Variety: Food Network’s First-Ever Kwanzaa Series Set for December

Story from Variety:

Food Network is getting into the holiday spirit with its first Kwanzaa series, set to highlight the food and history of the annual seven-day celebration.

“The Kwanzaa Menu” is hosted by culinary scholar Tonya Hopkins, who on the FoodNetwork.com series will guide the audience through each of Kwanzaa’s seven principles using a special dish as conversation.

“Celebrating Kwanzaa through good food and drink not only allows us to reconnect to the vibrance of our culinary history that greatly informs who we are as Black people, our very identities — but also to take pride in that which has so profoundly shaped American foodways at large, for centuries,” Hopkins says of the series produced by Best Wishes Studio.

Per Food Network, “In each of the seven episodes Tonya and a special guest prepare a recipe that is connected to the day’s celebration. Together they will commemorate each day of Kwanzaa by cooking meaningful dishes and discussing the Nguzu Saba, the seven principles, and history of the holiday. When presented together, the collective dishes create a meaningful and celebratory Kwanzaa Menu.”

The series is a family affair for Hopkins, filmed at her family’s South Orange County, Calif. home and featuring guest appearances from her father Dr. Thomas A. Parham and sister Kenya Parham, who also serves as a writer and producer.

“Both my and Tonya’s life work centers around doing all things ‘for the culture!’ This project was a deeply personal labor of love — love for our people, love for ourselves, and love for the principles that anchor our lives,” cultural strategist Kenya says of the project. “To collaborate on this production with my brilliant sister, our family, an all-star (majority Black) crew led by Best Wishes Studio and Food Network is the kind of kismet synergy dreams are made of! We know we’ve created a cultural gem with ‘The Kwanzaa Menu’ and are tremendously excited for the world to receive it and celebrate with us!”