For those of us in Dallas, the Peabody Award-winning A Chef’s Life might be a new thing. It’s first season didn’t air here, but we will get to watch a recap of Season 1 and see new episodes of Season 2 starting Saturday, September 6 at 9:00 AM on PBS (KERA).
The series follows Vivian Howard, a New York City chef from North Carolina who returned home to the South to start a restaurant a few years ago. Her farm-to-table adventures are funny, informative, and real, based on the episodes we’ve seen.
In each half-hour documentary-style episode, viewers will see chef Howard learning local cooking techniques, struggling with the ins and outs of the restaurant industry, recovering from fires, and raising a family all at once. Each episode also focuses on certain ingredients, such as tomatoes, oysters, and muscadines.
Vivian Howard gained fame in the Manhattan restaurant scene and ran her own gourmet delivery service. Her parents offered to help her and her husband build their own restaurant – with one catch. They had to open it back home in Eastern North Carolina, where she swore she would never return. With that, the popular restaurant Chef and the Farmer was created in Kinston, NC. Here’s a little more information:
The premiere season of A CHEF’S LIFE followed Vivian and Ben as they recovered from a devastating fire in the restaurant, adjusted to life in a small-town, and juggled a busy and stressful career with raising a young family. Much more dynamic and personal than a typical cooking show, A CHEF’S LIFE celebrates modern Southern cuisine, seasonality, farmers, food artisans, and family — all through the lens of a working restaurant. Instantly beloved by viewers across the country when it premiered in 2013, the series’ first season was recognized as a James Beard Award finalist and honored with a prestigious Peabody Award.
In the upcoming second season, A CHEF’S LIFE takes Vivian out of the Chef and the Farmer’s kitchen and on the road with a new roster of Southern ingredients. From blueberries to turnips to butterbeans, Vivian explores Southern cuisine with a chef’s modern sensibilities. As they introduce viewers to the farmers and cooks of the American South, Vivian and Ben also celebrate their twins’ third birthday and open a new second restaurant, the Boiler Room.