To learn that the Senegalese decided: We’re going to take these beans, which are indigenous to us, we’re going to take the baguette, which was forced upon us, we’re going to make it better, and we are going to make it the food that fuels our country as we try to rebuild and find our own sense of identity, which is, like, so beautiful.
With Barbie and American Fiction star Issa Rae in Senegal, Oppenheimer and We Live In Time’s Florence Pugh in the United Kingdom, Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding in Malaysian Borneo, X-Men and Westworld star James Marsden in Germany, Awkwafina, of Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens fame, in South Korea, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Justin Theroux in Italy, Porowski goes on a culinary adventure around the globe, learning about the food that makes us who we are.
But turning 40 for me was a milestone, because it was the first time that I kind of had this epiphany of, like, I’ve had a life – not a full life, there’s still a lot that I want to accomplish – but, like, I’ve done some things, I’ve learned some things, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, I’ve grown, and I’ve changed, and I’ve also stayed the same.
But we have these, like, beautiful generational gifts, and Issa (Rae) was the one who really brought it to my attention in the strongest way, where she’s always known that she’s strong, that she’s confident, but to know that she had ancestors – that she was standing on the shoulders of giants, I think that’s how she worded it….
For her to have that realisation of: We owe so much gratitude to those who came before us, I think it’s such a beautiful and important and necessary journey to go on, on our path to self actualisation, or growing up, or whatever it is.
