(meat sizzling) (bright music) - Food is, in my opinion, one of the few mediums that you can shift cultural understanding, because everybody eats.

One of the things that food has the power to do is to expose people to all kinds of diverse cultures.

When there's diversity in a food environment, in a food culture within a city, what you have is so many different stories being told, so many different representations of life, that you get this rich tapestry of humanity.

We lose the illusion of safety when we invite diversity in.

What we're gaining is richness, is life, is truth.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) (bright music) Atlanta, the diversity of the food scene is profound.

It has such a strong influence of other cultures in its cuisine that it kinda goes without saying that it has this rich, diversified language that it speaks.

- What I see now is this ever-growing landscape of talent across multiple neighborhoods in Atlanta to where you don't even have to leave your neighborhood.

- Chef-owned restaurants have begun popping up in neighborhoods all over the city.

Being one of the risk-takers, being one of the chefs or farmers or bartenders that are stepping up to that and saying that this is Atlanta, this is actually what Atlanta is about.

That's not only necessary work but courageous.

It's the opposite of chain restaurants and safe menus and a journey I am eager to take.

My name is Taria Camerino.

I'm a classically French-trained chef, and I experience the world through taste.

I'm in Atlanta because this is one of the most diverse food scenes in America.

Chef Carla Fears is the epitome of diversity in the sense of putting herself out there in a vulnerable way.

(bright music) She has specifically chosen to not cook what everyone expects from her, especially her own culture.

- Carla makes me cry sometimes.

I love Carla.

You know, we've worked together since 2005.

To watch her growth as a chef is incredible.

- She walks around like she owns the place.

There's a timidity to her that I really enjoyed watching and getting to know, because you could see that vulnerability in there, but she walks in, and she's got it.

She's like, "I am telling my story."

Chef Carla takes me around Atlanta's food scene, and we start this tour with traditional Southern cuisine.

Daddy D'z is Atlanta.

It is tradition, it is soul Southern food.

We go for smoked ribs and a few sides that scream Southern soul food.

I see you, 'cause society does this, you're a Black person.

(Carla chuckles) And then I see you're a chef.

Oh, you're a Black chef.

- Yeah.

- That's it.

That's as far as it goes- - So where's my shrimp and grits.

- Right, that's as far as it goes for me.

But what you're telling me is that your story is not, "I'm a Black chef."

- No, I'm a chef that happens to be Black.

- Very good.

There you go.

(Carla chuckles) Right.

- That's who I am.

I've always been that little girl that wears sneakers and a dress.

No one would ever think that how I cook, honestly, is how I cook.

But I love the fact that the misconception allows you to be over-overwhelmed.

- Black chefs are demanded to cook a particular type of cuisine, and for Chef Carla Fears to decide, I am not wearing this mask, I don't wanna cook this food, this is not my authentic story.

- I decided not to cook Black food (Taria laughs) firsthand, which is... - Beautiful.

- It's fine, it's beautiful.

- [Taria] Yeah, absolutely.

It has its place.

- [Carla] Yes, it definitely has its place.

But I'm not the typical Black person.

- Right.

- So, for me, can I cook this?

Yes, I can.

But not that I refuse to, but it's like, me as a chef, everything I do is outside of the box.

I just think it's extremely important in whatever you do in life to not fit the mold.

That way, you stand out.

- Our next stop is a place that does stand out and has a different take on Southern Food.

Sweet Auburn is in a neighborhood, Highland Avenue.

There should not be an Asian American making barbecue on Highland Avenue.

- Atlanta creates that platform to just be who you are and be great at what you do.

So the restaurant scene has allowed everyone who wants that, it's allowing that dream to come true.

- Howard Hsu is an Asian chef who decided to do barbecue.

And he's got his own spin on it, I mean, I had pimento cheese wonton.

And then his wings have such a beautiful Asian kind of flavor to it.

Now I'm no longer eating soul food.

It's soul food from a completely different perspective, - Everyone now that's creating the culinary scene is willing to step outside of the box and outside of themselves.

So that's what makes the conversation easier to be had between two guests that particularly wouldn't know each other.

- I think Atlanta is pushing the boundaries, then, in many ways, especially in the South.

Really pushing those.

And it does require the chefs, minority chefs, women chefs to step up and put themselves out there and say, "Actually, my voice is important."

(warm music) Carla is adamant we hit one more restaurant: Twisted Soul on the Westside.

And the food is not what you would expect.

What Deborah VanTrece has been able to do is cook soul food from the most diverse regions.

She has got soul food flavors from all over the world.

I taste five spice on that.

- It is.

- I mean, is that, that's not normally how oxtails are cooked.

- No.

It's Southern and it's being prepared, but the way that it's plated and the ingredients that it has is definitely international.

You have the bok choy, you have the roasted carrots, you have the fried rice.

- This is soul food, only it's coming from all of this diversified, like, regions in the world.

All these different cultures in the world are on her plates.

- Everything about Twisted Soul is outside of the box.

It literally is twisted.

- Yeah.

You don't even think twice about it.

You're like, yep, that makes sense.

And I like crawfish because they have that kinda, like, dirty quality, you know?

So it tastes- - Yes.

- But the goat cheese is elevated and the way it falls on the palate, but that crawfish really brings me back down to the ground.

- It's really good.

I mean, I think the point of all soul food is, regardless if it's Black, if it's White, if it's Italian, if it's Asian, it's the comfort that it gives you.

- And this is shiso.

- Yes.

- Right?

So we got, (Carla laughs) so now we have, like, some- - It's Asian.

You basically went- - All over the world?

- Yeah.

Passport-worthy.

(chill music) - If you wanna just how connected and tight-knit a food scene is in a city, go to the bar.

- The bar scene in Atlanta has definitely come a long way.

- And the best cocktails are absolutely to be paired with food.

- Even bartending as a profession has grown in connecting with chefs and using local ingredients.

- You know, I'm a Burgundian in nature in a sense that wine should be with food.

I'm the same way about cocktails, I'm drinking cocktails with food.

So I can't imagine just having beverages for beverages' sake, (chuckles) just like I couldn't imagine having food without any beverage.

- [Taria] A bar scene can be just as diverse as a food scene.

To experience that, I meet up with Towkia Sears, one of Atlanta's most talented bartenders.

Towkia has this quality about her that could almost be intimidating.

- Well, you know, we had worked together before, (chuckles) and, I mean, she's just a amazing maker.

- She listens, she's listening for flavors to show up to her that tell a story about whatever it is she's pairing with, which, once I tasted her drinks, I was like, "Oh!"

She's connected to something that most people miss.

We barhopped to some iconic spots around the city.

- We are in historic Downtown Decatur.

A lot of people don Downtown Decatur as, I guess they would say, like the Brooklyn of Atlanta and one of the most beautiful and progressive neighborhoods in Atlanta.

- When we went to Kimball House with Towkia, she just felt right at home.

- I love cocktails.

I love cocktail culture and history and science and food and different techniques.

It satisfies so many different layers of me all wrapped up into one.

- Kimball House sits on an active train line, and the building itself is a historic Decatur train station.

It's cleaner, you know, it has all of those colors, like these brass and glass everywhere.

As far as the diversity in the bar scene in Atlanta, how far do you think we've come in the last five years?

- It's come a long way.

I think we're riding a wave of upward progression.

- There are bars that serve the dining community, and then there are bars that serve those in the service industry.

Atlanta has a lot of places that are popping up and showing up for the industry.

But Octopus Bar was the first, actually, to be there for an industry that always gets out late.

There's nowhere to go to drink or eat, and Octopus Bar is there.

- You have East Atlanta, where a lot of our industry folks live.

A lot of them live in East Atlanta.

- It's a place to decompress.

I mean, it doesn't open until 10:30 at night.

That's a clear indication of who it's trying to serve.

- We'll see a lot of film industry and actors and all kind of like, it's the hardworking industry people's bar and restaurant.

Late-night people that work alternative schedules.

Like, it's something to make us feel welcome and inspired.

And it's artsy and it's funky and it's eclectic.

I don't think there's ever been a time I've ever come in here and I've never run into someone I didn't know.

So it's kinda Asian influences with the food, the rotating menu, the creativity that the bartenders put with their cocktail program here.

I've never been disappointed coming up, ever.

I've been coming here for years.

- Years, yeah.

- Years and years, yeah.

(lively music) - After a night of drinking, the best cure is a solid breakfast, and the chef I grabbed breakfast with is one of Atlanta's best kept secrets.

There are chefs who cook to cook, and then there's Chef Terry Koval, who cooks to feed people.

(bright music) When he's cooking, you can tell his entire purpose is to feed you.

- Terry, quite a talented guy.

You know, very passionate about what he does, but he's also very real.

- He's pushing himself.

You know, Deer and The Dove is a restaurant that he's pushing his own boundaries internally as for what he is as a chef.

- You know, that's what great artists and great chefs do, they have, you know, a large repertoire.

- His commitment to the diversity of the city, it doesn't just show up in the flavors he chooses, it shows up in the food that he's cooking.

We hit Ria's Bluebird in Grant Park, an iconic breakfast spot in that neighborhood.

Chef Ria Pell was the first person to take a chance on Memorial Drive.

(energetic music) Ria's influence and impact on a community that's usually completely ignored, especially at that time.

Gay, trans, queer, all of them, color.

It didn't matter.

- You know, I think it's part of the heartbeat of Atlanta, you know, this area of town as well.

- Yeah, for sure.

She fed a lot of, fed and employed a lot of people that might've been, like, on the outside, you know.

I think Ria reminds me of the Island of Misfit Toys.

You know, she took in a lot of people that maybe wouldn't have fit somewhere else, but it was always working class.

Ria's Bluebird feeds working-class people, from any background.

And Terry and I were fed.

Our eyes may have been bigger than our stomachs.

I think, as well, because she was willing to take a chance in this area, it helped form, it did form Grant Park.

I mean, they were getting broken into every single week when they were trying to open.

Someone was smashing the windows.

She just kept coming back and showing up and showing up.

And because it started to bring people into the neighborhood, it gave Grant Park a chance.

And now you can see all the development that's here.

It's massive.

But she was so warm and inviting, and she would cook for anybody.

Actually, she cooked for everybody.

- She did cook for everybody.

(pensive music) Enough breakfast.

Time to drink.

We head to Little Five Points, an artist community on the Eastside of Atlanta.

There we find Wrecking Bar, tucked underneath an old mansion.

Wrecking Bar was a surprise for me.

(bright music) The restaurant's actually downstairs in the basement part of this massive mansion.

And this is a bar Terry knows really well.

- I came on board at Wrecking Bar about seven and a half years ago.

They were already kinda doing the things of sourcing locally and whatnot, but just kinda came in and introduced them to some more friends, and it's great.

You're purchasing these products from these people that you've developed a friendship with, and they're eating in your restaurant.

It's like you win.

The biggest thing with us is just relationships, you know?

Bringing the relationships of the community and your farmers into your restaurant.

You know, putting your dollars back into the community.

I like to say a lot of our food comes off of pickup trucks, not semi-trucks.

- When you look on the menu, the farms where they get all of their produce from, it's a paragraph of people that that one bar supports.

- This is extremely important to me because it's building the relationships of the farmer to the restaurant, you know?

When you have that connection, it's something that drives deep inside of you.

- I think that's pretty significant, especially 'cause, you know, Little Five Points was just homeless people and, you know, skate punks, what, 10, 15 years ago?

- My background.

- Yes.

(both laughing) Exactly.

(gentle music) Our last stop takes us to the East Lake neighborhood.

Poor Hendrix is in East Lake, but I think it's definitely carving out its own little space.

It's on Hosea Williams, which is incredibly significant to Atlanta.

There's a lot of history there.

They have opened a restaurant for working-class people.

- I definitely feel that Poor Hendrix filled a gap in this neighborhood.

- Absolutely.

- You know, this neighborhood was kind of all the old, this is an old building that was vacant for probably 10, 15 years.

And this development came up, and I think that Poor Hendrix definitely filled a void here.

And, like, it's now a neighborhood joint, you know?

And what's great about these Atlanta restaurants is just they're chef-owned.

You know, this is grassroots restaurant, you know, where chef-owned and are doing their thing.

You know, it's authentic, it's natural.

It's a hustle.

(laughs) - [Taria] It's a (beep) hustle.

- It's a hustle.

(Taria laughs) And you have to find balance.

You know, you have to find balance in the food that you want to create and want to cook versus what the people react to and what they want to eat.

- Food has the ability to diversify a neighborhood, an entire city.

- I think what's great about Atlanta is, the food that's going outta these restaurants are food that they are passionate about, that they wanna cook, and it's very well-received.

The dining community in Atlanta, they want that type of food.

They want that fun kinda small plate, sharing a bowl or plate.

- [Taria] They're hungry for it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I think that's one of the things that Atlanta has really proven, is that it's hungry for what chefs want to cook, which is really... - And they need more chicken liver.

(Taria laughs) Gotta tell ya, amazing.

- Food invites conversation.

And so now you're conversing over flavors in foods from a people that you would've had no idea that exists, you wouldn't know anything about them.

Food has this way in a neighborhood to change it, to shift it.

So what does it look like to get these three creatives together in one kitchen to experience the diversity of Atlanta?

I meet Chef Linton Hopkins and Chef Gerry Klaskala in Terry's kitchen at The Deer and The Dove restaurant in Decatur.

Those two chefs have shaped a lot of the food scene in Atlanta.

For Carla, she stuck true to herself, preparing chicken feet.

(dramatic music) - You know, that's pushing the envelope.

- [Taria] (laughs) That's one of the most ballsy moves I've ever seen.

She served chicken feet with figs!

- And they were done perfectly, she confits them, you know, which is a classic French preservation, slow cooking in oil, and then deep fries 'em.

- You know, with chicken feet, I mean, that's a part of your menu that says a lot about how confident you are.

- And I love her pairing of her sauce with the cheese mixed with the fava beans.

- I love the fig component that she came up with.

It was a real neat sweet-and-sour play to something fried.

- So I thought that was spectacular.

(gentle music) - [Taria] For Terry, one dish was not enough.

- I like to cook food for people, so I just continued to just make a couple plates here and there.

- [Taria] So he's got these dishes that were each completely different.

These weren't even the same in any way.

- So, you know, I love the attention to detail on the flavors.

- I mean, he's got this shrimp octopus.

It looks like mortadella.

- 'Cause you don't really see seafood sausage done that much.

- [Taria] It was so amazing, with an avocado whipped foam.

Like, I mean, so he has that.

- Just had some duck roulade sitting there next to the fire, I'm like, "What's that?"

And they just were natural sharers.

(gentle music) - [Taria] And Towkia's cocktails were the perfect pairing.

- Cocktails are great.

You know, what Towkia did with the cocktail for the shrimp terrine, the brightness, refreshingness, it's a perfect summer cocktail - For me, that's the most natural thing, and her pairings of that were really smart.

- I was floored by how perfectly balanced it was with the dish, with each dish.

- And actually I love that she used sparkling and sort of herbaciousness.

I loved her natural sour, and I really dig Campari and its sort of sweet bitterness.

And I thought that that was really a remarkable combo, especially with the veal.

- [Taria] Asian barbecue, international soul food, and the city's best breakfast.

It's not just the ingredients and techniques but the inspiration behind the cuisine that provides a diverse food scene.

(relaxing music) The chefs in this city continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, creating a rich tapestry of cuisine that tears down the walls of tradition while building a community as diverse as the food they create.