Chef Michael Smith has always been at-home with
food. With his hit Food Network Canada television shows, Chef at Home to Chef Abroad,
Smith
keeps his culinary chops active just about anywhere he goes.
In
Chef
Michael Smith’s Kitchen: 100 of My Favourite Easy Recipes, the P.E.I. chef shares his cooking secrets and
recipes, including buttermilk waffles, honey mustard barbecue baked baby back ribs to his P.E.I. favourites,
such as pan-seared scallops, to help the everyday cook learn the ins and outs of mixing things up in the
kitchen.
Lifestyler
spoke
with the Canadian chef to find out how he keeps things interesting in and out of the
kitchen.
Since you have
worked all over the world, from South America to the Caribbean and Manhattan to England, how do you find
Canadian cuisine measures up to the international food scene?
Our cuisine in
Canada is just as vibrant and just as exciting as any other cuisine anywhere else in the world. The reason
for that is threefold. We’ve got ingredients — all kinds of wonderful, indigenous ingredients, from coast to
coast. That’s our foundation. We’ve got cooks, lots of cooks — passionate chefs. We’ve got tradition, all
kinds of wonderful ethnic traditions, our own homegrown and traditions that have joined us from overseas.
Stir all of that together and we’ve got a rock-solid, world-class cuisine.
Since you are a
self-proclaimed home chef, do you miss the restaurant side of it?
I get to play all
of the time. I just don’t have a restaurant anymore. There are parts of it that I do miss and there’s a whole
lot that I don’t miss.
It can be quite
chaotic, I would imagine.
Yeah, actually,
that’s the part that I do miss. That energy. Time with my son is more important to me. The time at
home.
But being a home
chef is quite relatable for your viewers.
Sure,
absolutely.
What are some of
the biggest things you have learned from your show?
Just how to teach
food and how to teach cooking. It’s been quite an evolution for me as a chef, as a working chef. But it’s
something that I treasure. It’s wonderful to be in a position to actually do some good. There is a lot of
food tradition and a lot of food knowledge that’s missing right now. There’s a lot of folks around that need
a hand. To be reminded how easy it is to take care of yourself through food.
Anything else
you’re working on?
Lots going on. I
just wrapped the Food Network’s first-ever web video series, which will launch this fall. It’s called
Chef
Michael’s Kitchen. I’m opening a burger joint later this year too, a chain of them
actually.
Chef Michael Smith’s
Kitchen: 100 of my Favourite Easy Recipes is in stores now.
Chef at Home
airs on
Food Network Canada on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. EST. •
Photo Courtesy: Food Network
Canada
