Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Chef and writer Tunde Wey traces the erasure of Black chefs from New Orleans cuisine and confronts how food spaces accelerated gentrification after Katrina. The story shifts to Detroit, where Wey’s own restaurant reshaped a city later branded by others. Behind the scenes, Wey and co-director Theo Schear begin pitching the series, exposing its intentions and tensions.
Who are the kingmakers of New Orleans cuisine and how have they excluded Black chefs from their ranks? Reflecting on the erasure of Black chefs from New Orleans’ food culture, Tunde examines how post-Katrina development drove gentrification in the city at the expense of Black New Orleanians. Ironically, food spaces were at the vanguard of that movement. An award-winning journalist whose investigation of a food hall guides the episode, but when his interview takes an unexpected turn, the expert himself becomes the subject of examination. The story shifts to Detroit, Tunde’s first home in America, where he opened a restaurant while on an expired student visa. The experimental restaurant, (revolver), was an incubator for many other restaurateurs that have since transformed Detroit’s culinary landscape. He returns to see how white developers, restaurateurs, non-profits and big businesses have used food spaces to rebrand the city from failing to chic, and his own contribution to that narrative. Behind-the-scenes moments from the production of the show frame the episode, revealing origins and intentions behind the project. Tunde and Theo, the show’s co-director, are approached by their Hollywood heroine and start pitching this show to streamers.
A poetic food show chronicling the life and perspective of Nigerian chef / writer Tunde Wey. The edgy series recounts Wey’s explosive career while building a critique of the social structures that disenfranchise Black peoples globally.
A food show not about food - following Nigerian chef/writer Tunde Wey across America as he investigates the ways food culture and power are shaped by race and class. With unsparing interviews, poetic narration and a self-reflexive storyline, Tunde reveals his own hypocrisies while calling out others, prompting viewers to rethink their own position in systems of power. Unlike any food show before, and despite the chef’s exceptional taste, this show may be… Hard To Swallow.
A film by Tunde Wey & Theo Schear
2025 © Licensed by First Hand Films
Chef and writer Tunde Wey traces the erasure of Black chefs from New Orleans cuisine and confronts how food spaces accelerated gentrification after Katrina. The story shifts to Detroit, where Wey’s own restaurant reshaped a city later branded by others. Behind the scenes, Wey and co-director Theo Schear begin pitching the series, exposing its intentions and tensions.
Who are the kingmakers of New Orleans cuisine and how have they excluded Black chefs from their ranks? Reflecting on the erasure of Black chefs from New Orleans’ food culture, Tunde examines how post-Katrina development drove gentrification in the city at the expense of Black New Orleanians. Ironically, food spaces were at the vanguard of that movement. An award-winning journalist whose investigation of a food hall guides the episode, but when his interview takes an unexpected turn, the expert himself becomes the subject of examination. The story shifts to Detroit, Tunde’s first home in America, where he opened a restaurant while on an expired student visa. The experimental restaurant, (revolver), was an incubator for many other restaurateurs that have since transformed Detroit’s culinary landscape. He returns to see how white developers, restaurateurs, non-profits and big businesses have used food spaces to rebrand the city from failing to chic, and his own contribution to that narrative. Behind-the-scenes moments from the production of the show frame the episode, revealing origins and intentions behind the project. Tunde and Theo, the show’s co-director, are approached by their Hollywood heroine and start pitching this show to streamers.
A poetic food show chronicling the life and perspective of Nigerian chef / writer Tunde Wey. The edgy series recounts Wey’s explosive career while building a critique of the social structures that disenfranchise Black peoples globally.
A food show not about food - following Nigerian chef/writer Tunde Wey across America as he investigates the ways food culture and power are shaped by race and class. With unsparing interviews, poetic narration and a self-reflexive storyline, Tunde reveals his own hypocrisies while calling out others, prompting viewers to rethink their own position in systems of power. Unlike any food show before, and despite the chef’s exceptional taste, this show may be… Hard To Swallow.
A film by Tunde Wey & Theo Schear
2025 © Licensed by First Hand Films
