(upbeat music) - [Bystander] Look at that.

- I was raised on soul food, But it's part of our heritage and our culture.

- What we refer to in America as soul food is really reflective of the African American experience.

- To me, soul food is traditional Southern recipes passed down from the South.

- Soul food is very spiritual because it's not just cooking.

You got to have the passion and love in what you're doing.

- [Chris] It's Labor Day weekend and the enticing aromas of freshly prepared food permeates the air of Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh.

- We are not the Rib Fest, I want to say that, this is the Soul Food Festival.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] The festival was started back in 2019 as a way to celebrate African American Cuisine and culture.

Back then, it was a one-day affair, but has since grown in size and popularity.

William Marshall is producer and organizer of the event.

- I get a lot of calls from all over the country, so people come down here to just to have a great time.

- [Chris] Besides the delicious food, there are also jewelry and clothing vendors.

But mostly people come to sample savory dishes, like smoked ribs and chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, and other soul food delights.

There's a lot to taste and experience here.

- [Announcer] Alright, we're about to start plate number three of the rib contest.

- [Chris] There are even friendly competitions to see whose food impresses the palates of a panel of celebrity judges the most.

- But number one was obviously, Ray Ray's Restaurant, and they won the trophy and they won a $500 gift card.

- This is for the rib contest.

Best ribs in Pittsburgh.

Three years running.

- I won the contest for macaroni and cheese.

All fresh ingredients, it's made from scratch.

- [Chris] And although this festival aims to promote entrepreneurship among African Americans, it is not exclusive to the Black community, - So we have a variety of vendors here today.

Last year we generated about $500,000 with the local businesses, so we just wanna make this a special occasion for everybody in the city of Pittsburgh.

- [Chris] While that's important, Marshall is also keenly aware of the early history of African Americans as food and hospitality business owners in Pittsburgh.

- [Marshall] And actually Third Avenue used to be one of the mainstays of Black businesses, downtown Pittsburgh.

- There was a black family that started a market in Pittsburgh and Allegheny City.

- [Chris] Sam Black knows about these early Black business owners.

He's the director of the African American program at the Senator John Heinz History Center, in the Strip District, - Pulpress family sort of set the standard for Black-owned food dealers.

They primarily dealt with fish, oysters, and meats from the 1840s to early 1900s.

(classical music) - [Chris] And there were other African Americans who also operated food service businesses in Market Square.

Men such as Reverend John C. Peck, who in 1838 opened an oyster house, and ice cream parlor on Market Street.

Benjamin Richards, who owned and operated a slaughterhouse and butchery on Third Avenue in 1788.

And his son, Charles Richards, who in 1795 opened a tavern on Third Avenue and Stanwix Street.

- So his father is a butcher supplying meat for the Colonial government.

- [Chris] Back then though, the expression "soul food" did not exist.

That's a relatively recent term.

- Soul food has a history feeding off of the great migration.

You have all these traditions from Alabama, from Tennessee, from Kentucky, the Carolinas, all coming into Pittsburgh.

And so all of that becomes recognized as soul food.

- [Chris] In other words, what we now consider soul food is really a combination of what Blacks ate in their native lands in Africa and what was available to them after arriving in America as slaves.

- [Sam] In Africa, you would've had a yam.

The American sweet potato became the substitute for the African yam.

Hot peppers are traditionally a part of the African diet as well as other root vegetables, like turnips.

Okra is a West African plant.

In some African societies, it is called gumbo, and that's where we get the name for the great dish, Gumbo.

During the enslavement in the Americas, rice becomes the number one starchy food, and these Africans established and cultivated these rice plantations along the Low Country in South Carolina and Georgia as well as the Gulf Coast.

Corn and maize was a staple of indigenous people diet.

A corn bread, I don't know any soul food meal that doesn't have cornbread.

- [Chris] As for meat, enslaved people were given only parts of animals considered undesirable by their white slave owners.

Parts such as ham hocks, pig feet, ears, intestines.

- And so all of that fed into what becomes recognized as soul food, is this type of cuisine.

And it was pretty much contained within the Black community.

- [Chris] But not these days.

- This is where the magic happens.

My mom taught me how to make ribs.

in Ambridge, Beaver County, Terry Stenhouse and his wife Lethera Harrison, are the owners of a popular soul food restaurant on Duss Avenue, called Annie Lee's Southern Kitchen.

- [Terry] When you start seeing the bones and the meat starts pulling away from the bone, that gives you an indication that it's done.

- [Chris] Their clientele is a multiracial, multicultural mix.

- We have a four-wings dinner.

- We have customers from different religious backgrounds, different ethnic groups, and everyone that comes in, we treat 'em like family.

- [Chris] Stenhouse opened this restaurant back in 2018 and decided to name it after his mother, whom he credits with teaching him how to cook.

- [Terry] I kind of developed passion for cooking.

My mother's side was from Alabama, so my mom passed on a lot of the recipes and I started making them for myself and my family.

- [Chris] And now those same recipes are being used to prepare meals for the restaurant.

- [Terry] The food is a lot of traditional Southern dishes.

Fried catfish, we smoke the ribs.

- A lot of our customers, they say this is like home.

A lot like their grandmother or great-grandmother cooked.

And we have baked macaroni and cheese, we have red beans and rice that we put all together and it's a little spicy.

We have sweet cornbread, which is everyone's favorite.

We also have the candied yams that we peel, cut, slice, and top it with all the sweets.

- We only use natural ingredients, real butter, whole milk, real cheese, really nothing out of a can or anything.

- [Chris] And that's what Stenhouse and Harrison say keeps their customers coming back for more.

(upbeat music) - Last week I had the wings and the catfish sandwich, and today I'm just gonna stick with the wings.

They're excellent.

- One of very few soul food restaurants that are around here, and I really enjoy it.

- Moving to Pittsburgh, I do come back here just to get the food sometimes, because I like it that much.

It's authentic - [Chris] And authenticity is what lovers of soul food and those who prepare it, say they look for in a meal.

Hi, hi, welcome, welcome, welcome.

- [Chris] Vicky Giddens is the owner of Vickey's Soul Food Grill Takeout and Catering.

Of course, of course.

Thank you for comin', darlin' thank you.

- [Chris] The franchise actually has two locations, a catering business on Rodi Road in Penn Hills, and a dine-in restaurant in the Hosanna House on Wallace Avenue in Wilkinsburg.

- I've been here at the Hosanna House since November the fourth of 2023.

(upbeat music) So much love from God himself just put me here with my food, to be a blessing to everyone that eats of it.

- [Chris] And everyone who eats here knows Giddens is serious about her soul food.

- These are a six-piece rib, barbecued rib, potato salad and greens.

So tender, so juicy, so tasty.

- [Chris] Giddens has been cooking since the age of six.

She grew up in Mississippi and Florida and remembers watching her father, a chef, prepare all kinds of gourmet dishes.

- My father, I love how he would cut food and how fast it was.

It was just brilliant.

- Today, Giddens credits both her parents as the inspiration for a career as a chef and restaurant manager.

But as a college student in Florida, she also wanted to learn more about the restaurant industry.

So she enrolled in the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

- I wanted to learn how to interact with customers and to learn the principle of a business.

Pittsburgh was the place.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Today, Giddens is putting those customer service skills to work, and her new restaurant is slowly starting to make a name for itself.

- I serve fried chicken, smothered pork chops, fried pork chops, fish, catfish, whiting, cod, and salmon.

So I'm learning a more healthier way, because soul food, believe it or not, got a bad wrap.

Lard, a lot of fatty stuff.

Well, I don't cook with none of that.

Gimme a hug, Cairo.

I love my customers so much.

I'm hearing what their needs and what they want.

- [Chris] And maybe that's another secret to planning a successful soul food restaurant.

- I'm eating stuffed chicken with the rice, mashed potatoes and green beans, home cooking, (upbeat music) - I got some catfish, some green beans, some black-eyed peas and some candied yams, because she prays over the food.

It drives us even more to support her.

- This is what I order all the time.

- Don't give up on a dream.

Don't give up on the vision.

Yes, it's going to be hard.

Yes, it's work, but it's worth it if it's your passion.

- [Chris] From today's soul food entrepreneurs to the pioneers of the past, African American culinary traditions have nourished much of the country.

- Soul food has tremendous cultural importance, but you will find history in these recipes in these cuisines.

- [Customer] Love it!

(upbeat music)