Vivian Howard Embarks on Culinary Tour of the South in New PBS Series

Vivian Howard is making her triumphant return to television with a one-of-a-kind taste of the South.

The celebrity chef, author, restaurateur, and former host of A Chef’s Life is headed back to PBS with a new six-part series, South by Somewhere, a “culinary tour” in which she explores cultural dishes and new traditions across the American South.

“Shooting South by Somewhere has made me look at what we call Southern food with a new set of spectacles. The home kitchens I learn in, the stories I hear people share, the food I watch them make—it has lit a fresh fire under me,” Howard, the South's Best chef of 2019, said in a news release. “I’m excited that, as Southerners, we can tell these complex stories through food and culture, and not shy away from our past or present.”

From the Lumbee Indians’ beloved collard sandwich in North Carolina, and the pepperoni roll made popular by coal miners in West Virginia, to grits and rice middlins served up by Gullah chefs in Charleston, Howard takes viewers on a rare journey through the South’s diverse culinary heritage.

“Vivian and I grew up in this very rural, very small, very particular place in the South,” Pamela A. Aguilar, Senior Director, Programming and Development at PBS said. “In South by Somewhere, we want to challenge oversimplified concepts about the South, but also push ourselves to tell the story about our region’s history and present with a loving yet critical eye—through food, always through food. And as someone who grew up here, I can learn something, too.”

WATCH: Vivian Howard - South's Best Chef

South by Somewhere is slated to debut on PBS early next year.