Chef Michael joins Chef Ed Walker in the tiny galley kitchen of the Rocky Mountaineer, a tourist train that follows the spectacular and historic mountain route from Vancouver to Calgary. Our chef deals with the pressure and challenges of preparing gourmet meals in a kitchen that just doesn’t stay still!
Chef Michael dons a Stetson and spurs to rope in the story of how a working ranch, nestled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, feeds a crew of cowhands and tourists. We’ll see what happens when our city slicker Michael is left alone in the kitchen on chef’s night off at the Three Bars Guest and Cattle Ranch, in Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Chef Michael discovers what it takes to produce thousands of high-quality meals in the chaos of an exotic cruise liner kitchen. He goes into the trenches with everyone from the head chef to the dishwasher, and finds that the world between luxury and labour is a swing of the kitchen door away.
Chef Michael goes back in time and creates an 1800s meal, with ingredients of the day, at Kings Landing Historical Settlement, near Fredericton, New Brunswick. Michael discovers how our ancestors cooked, as he roasts a chicken and vegetables, and bakes bread over an open hearth.
Schnitzel, sausages, and strudel! Chef Michael joins in the hard work and fun involved in feeding thousands of hungry revellers at the Kitchner-Waterloo Oktoberfest, the biggest Bavarian bash outside Germany. It’s a mind-boggling volume of food for up to 4,000 partygoers daily!
What happens when you set loose a talented gourmet chef into a sea of boy and girl scouts cooking over their small propane stoves in a Prince Edward Island Campground? Chef Michael shows the kids a few culinary tricks at the Scouts Canada Jamboree, including a traditional Acadian pig roast.
Chef Michael is going back to basics: feeding hungry people! He joins volunteers at the Out of the Cold community kitchen at St. Andrew’s Church in Toronto where he helps to cook up stews, soups and casseroles. He experiences the challenges and satisfaction of feeding street people who seldom eat well.
Chef Michael and five other celebrity chefs create a fabulous meal at the Starlight Children’s Gala at the International Plaza Hotel and Convention Centre in Toronto. He shows us the preparations, the pressure and the pizzazz of the ultimate cooking challenge-to serve a huge, highbrow crowd some very good food, and on time!
Chef Michael shares in the huge challenge, the high pressure and the drama of feeding NBA’s Toronto Raptors, and all who surround the team - the powerful owners, the directors and the rowdy fans--during an exciting home game against Memphis. Just what do these big guys eat?!
Chef Michael takes an inside look at the life of Judson Simpson, Parliament Hill executive chef. Preparing food for three restaurants as well as catering special events makes for an exciting food career. Michael will help Judson cater a very important wine and cheese party where the representatives of the people will choose the House wine!
Chef Michael visits a kitchen that truly rocks! The Marriott Marquis in Times Square is the largest hotel operation in the U.S. with $90M in food business annually. Michael will have an exclusive look at the life of Executive Chef George McNeill on a busy day that includes a banquet for 1,600 people celebrating football’s Heisman Award.
Ship ahoy! Chef Michael helps out the three chefs on board the navy frigate, HMCS Fredericton as they cook for 225 men and women. The chefs have other jobs too, and so work under great pressure and at great speed. Having to cook five meals a day while the ship lurches to and fro on the North Atlantic will be an adventure like none other!
Chef Michael joins the chefs at Reel Appetites, a large Vancouver catering company, who are feeding the cast and crew on the set of a television series called Jeremiah. Michael will help cook for 150 hard-working film people and he’ll also rub elbows with the stars, Malcolm Jamal Warner from the Cosby Show and Luke Perry from 90210.
High-end caterer is contracted to provide meal for patrons of the opening night at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on–the-Lake.
Perched on the remote banks of Labrador’s Eagle River, the Rifflin Hitch Lodge is one of the most elite destinations in the world of high-end fly fishing. The Atlantic Salmon are the stars of the show as Chef/Owner Gudrid Hutchings cooks in a kitchen that can only be stocked by helicopter.
Indulging in a taste of the Caribbean at this World Famous Carnival. We team up with a Trinidadian Family responsible for feeding the very large crowds on Festival Day.
This is a true culinary adventure as Michael roughs it royally on a gourmet river rafting expedition. Journey through the remote wilderness of Northern BC on a River Raft and travel down glacier-fed rivers while making camp and eating well enroute. He encounters a challenge of a lifetime and experiences the wild joys of cooking in a kitchen with no walls where campfire becomes stove and river is tap and fridge.
What is Kosher? We find out in Montreal. Travel with Michael through historic Montreal where he uncovers great bagels and smoked meats in preparation for a traditional Jewish Wedding.
Get into the drivers seat with Chef Michael as he races into the kitchens of some of the fastest drivers in the world including Mario Andretti. Chef Michael will be hooking up with the Paul Newman/Haas Indy Race car team’s personal Chef to see how he goes about feeding that team to keep it well balanced and lubed.
Chef Michael discovers the magic and technique behind food advertising for television and print. We follow two talented and respected Food Stylists who earn their living by making tomatoes look great!
Michael pays a visit to the internationally successful Famous People Players Dinner Theatre. This is where great cuisine meets inspiring theatre, all brought to you by a colorful troupe of inspirational performers.
Chef Michael investigates the Fine Art of Wine making, then uses his culinary instincts to design an appropriate tasting menu, which is both seasonal, and toned.
How do you achieve the successful marketing of your favorite recipe? Join Chef Michael as he attempts just that. There is more to this than greets the taste buds. Michael must survive the rigors of testing, tasting, sizing, coloring, marketing, and general appeal, if he wants this product to sell!
Our Chef at Large journeys to Minneapolis, where a unique program has been developed by Chef Art Smith, Oprah’s personal Chef. We are introduced to a mighty group of Kids, all of whom have a variety of sociological, economic, and behavioural challenges. They show us that a few ingredients are all that’s needed to rise above some of life’s obstacles.
Chef Michael undergoes a personal fitness and nutritional assessment at the revitalizing Mountain Trek Spa in Southeast British Columbia. We study the practice of “personal improvement” through exercise, meditation, nutrition, and massage.
We’ll investigate the reality behind creating the fully realized recipes for this best selling magazine. The output of this state-of-the-art facility’s intense test kitchens and bright photography studios can be found found in homes across the country.
Survival is the name of the culinary game at Edmonton’s non-profit ‘Kids in the Hall' Bistro that works to keep street kids off the street. Michael lends a hand to tonight’s all-important fundraiser that will keep the program afloat. But keeping the youth focused on their personal goals proves to be the real challenge.
Jamie Maw is one of North America’s toughest and most respected food critics. But what does a food critic do? Jamie has selected a newly opened Italian restaurant in Vancouver to be the subject of his latest review. We’ll see how he evaluates Bis Moreno and whether they cut the mustard. Michael takes us behind the scenes to witness the pressure and problems Chef Moreno Miotto encounters as Jamie Maw puts Bis Moreno under his culinary microscope.
Air Canada is launching a new premium meal service for their business class. Michael visits Air Canada’s R&D in Montreal where they explain the concept and execution of the new menu and its dishes; as well as point out the various elements that did not work. Michael then visits CARA Foods in Toronto, the largest airline kitchen in North America, where they prep 50,000 meals a day. Then it’s onto the plane where Michael tries and comments on the presentation and taste of the new meal service.
Michael gets more than a taste of the life as an Armed Forces Reservist in a field-training kitchen. In the course of a 15-hour day, the field kitchen makes a company move; it comes under fire; feeds troops in the field; and pulls off a 5-course dinner for VIP’s. The “green” Reservists get pushed to their limits.
Sonya Gianvito is about to have her first baby and her best friend Paula Faiella, a Toronto caterer, wants to surprise her with a baby shower Sonya will never forget! And, just to up the ante, Paula invited Michael to help her cook a few traditional Italian dishes for this secret soiree. Can they keep the Shower a secret, and what does Michael have up his sleeve for Sonya’s special day?
Michael travels to Waskaganish in James Bay to see how First Nation Cree’s are passing on the traditions of the past to their youth. The elders take Michael up the Rupert River to a traditional Cree camp that has been used by the Cree for thousands of years to catch whitefish in an ingenious stone weir. But what Michael’s really wondering - what’s in the pot? Groundhog perhaps?
Michael gets a lesson in diplomacy when he visits Consul General Pamela Wallin at her home in New York City. Ms. Wallin is hosting a dinner for the cast of “Dream a Little Dream”, which has just finished a successful Broadway run. Politics, entertainment, and great food mix in this episode where front of the house diplomacy, and back of the house tension delivers a first class meal fit for Broadway stars.
Michael runs away with the circus and finds that life under the big top is a big challenge. How do you feed a troupe of 350 people from around the globe, especially when finding specific ingredients, such as for those for an authentic Chinese dish, can be a major problem in the different cities they visit? Michael learns about the coding system that helps to alleviate the language barrier between the kitchen and the performers. He witnesses first hand the problems the troupe faces as they travel from city to city.
The Chinese Moon Festival is the second most important day in the Chinese calendar and Michael joins Chef Katherine Chim as she teaches an Asian cooking class how to make Moon Cakes. They’re a unique pastry based on a thousand year old myth. But that’s just a small part of the celebration… it’s a time for family gatherings and Michael enters into the kitchen to get a lesson in cooking Chinese.
North American Culinary icon James Beard’s spirit of excellence in the culinary arts is celebrated for the first time in Canada at Toronto’s Metropolitan Soho. Seven of Canada’s top chefs are creating a tasting menu that has serious foodies from both sides of the border in attendance. While it’s a chance for Canada’s culinary talent to shine, it’s not going to be easy fitting seven egos into one small kitchen. The chaotic final hour of prep is a real test of patience and cooperation for each chef involved.
It’s Sunday afternoon and thousands of football fans are camped out at their team’s stadium, tailgating… From the basic hibachi to the more elaborate grill you haul along behind your vehicle, they are there in droves to share recipes, team stats, and most of all to support their team. Michael joins ‘Tailgating Russ’ in Philadelphia, for a game between the Eagles and New Orleans Saints. The theme for the day is Mardi Gras... where they cook giant gumbo, crawfish, etc. reflecting a New Orleans menu.
Pastry Chef Eddie Hales, of the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, enlists Michael to help him create a one of a kind dessert. The National Association of Catering Executives is holding their President’s Ball at the hotel and they expect to see something truly original for their ‘Ice & Fire’ themed dinner. Before the dinner however, they need to create and approve a new dessert for Saturday night’s dessert menu at the hotels ‘Fountain Restaurant’.
Tojo is North America’s best sushi chef. Join Michael and the master’s apprentices as they learn how Tojo selects fresh fish, care for the world’s sharpest knives and marries ancient tradition with modern creativity. It takes 12 years just to master the rice but Michael will try to learn how in one day! In addition to this, Tojo is competing in the Komochi Konbu competition in which Michael is a judge.
Join Michael as he helps judge Canada’s best and brightest young chefs as they compete for the title of National Junior Culinary Champion. Each competitor must cook a three-course menu consisting of an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Michael is a kitchen judge and takes us behind the scenes for a look at this high stakes, high intensity competition.
The Edible Schoolyard, created by legendary Chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, is a unique program that helps kids understand their relationship with food by planting, harvesting and cooking food they grow themselves. Michael attends a summer session at the Martin Luther King Jr. High School and meets some of the inner city youth that are invited to attend this inspiring program.
Thomas Haas, one of North America’s finest pastry chefs, has been commissioned to create the biggest wedding cake he has ever made. The cake features seven tiers, each with 11 layers. It stands over six feet high, weighs more than three hundred pounds and has 22 hand made oversized sugar flowers. Michael lends a hand as Haas creates this $5000 masterpiece in less than 24 hours.
Michael is invited to a traditional East Indian Wedding. He joins 600 guests for a ceremony steeped in ritual and exotic flavours. Michael jumps in to help out at a family dinner for 75, and a vegetarian reception for 600. Along the way he learns all about the art of curries, and gets an inside look at the role food plays in the celebration.
Michael explores the world of menus when he is asked to create a new menu item for Cactus Club Café, a casual fine dining restaurant chain. Michael reveals the incredible effort that goes into developing menus and how important they are to the success of any restaurant. He creates three new fish dishes. Will one of them make the cut? What will the guests think?
Thousands of Acadian descendants from all over the world descend on Nova Scotia for one of the largest cultural events ever held there. Michael joins James Surette of Nebraska and his family as they rediscover their Acadian roots and the authentic food of their ancestors. Along the way the Surettes’ meet their family for the first time and Michael jumps in to help prepare an Acadian fest for 800 guests…
It is the 100th Anniversary of the Bell Canadian Open, one of Canada’s largest single sporting events, and Michael is in the middle of it all. 65,000 spectators and 157 pro golfers a day eat up everything from burgers and fries to gourmet meals. Michael takes us behind the scenes to the busy kitchens, and introduces us to the various characters that it takes to make an event of this magnitude a success.
Michael visits Toronto’s Mt. Sinai Hospital where there are close to 5000 staff and students, 2000 auxiliary members and volunteers, 25,000 admissions a year, 35,000 emergency treatments, and 600,000 ambulatory care visits. Feeding people and taking care of everyone’s nutritional needs is a major challenge; patient satisfaction with meals is very important. Michael learns how a team of dieticians, clinical technicians, food service supervisors, the executive chef, and nursing staff plan, prepare and serve nutritional hospital food.
The Bellagio Casino Hotel in Las Vegas is a city within a city with over 5.4 million square feet, 5000 guest rooms, and over 5 million guests each month. Michael spends a day with Executive Chef Wolfgang von Wieser, and takes us behind the scenes for a look at the fast paced world of Vegas casino hotel where anything can – and does – happen!
Michael travels to Alert Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia to join the Whonnock family for a traditional Potlatch. He joins in the fun as an entire community celebrates with family memorials, passing of rights and privileges and two weddings. As he helps feed 1000 guests, Michael learns how to cook usa, ooligans, deer stew, butter clam chowder, and other native dishes. He also joins a fishing expedition as he learns about this vibrant community.
D. C. Central Food Kitchen in Washington DC feeds the homeless and needy and is the largest community outreach program in North America. Michael joins founder, Robert Egger, and his team in their quest to fight hunger through meaningful training and work. With thousands of pounds of food arriving daily and a kitchen full of trainees and volunteers, this program is an award-winning model of success.
What defines great restaurant service? Michael visits Toronto’s Canoe restaurant to find out what makes their dining room world class. From their perch on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower, Canoe is known for their legendary hospitality and flawless service. Michael discovers a few trade secrets and we learn a new respect for waiters.
Join Chef Michael Smith and his neighbours as they band together for an ambitious charity fundraising dinner. The community finds resources they didn’t know they had and deal with some major culinary hurdles on their way to pulling off a wildly successful dinner.
Michael heads to Vancouver’s Downtown East Side to visit Chef James Kennedy at the Cooks Studio Café. Cooks Studio Café is a for-profit restaurant that goes out on a limb to train youth at risk, teaching life and entry level cooking skills, encouraging these young adults to believe in themselves and achieve success. After only six weeks in the kitchen, Chef Kennedy will test the limits of the students’ newfound culinary skills as they prepare a 4-course meal for their families and friends. Will they impress or fall to the pressure?
Michael goes to New York City’s trendy BED nightclub where a new breed of bartenders is pairing cocktails with food. Michael meets “Bar Chefs” Willy Shine and Aisha Sharpe. They have been charged with creating two exotic cocktails to pair with two new dishes to add to the menu. Mentored by bartending legend Dale DeGroff, Willy and Aisha show Michael that the history of the cocktail has always had strong ties to the kitchen. With all this newfound knowledge, Michael creates a cocktail of his own. But will BED’s Chef approve of these new concoctions?
Thirty-one year old culinary whiz kid Grant Achatz has wowed diners across the United States and garnered accolades worldwide, including the prestigious James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef in America Award. Michael visits Achatz in Chicago at his newly opened ALINEA restaurant to explore the world of molecular gastronomy. The restaurant features a 25 course-tasting menu that defies boundaries of the dining experience. Two new dishes are added to the menu as Michael asks, “Has fine dining become the culinary equivalent of walking through an art gallery?”
Dominique and Cindy Duby are Canada’s most notable pastry chefs and sought after "Sweet Ambassadors". They put it all on the line with a 7-course sweet and savoury “molecular gastronomy” meal. Each course features chocolate and the dinner is served at the famous Bel-Air Hotel in Hollywood. Michael travels with them as the Duby’s crusade in the name of science and their food is put to the test.
Michael visits with Chef Gamini Hemalal and his partner Pradeep Dharmawardana at GOLDEN CHEFS in Toronto as they prep for an extraordinarily busy Saturday with four weddings that feature 12 ice sculptures, 150 kilos of fruit carving and one elaborate sugar sculpture. Showpiece presentation is fast becoming a lost art but these Chefs passion shines through as they fuse old school techniques with new tools of the trade. But this summer weekend has other challenges because when you’re in the sugar and ice business heat and humidity can ruin the best laid plans.
The Edmonton Folk Festival is one of the largest and best music festivals in the world. One of the secrets of its success are the volunteers, all 1500 of them. They cook for the performers and for themselves, in what is the largest temporary outdoor kitchen in the country. Michael becomes another volunteer in a kitchen of 200 that have little or no cooking experience. Incredibly he discovers awesome cooking and the flavours of the world.
RIDEAU HALL is the home to Canada’s Governor General, who represents the Queen and is Canada’s de facto Head of State. Chef Oliver Bartsch and Chef Louis Charest take Michael, and honoured guests, on a culinary journey with a 5-course, all-Canadian menu. Everything for the Nation’s Table is made from scratch using Canadian ingredients – including the breads and condiments, right down to the chocolate truffles. Michael harvests fresh ingredients from the organic garden and explores the essence of Canadian cuisine.
Milan is ‘the’ Tomato Man. An organic farmer of passion and pride, Milan has a legion of followers that want his fresh picked tomatoes. Michael joins Milan on what Milan calls “The 36 Hour Tour”. Milan copes with the grueling job of growing, harvesting, driving and delivering his prized tomatoes twice a week to Vancouver’s finest restaurants. With the help of his elderly Mom and Dad, and any Vancouver Chef he can coerce, he snags RAIN CITY GRILL’s Chef Andrea Carlson to help harvest, especially if she wants tomatoes for her latest 5-course all tomato tasting menu.
The key to enjoying successful firehouse cooking is gathering around the table, and having a quiet moment to enjoy good home-style cooking. It’s about taking a moment away from the daily rigor of emergency calls, non-stop training and mundane chores that challenge preparing a meal for your colleagues. Michael joins the crew of Highfield Park Fire Station in Nova Scotia where they cook and celebrate Thanksgiving as a “family” and toast their first year in operation. Everyone chips in; including rookie cook Heather Richards, as she’s faced with cooking for the brigade for the first time.
Ace Bakery is a top-notch bakery that supplies artisan breads to Toronto’s top tables. But success has it’s own challenges. With 340 fresh deliveries daily including bread to hundreds of restaurants, hotels, caterers, grocery and gourmet food shops, how does Ace balance mass production while maintaining the integrity of their product? A new contract has them creating a six-foot baguette and Michael watches the development of a new bread. But will it be a hit with consumers?
Michael ventures into the secret world of foraging for wild mushrooms in the wilds of Oregon. Tyler Gray takes Michael into the world of hard-core professionals in pursuit of North America’s hidden harvests, mushrooms, such as canterelles, truffles, cauliflower and the highly-prized pine mushroom that command big dollars. The competition and secrecy to find the ultimate mushroom patch is high stakes for the hundreds that forage and for the buyers who supply the best restaurants in the world with the edible booty.
Ever wondered why the plate of food in front of you costs $27.99? How did they arrive at that price? What goes into the pricing of restaurant food? Earl’s Restaurant is a leading upscale casual dining chain and Michael goes with Earl’s Chef Michael Noble behind the scenes to see for himself what makes that Blackened California New York Striploin cost $27.99. From products and ingredients to staff to breakage and beyond, a menu item is broken down to show where that price comes from.
Join Chef Michael Smith as he tackles a real tough crowd: high school students mandated to eat in an unorthodox school lunch program. Chef Paul Finkelstein runs The Screaming Avocado café in Stratford, Ontario and his competition is the traditional cafeteria down the hall. Chef Paul and Michael take on the challenge as they collaborate on lunch service and a special fundraising dinner.