Food. Comfort.: Chef Vivian Howard is Somewhere South

Way more than a chef talking to a camera, showing how to make baked this or roasted that (not to say that format doesn’t drip with positive aspects), PBS’ “Somewhere South” takes the traditional cooking show out of the kitchen, and out on the road. The chef, Vivian Howard, from the Emmy-, Peabody- and James-Beard-award-winning PBS documentary series, “A Chef’s Life” is the culinary tour guide. With each episode, Howard highlights a staple ingredient or item found in traditional Southern cooking, and travels to different places, whether it’s near her home in Kinston, North Carolina or to a neighboring Southern state, to see how that featured item or a similar variation is used by other chefs and home cooks.

The series is at its most fascinating when the ingredient transcends cultural background, for example, in Episode Four’s “What a Pickle,” Howard goes from learning how to make Puerto Rican escabeche in Lexington, Kentucky, to meeting the Durham, North Carolina chef, Michael Lee (and his Korean family) to get a lesson in how to make kimchi; Episode Five’s “It’s a Greens Thing” has her heading to Cary, North Carolina to make saag paneer with an Indian family that has Kenyan ties. (Turns out, Cary has one of the biggest Indian Asian communities in the Southeast.)

“Somewhere South” exudes quiet (southern) comfort, and the delightful Howard is a hug personified. With her refined drawl, luminous smile and charming spirit, Howard shines in her genuine gratitude for being invited into people’s homes to cook with them, to hear their stories, to raise a glass as to how beautiful it is that food not just connects but unifies.

Here’s a taste of “Somewhere South”: