Antoni Porowski explores how food can tell you about your heritage

Antoni Porowski believes in the importance of storytelling through culinary traditions. The child of Polish parents who moved to Montreal, he “feeled Polish enough” until his family moved to West Virginia and graduated from high school. Wanting to date cool kids, he took cabbage to school for lunch and corrected people who struggled to pronounce his name, and how he stood out. I'm beginning to notice.

“When I decided I wanted to pursue acting, I told my dad I wanted to change my last name to something a little more American-sounding,” says the author, Queer Istar and Ambassador Goodwill, the World Food Program. “My father asked, 'So who knows you'll polish?” I didn't get it at the time, but I'm happy he's down that path. He still loves growing Polish foods, such as sorrel soup, hunter stew, pierogis and cabbage rolls, and remains a constant touchstone for his family.

Porowski's belief that food can tell people who they are influenced his new show, taste like taste, taste like taste. On a journey to cultural and personal discoveries, Porowski travels with Awkwafina, Henry Golding, James Marsden, Florence Pugh, Issa Rae, Justin Theroux, Malaysian Borneo, Germany, England, Senegal and Italy. By sharing family stories and connections with food, docusaries examine each individual's rich heritage through the culinary traditions of their ancestors.

(Related: How to make the perfect pierogi, a famous Polish dumpling.)

“We have a responsibility to make sure we tell stories about the dishes our family loves,” he says. “When you know where you came from, it helps to give you the foundation to go your own path.”

I connected with Porowski in San Francisco. He spoke about the show, shared how the experience changed him, and saw his own cultural questions about his family's food traditions.

Even if you have only a small connection to that culture, when you are in the culture you have descended, when you are in the culture you have descended, there is something about your vision. Why are foods that help release memories and motivate you to dive deeper?

For me, it's a simple vehicle because the food is so emotional. It provides us with a sense of comfort. I grew up in a house where I wasn't good at communicating my feelings. And the heartwarming moments (and some of the most painful) happened around the dinner table. If they hadn't had Polish food when they were growing up, they would have tried to assimilate more into American culture. But the food brought me closer to my legacy.

When I visited Korea with Nora (Awkwafina), there was a moment when things were clicked for her. She was moistening, the sesame oil was heating up, and the beef was hitting the pot, smelling the kelp. She realized it was a smell she had remembered from when her mother was sick. Nora cried, and everyone on the set torn apart.

(Related: Everything you need to know about Bibimbap, a famous Korean rice dish.)

What aspects of research challenged us in bringing together individual family stories?

We had an entire genealogy team and had to spend months researching to get details of everyone's family stories. In some destinations, such as Germany, Italy, and the UK, many documents are in the public domain and there is an infrastructure to access that information. However, in Senegal or Borneo, much of the details is oral history. Our research team had to speak to the village elders to make sure the story was virtually accurate. If you are only less than 100% sure of the details, we have been careful to be clear.

How did the experiences of these six episodes change you?

It feels like we don't have enough conversations about the gifts of our generation. Look at Issa, a strong and independent woman who empowers women to companies that invest women from the shows she produces. It was impressive to learn that there were so many incredible women in her family. Justin is extremely passionate about his rescue pit bull and pet adoption, and learning a generational connection to adoption was an emotional moment. It was also powerful to see Florence and her family's passion for food after learning that her ancestors had a really struggled period.

I describe my own connection to cooking as a deep obsession, but I am sure there is a reason why my family is so connected to food. Both my grandfathers were in concentration camps. As a child, I heard that nothing wasted on your plate.

If there was an episode that tastes like a home dedicated to your cultural background, what would you like to include?

I would like to explore the importance of very strong cooking in my memory. I feel that there is power and importance behind something, but I don't know what it is. On Christmas Eve there was a uszka and a dumpling known as “small ears” due to its shape. The journey to cooking that dish began in the summer months we foraged for mushrooms we would then use as filling dumplings. But one of them is filled with peppercorn. If you get something as unpleasant as it makes it tasteless, it will be a sign of good fortune next year.

My mother would have only allowed my middle sister to help her make this dish with her hands, but I did. My mother was very focused and didn't talk, so there was a lot of strength. I was impressed with how much energy, time, effort, care, accuracy and love came in, but I don't know much about it.

In an age where distractions and divisions hamper the ability to see each other's humanity, viewers can see the series as they discover ancestral traditions that tell us something about who we are. What do you want to take away?

I think we act in a certain way when we are afraid of something. When I talk to someone, I may not agree with them, but together at the end of our time, I can understand to some extent where they came from. The world is not so scary as we are exposed to diversity (different people, different places, different cultures). You actually find that we have more similarities than differences. This is what I said in the first season of Queer Eye. If we really hear what others have to say, we just understand what we have in common.