enough

to have a four-star review
of American Southern cooking

from the London Sunday Times.

[ Upbeat hip hop plays ]

♪♪

That's what I'm doing.

[ Static crackles ]

[ Scratching ]

My spiritual
encounter with James

was after I had drank
the Jefferson Kool-Aid

and did a dinner in 1993
at the Beard House,

as a tribute to Jefferson

and the Africans that "cooked
in his kitchen," okay?

I didn't know anything
about James Hemings.

Since Jefferson was so
enamored of the French,

it is rumored that his--
even his brother's son,

who was half Black
and half white,

was sent to culinary
school in France.

A meal set for
Jefferson on the table

on an antique platter,

right from the era.

[ Applause ]

I had heard a rumor that,

one of Jefferson's
uncle's or brother's son

had accompanied him to Paris
to learn to be a chef

and that's all I knew.

I had no inkling

that James Hemings
was, indeed,

the half brother of--

of Jefferson's wife, Martha.

After that dinner,
I was in bed, asleep,

and I woke up in a cold sweat.

And my ears were ringing
and all I heard was,

"How could you, of all
people, forget me?"

And I didn't quite understand
what was happening,

but I knewit was a spirit.

It was so...

scary.

[Narrator]
You cannot know your country

unless your country knows you.

In our culture, food isn't just

something I eat
because I'm hungry.

Food is something that
provides a communication,

a mystical experience
between the living,

the dead, and those
who are to be born.

When we eat the food
of our ancestors,

we're experiencing their world.

A little, tiny piece of them
is speaking back to us...

...in a way that was never
supposed to happen.

I have been in spaces
where I've cooked,

18th- and 19th-century spaces,

where I have had
spirit encounters.

At first, it's-- it's
alarming and it's unnerving

and then, once you
get the hang of it

and you know what you're doing,
you go, "Okay, well, you know,

before I even begin cooking,

I need to have
a conversation with you."

He saw the facility
to contact me, as a spirit,

to say, "Wake up, guy.

Here's what really happened."

And it put me on that
path of discovery.

In the process of finding
myself, and James Hemings,

I found out Thomas Jefferson
never cooked an effing thing.

It's an amazing story
of historical culinary theft.

"Virginia Housewife,"
the first--

the "first Southern cookbook,"
as they like to say.

[McElveen]
Thomas Jefferson
and his daughters

claim authorship of their
favorite dishes. [ Scoff ]

Think about Mary Randolph
for a moment.

She was called the queen
of the kitchen.

It's no accident
that Mary Randolph

is also kin to Thomas Jefferson.

So, in the "Virginia
Housewife" cookbook

are all of these French recipes

attributed to Jefferson's
granddaughter?

This man's favorite, you know,

delicacy meat was guinea fowl,

an African bird.

People like him and Washington

loved their hominy
for breakfast,

and hoecakes.

That was our hardtack.

They didn't have
to eat hoecakes.

But, apparently,
somebody made that stuff

taste so good,
that's what they wanted.

They wanted their hominy,
they wanted their grits,

they wanted their hoecake

for breakfast.

Setting a tone
for other Southerners.

And, if you ever
want to think about

who put the first French
fries into your mouth,

macaroni & cheese,
firm ice cream.

I'll travel anywhere

and I'll talk to anyone...

Meringues.
Crème brûlée.

...about James Hemings...

Nobody's giving him that credit.

And he's never gotten the credit
for achieving that thing.

...and I will question
anyhistorian's view

of what Jefferson wrote down.

French fries
and macaroni & cheese

didn't go from the country
of origin around the world.

It went from that slave
kitchen in Monticello

around the world.

There's this kind of

separation of Black identity

from the rest of
American history

and American culinary identity

that is disingenuous
because you can't tell

honest stories about
American foodways

without telling the Black
culinary parts of it.

They don't exist separately

and, when you're honest
about this history,

this rich, ethnic,
complicated history,

all of a sudden, this American
narrative makes more sense.

[Twitty]
Virginia's imports of Africans

were about 40% to
50% from Nigeria

and then, beneath the James
are more Congo Angolans

and a mixture of Ghanaians,

like the Akan, the Ashanti,
the Fante, et cetera,

the Ewe, the Ga.

And the other groups.

And some of those people
filter into North Carolina

because North Carolina has no

slave trading ports

that actually can-- can
hold that many ships

because it was the
graveyard of the Atlantic.

But I say that to say that
there is a greater Virginia...

...and a greater
Virginia food culture--

and you can say Chesapeake,
you can say Tidewater,

you can say greater Virginia,
it's all same thing--

that goes from,
let's say, Baltimore

all the way down to
even to North Carolina

and west to Charlottesville
and Albemarle County,

where James Hemings
was enslaved.

[ Mellow jazz plays ]

♪♪

[ Scratching ]

♪♪

Betty Hemings was the
property of John Wayles,

who was Jefferson's
wife's father.

Betty Hemings had six
children with John Wayles,

including James Hemings
and Sally Hemings,

and, when John Wayles died,

Jefferson was married to his
daughter Martha Wayles,

and so he, as the male,
he inherited her property.

And, at that time, slaves were
like Lexuses and BMWs, so,

you didn't throw them away.

You sold them.
You traded them.

It was real wealth.

When Wayles died, James
was about nine years old.

He was brought with the entire
family of Betty Hemings

to Monticello.

In 1784, three of
America's signers

of the Declaration
of Independence,

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,
and Ben Franklin, were in Paris.

James Hemings was the
culinary founding father

who was there at that time.

When Jefferson was given the
appointment by Washington,

he took James for
the express purpose

of learning to be a French chef.

[ Scratching ]

So, James Hemings is

the first American

trained classically as a chef.

He Tiger Woods'd
it over in Paris

and, you know, in terms of like

even doing better than
the French people

that he was learning
from and learning with.

Hemings became chef de cuisine,

speaking French,
in another language,

in like less than
three years or so.

And this is absolutely amazing,
to be able to do that,

so he must have been a very
bright, intelligent man

and learning very fast,

certainly, to manage
a group in the kitchen

and to do all of the
basics of cooking,

to use technique and all that.

It took me much longer than
it did for him. [ Chuckle ]

[Miller]
I think James Hemings
is definitely

a missing figure in our history.

He did so much to
shape the, I think,

entertaining reputation
of Thomas Jefferson.

Food becomes this narrative
that shifts the paradigm

around how we think of the
life of the enslaved.

We're part of the power
broking of American society,

along with our food,
as the lubricant

that makes everybody,
makes it all go around,

makes everybody work
with each other.

[ Flames crackling ]
[Conyers] You can't
understand America

without understanding
our agricultural history.

I bled. I cut my hand
building a pit.

And, every time I look
at my middle finger,

I see the laceration
from that cut.

When I cook that cow, I sweat
over it for 20-something hours.

I look at every shovel of coals
went underneath that cow

and knew I had certain
placement, that only I knew.

And I cried at the end.

I cry because I don't know
how many African Americans

have done a whole cow
in 100-and-something years

and made it to serve a bunch
of majority-Black folks.

Because I look
at the literature,

Black folks were
cooking barbecue,

but they were doing it
for political rallies.

Barbecue-- a barbecue
wasn't just like, "Hey,

we want to have some fun."
A barbecue was,

"Let me get your vote."

Who was doing the barbecuing?

A Black man.

And it was the food of politics.

[Johnston]
Thomas Jefferson understood
the elegance of a table

and what that can do,
in terms of diplomacy.

I mean, this is a man
from Virginia, right?

He's-- He's a country bumpkin,
relatively speaking.

And I'm sure his
eyes were opened

in his travels, tremendously,

and so, his-- his brilliance
is that he was like,

"Well, what if I did
this back in Virginia?

I could negotiate and navigate
and impress and create

and I can do this because I own

a talented family member,
[ Laughs ] basically,

who I can train and who is--
is, obviously, gifted at it."

Good food puts people in
the mood to negotiate.

Leaders that were very savvy
about the use of foods

were able to get their
political agendas implemented

because they had a charm
offensive using food,

and Thomas Jefferson was
one of the best at that.

I had the privilege
of being chef

to three different French
presidents in France

and this is what
Hemings did also.

So, the complexity of the work,
when you work for the president,

is quite a lot.

For him to be able
to cook at Chantilly,

you know, which was the
place where Vatel died;

and cook for the king of France,

it is amazing for him
to have been able

to manage and control

the complexity of the food
and the team in the kitchen

in that little amount of time,
in another language. Wow.

At this very important
point in American history,

there was an enormous
debt to French bankers.

The American Revolution
would not have succeeded,

if France had not financed.

All of the money for arms,

cannons, came from France

and they were figuring out
how to keep the balance

of America's credit
standing in the world.

[ Scratching ]
James Hemings is

the older brother
of Sally Hemings

and Sally came to Paris with
Jefferson's youngest daughter.

She and Jefferson apparently
started some kind of romance

because, when she returned
to America with him,

she was pregnant.

That child was lost,

but she subsequently had
six children by Jefferson.

It was the age of enlightenment

and Jefferson was the
darling of enlightenment

because of how he wrote
about the rights of man.

But he did not say, to anyone,

that he owned slaves in America.

In fact, he hired
a lawyer to advise him

on how to proceed
with James and Sally,

with them being
undeclared in France

because he never
declared them, either,

which he was supposed
to do by law.

All James had to do was to walk
into the admiralty court

and declare his freedom.

But, if he had done that,

he would have ruined

the credit of the United States,

and he knew that.

He didn't insert himself,
declare his freedom.

He came back to America
for family, and country.

[ Sizzling ]

Hemings coming back to the
United States with Jefferson

was always a puzzle for me.

He got recognition in France.

He work in great restaurant.

He could have gotten his freedom

and his French nationality
from the government in France,

but I guess the
love of his country

and his family were stronger.

He came back to America

with the training
that, basically,

no American chef
at the time.

[ Suspenseful music plays ]
[ Sloop!]

♪♪

[ Thunder crashing ]

A lot of times, I thought,
"Why would you do that?

Why would you actually
come back to slavery?"

And it's the act of a patriot.

I believe that Thomas Jefferson,

the central powerful
figure in his life,

would, somehow, miraculously,

believe the stuff that
he espoused in France

about the equality of man

and the nature of freedom.

Being Black and
loving this country

is probably one of the
most patriotic things,

the most patriotic acts, right?

Like in the midst of such
a complicated relationship

with the country, that

you could easily
write off as [ Sigh ]

negative, holistically negative.

If we confront the truth of our
relationship with this country

and are still able
to be patriotic

and still love where we're from

and see value and power in
our legacy in this country,

that is the very
definition of patriotism.

♪♪

[ Playing march ]

[Narrator]
The way of life our
forefathers established

on this foundation of freedoms

drew people from the far
corners of the Earth.

And all those who stepped
foot on these shores

had the opportunity to build
a better life for themselves.

[McElveen]
Soon after their return
to New York from France,

James Hemings would cook
the most important dinner

in early American history.

[ Scratching ]
The Assumption Dinner in 1790,

where James cooked the meal

that reconciled
Hamilton, Madison,

and Jefferson.

In a back-rooms deal,
they decided

how the debt from the colonial
war would be repaid.

And the debtors were all
French bankers and aristocrats

and they were clamoring
for the money back.

And that dinner, that balm

that James provided
with good food,

allowed this
agreement to happen.

[ Scratching ]

It was a hot June day.

He'd served the
monumental dessert--

vanilla ice cream
wrapped in warm pastry.

It took me two years
to figure out how he did it.

I kept saying,
"It's a fireplace.

He's cooking all of
this in a fireplace.

How did he make this happen?"

And he made it happen with
two new things to America.

One were copper pots-- would
conduct heat very evenly.

And he learned how to make
meringues in France.

They are, whipped egg
whites, are insulators.

So, when you make a firm
bowl of ice cream,

you can coat that in meringue,

wrap pastry around
it, and bake it.

And, once it's done, you
don't taste the meringue.

You only taste the vanilla
ice cream and the warm pastry.

And, to bake it,
James, very cleverly,

took two of those pots,

turned them on top
of each other,

put a spoon in the middle,

and it was an instant oven.

An instant oven.

And it was not until
1845, at Delmonico's...

[ Laughs ]

...that "meringue" and baked
Alaska was invented.

But James had done that

and brought it into America
for the first time,

but used it in a novel way,

to make this dessert
for this meeting.

You talk about the-- the
compromise dinner we cooked.

Food is this, you know,
sort of unifier,

this, this sort of, the table
becoming this battleground

for hard conversations,
but also widely productive,

cutting out all kinds
of foolishness

and just getting down to what
makes us equal and human.

Food is at the center.

And so, to me, especially
as a professional chef,

thinking about the power that
Black chefs have always wielded.

You had at your fingertips
the-- the potential,

the sort of, the power
to change minds.

When you bring two people
in front of a good meal

that tastes good, not
only does it taste good,

but your olfactory
senses are stimulated

and your olfaction
has great memory.

Of anything that you
experience in your lifetime,

your sense of smell will be
the least impacted by age.

So, in addition to the
visual representation,

you know, of the food,
the smell, in itself,

does wonders for
the brains and it,

you know, activates
those neurotransmitters

that send the message that
this is a safe place,

this is a feel-good place,
you can relax.

It's very disarming.

Food and just dining, in itself,
is a very communal activity,

so, it puts people at a
place and a position

where they are not on a
defensive, they can enjoy,

and I think that
allows for kind of

processing and digesting
information that they

would otherwise disagree with.

So, it's a multifaceted
experience.

And we know, from Hemings' life,
that he was an eyewitness

to very important moments
in U.S. history,

so, the fact that
his food facilitated

some key events in U.S. history,

I think, speaks to his
prowess as a cook.

Under the balm of James Hemings'
impeccable taste and execution,

it was agreed how that
the states would pay most

of the debt left over
from the colonial war.

And they also decided

that Washington, D.C.
would be the capital,

that it would be on the
banks of the Potomac,

instead of Philadelphia.

Then, on to Philadelphia.

And, by this time, Jefferson
was secretary of state

and Philadelphia was
the temporary capital.

This was the White House.

In the 1790s, a plague forced

Washington and Jefferson
and others

to flee Center City,
Philadelphia.

To Germantown.

One of the men who came
through this house

was James Hemings,

our culinary founding father.

Fine dining was brought
to Philadelphia

by enslaved Black chefs.

It's so critical that we look
at this whole development

from an Afro-Atlantic
perspective,

which means Europe, Africa,
and the Americas in exchange.

There were lots of Black
people who were in exchange.

The stereotype that
we have received is,

once you were Black and exiled,

you were Black, exiled,
and you just, you know,

you were just locked into
a certain part of the system.

And that's not true.

Urban centers,
like Philadelphia,

were especially important
because, you know,

you could come on
a ship. You could be--

You could be from
a farm in Delaware.

You could be an escaped,
enslaved prisoner from Maryland.

You could be coming with your
slaveholder from Virginia

because, you know,
there's all this

Continental Congress
stuff going on.

All these things were possible.

Or from the Caribbean
and they're all mixing

and conversing with each
other, exchanging culture.

And, somehow, some way,

a paradigm of the
cultures evening out

and thus having a collective
expression emerges.

Just like language,
music, spirituality...

...a collective
expression emerges

and that becomes the
African American way.

[Narrator]
The United States of America,

youngest, by far, of the
world's great nations,

stands today the envy
of the civilized world.

Its more than 130
million free people.

Its 33 million homes.

Its seven million farms.

Its vast panorama
of other resources.

Industry and commerce.

Machines and structures

beyond the dreams, even,
of our own fathers.

And, above all the
material blessings,

government by consent
of the governed.

And so, three years were
spent in Philadelphia

and James was reluctant
to come back to Monticello

because Philadelphia
had abolished slavery

and he feared that,
if he went to Virginia,

he wouldn't be able
to leave again.

So, Jefferson made
a written contract with him.

[As Jefferson]
Having been at great expense

in having James Hemings
taught the art of cookery,

desiring to befriend him

and require of him as little
in return as possible,

I hereby do promise and declare,

that if the said James [should]
go with me to Monticello

in the course of the
ensuing winter,

when I go to reside
there myself,

and shall there continue

until he shall have
taught such person[s]

as I shall place under him for
that purpose to be a good cook,

[his] previous condition
being performed,

he shall thereupon
be made free."

[McElveen]
And that's been a constant
theme in Black America--

litigating and pressing
for our own rights,

that actually helped
this country

become a democratic republic.

♪♪

Three years were spent
in Philadelphia

and then they came back
to Monticello in '93,

where that agreement
was put in place.

What's so important
about this agreement,

which frames a cooking
tradition in America

that's been picked up
by the culinary schools,

but the first one was created

by an enslaved chef,
James Hemings,

because, as a condition
of his freedom

was that he was to teach
his brother Peter

all he knew and had
learned in France.

The first cooking
school in America.

James trained in France
for five years.

He comes back to America
and trains his brother Peter.

Peter never becomes James.

Peter has other talents
that he excels at,

but he never quite achieves

the cookery mastery that--
that James achieved,

so innovative and almost
like a perfectionist,

in terms of how he
worked at things

and different recipes until--
until he figured it out.

And then he was
just very generous.

Yes, it was at the
behest of Jefferson

that he trained his brother
and that he trained

the Monticello cooks
and that he trained

other cooks at
other plantations,

but that was who he was.

There's a sense of generosity
that comes through that,

a sense of-- of mastery.

Somehow, the macaroni pie
that James would've made

became staple to Americans

and-- and at-- at its
best form in our hands.

That's the amazing
part about it.

There is this--

We-- We made these
African traditions--

frying, barbecuing, the
way we spice our food--

the ingredients essential
to being a Southerner.

[Narrator]
We planned this kitchen to take
care of the preparation of food,

eating, clearing, and some
food preservation.

[Twitty]
You know, Patrick Henry's
famous statement

about Thomas Jefferson's
kitchen,

which was really James Hemings'
kitchen at the time,

was that it was "half French
[and] half Virginian..."

[ Film projector rattling ]

"...served in good taste
and abundance."

Well, what's half
Virginian mean?

We know what the hell
[ Laughing ] that means.

It's Afro-Virginian.

When you say American,
you're talking about

all kinds of people from
all over the Earth.

We live under one flag, but,

we have the right to see
things and express ideas

each in our own way.

That's why we set it up.

That's what our revolution
was all about.

[ Whistling march plays ]

And the heart of
those ideals rings

in a single sentence
of Thomas Jefferson's.

I don't know how anybody
could say it better.

[ As Jefferson]
I have sworn upon
the altar of God

eternal hostility against
every form of tyranny

over the mind of man.

[ Scratching ]

[McElveen]
On February 5, 1796,

James Hemings received his
freedom from Thomas Jefferson

and returned to Philadelphia.

It would not be long
before he would hear

from Thomas Jefferson again.

He was sent for by
Thomas Jefferson

to come to the White House

to be the first chef
in the White House.

And he refused.

Unless he was
written a letter,

like Jefferson would
write any free man.

And his words were,
when he was summonsed,

the way he was summonsed
when he was a slave,

he said, "If he wants me,
he can ask me himself,"

and exhibiting the first bit
of African American pride

and presence

and actually challenging
the most famous

and powerful man in his universe

to actually respect him

as a free man
and not as a slave.

You must really
consider the types of

inner dialogue you have
to tell yourself.

Can you imagine?
To tell yourself that,

"In spite of what I see--"
because we're visual creatures--

that, "In spite of what I see,
this is not my reality."

It's more natural to give
in to what you see

and it would be very
logical and expected

for you to respond

to what your environment
tells you you should be.

But it's a different kind
of person to look at

and be in your environment
and to defy it.

It is an act of defiance.

So, he was standing
up for his freedom

in-- in asking Jefferson
to write this letter.

And Jefferson viewed it
as a letter to a Black man,

so he never wrote it.

That refusal was literally
Jefferson's way of

assassinating James Hemings.

He, instead, wrote that letter

to a white French chef, Julien,

who became the first official
chef at the White House.

[ Suspenseful music plays ]

James went and got a job

at a tavern in Baltimore,

where he is said to have
drank himself to death.

This is a shame and--

because he was really,
uniquely qualified

to run a great
restaurant in America.

[McElveen]
James Hemings' death in 1801

was mysterious
and poorly documented.

I don't believe he
drank himself to death.

A Black man standing
out of the ordinary

has always been a threat.

Racial profiling existed
in 1801 as it exists today.

[ Scratching ]

I pose this question--

in Baltimore at a tavern,

cooking, where, undoubtedly,

there were many
poor white people

and here's a man in the
finest clothes in the world

and he's Black.

And, plus, he was free.

That had to be an
incredible invitation

to do all kinds
of things to him.

And so, I don't think that
it was as straightforward

as he drank himself to death.

I think he was murdered.

[ Birds chirping ]

You know, I'll-- I'll
never forget the time

that I was in the--
the bathroom...

...what used to be the bathroom
at Monticello at that level.

Now, it's excavated.

And I was in my
white chef's getup

and I'm cooking with
Leni Sorensen that day.

And I took a selfie
in the bathroom.

It was me.
My head was up

and I'm in my clothes
and I'm looking good.

I mean, that was only time
I was all in white.

And, you know,
white is the color

of spiritual transformation

and spirit presence
in African culture.

And I swear to God, I wasn't
the only person in that space.

It was weird. It was--
It wasn't weird.

It was actually
kind of comforting.

And it was almost
like arms around me.

And I walked out, totally
ignorant of the fact

that I was in the space
of the original kitchen.

So I walk out and Leni's like,
"Yeah, that was the space."

And it was almost like, "Okay,
now I know why I felt that way."

I had never been to
that area before.

I'd never been to the
bathroom before, ever.

I never even heard of it.

I never been in that space.

But I'm in that and I was like,
"Somebody else was with me."

[ Tender tune plays ]

[McElveen]
The kitchen at Monticello,

this ominous, historical
place, this ominous kitchen.

I was sitting alone
on a wooden bench

in the causeway
outside the kitchen

and there was nobody around.

And I'm sitting there
just collecting my thoughts

and looking into the kitchen

and what I

understood [ Laughs ] clearly
coming back to me was,

"What we did here,
we did with pride,

in spite of our circumstances."

Love is an ingredient
you can't make.

It either have to be
in you, or not.

And I'm saying, "So, when
we had creative spirits,

like Hemings,
and so many others,

all throughout our history,

they would just manifest
in their highest potential

in being decent human
beings, unselfishly.

Because, if he was that smart--

and he was-- as he
was reported to be...

and as educated and all
of the other things,

had he chosen,

he could've orchestrated
what was necessary

to get his name in a book,
somewhere, or in a picture.

But it wasn't even on his
radar screen, I believe.

I think he was oblivious.
I think he was saying,

just saying, "I got access
to the resources

that will allow me to manifest
my highest potential

with this craft and this
gift that I have."

I think about the
plantation life

and what being able to cook
meant for you in that space,

what it meant for your
life, what it meant for

your own family, that you could,

in the mid-- in the midst of

the most
unimaginable inequity,

you could find one place,
one moment, Sunday dinner,

that you could find
some kind of dignity,

that your ability to bake
a perfect caramel cake

could literally shift how
you felt about yourself.

Food is the center
of our humanity.

It's really the simplest way
to sort of boil it down,

but your ability as a chef
to wield that power is,

I think, a huge responsibility.

Effects of slavery and the whole
ram-- social ramifications

that still exist today
is-- is palpable.

And I am faced with the cost
of the ignorance, the racism.

And today, visiting
my mother's grave,

a woman who lost her life
because she was not allowed

to ride in a
whites-only ambulance.

This is my first time
seeing her headstone...

...and the first time that I've
visited her grave in 25 years.

♪♪

And I'm...

...I'm so blessed
that I got her spirit

and not a spirit of bitterness

and, in spite of what
happened to her.

It's vitally important
to understand

where we come from...

...and what influenced
our lives.

James Hemings is an example
of the kind of role models

that we need to hear
more and more about.

There are just so many
opportunities and places

where our young people
could be getting involved

and if they see more people
who look like themselves.

It's motivational
because, as I go forward,

and people like me
and my generation,

they're like, "Oh,
James Hemings did that

during these conditions."

Not just did it, but he was
in slavery, during oppression.

We're now, I will say, "free,"

but we still have
a lot of oppression,

but we have a lot of
resources, a lot of--

we have gotten
farther, as a people.

And so we can be--
we can do first

and we can do innovative
and groundbreaking things

to change society.

You can have modern figures,
not just a hidden figure.

[Woman]
Hello, everyone.

We are now down to
our sweet ending

that Chef Ashbell McElveen.

[ Applause ]

[McElveen]
Jefferson has been sucking up
all the air in the room.

[ Laughter and applause ]

And James Hemings

has been enslaved to the
Jefferson myth of fine food

for over 225 years,

[ Laughing ] okay?
[ Applause ]

I came to the food--
the American food space

feeling very much
like an outsider,

not seeing myself represented,

not sort of understanding
the historical context,

sort of my physical presence,
my ethnic presence,

in this very white,
American narrative.

And then you find James,
you find this fully formed,

autonomous, French-trained chef.

This-- This person
who represents

the exact embodiment
of the kind of chef

that you're told
you're supposed to be,

in the form of this
fully formed Black man.

He, all of a sudden,
straightens your spine.

He tells you that you are
a uniquely American chef,

just by virtue of your--
your ethnic identity.

James Hemings represents

that first generation of
revolutionary era cooks.

Chefs who, despite their status
as enslaved Black men,

enslaved Black people...

...create a revolution
on the plantation.

Their knowledge, their
skills, and abilities

will be passed down and will be
spread throughout the community

as a means and force
of liberation.

Economic, spiritual, cultural,
mental, professional liberation.

And that's why
they're so important.

That's why the narrative of
James Hemings is so important.

And those that came after him.

[McElveen]
James, your achievements have
made the world a better place.

We recognize all of the unnamed,

enslaved peoples
who toiled with you

and we thank you all
for showing us

the template for fine
dining in America.

May you find peace.

Your life and your
achievement matter.

♪♪