A Chef's Life (2013) · WatchGuide

SERIES

20135 Seasons30m episodes9.3

Reality, Documentary

TMDB9.3

Votes3

Your rating

Runtime: 30m episodes
Genre: Reality
Certificate: TV-G
Origin: US

About

A character-driven documentary and cooking series that takes viewers inside the life of Chef Vivian Howard, who, with her husband Ben Knight, left the big city to open a fine dining restaurant in small-town Eastern North Carolina.

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YouTube TV

PBS

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Availability from JustWatch via TMDB.

Details

Status: Canceled
First aired: Sep 7, 2013
Network: PBS
Studio: SCETV, Markay Media

Time to finish

30 hrs

60 episodes. About 5 weeks at an hour a night.

View on IMDb ↗

Cast

Vivian Howard

Herself

Ben Knight

Himself

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SERIES

20135 Seasons30m episodes9.3

Reality, Documentary

TMDB9.3

Votes3

Your rating

Runtime: 30m episodes
Genre: Reality
Certificate: TV-G
Origin: US

About

Where to watch

Region

Stream

YouTube TV

PBS

PBS Documentaries Amazon Channel

PBS Living Amazon Channel

Free

PBS

With ads

Buy

Availability from JustWatch via TMDB.

Episodes

0 of 0 watched

E1 · Airs Sep 7, 2013 · 30m
Sweet Corn & Expensive Tea
Chef Vivian Howard and her husband Ben leave New York to open a restaurant in her small North Carolina hometown. Vivian revisits the Southern tradition of “putting up” corn and shares her method for making smoked corn relish. As the episode concludes, a devastating setback threatens their new life.
E2 · Airs Sep 14, 2013 · 30m
Strawberry Stay at Home
Vivian and Ben rebuild their restaurant against the backdrop of the Southern harbinger of spring, the strawberry. Their twins go on their first strawberry-picking excursion, and Vivian and a friend develop a recipe for coconut cornbread strawberry shortcake with basil whipped cream.
E3 · Airs Oct 1, 2013 · 30m
Pimp My Grits
The restaurant gears up for a practice service when the new equipment and new menu will be tested in real time - but nothing is going as planned. One of the big changes to the restaurant's menus is the addition of a section called "Pimp My Grits," where Vivian exalts the lowly, quintessentially Southern ingredient in four distinct ways.
E4 · Airs Oct 8, 2013 · 30m
Cracklin' Kitchen
Vivian goes about christening the restaurant's new "whole animal, no waste" program with two little pigs from Warren Brothers' farm. She uses everything - including the skin - and, on her father's recommendation, demonstrates how to make sweet potatoes with cracklins.
E5 · Airs Oct 15, 2013 · 30m
Tomatoes: You Say Heirloom, I Say Old Timey
Vivian preps for a Southern Foodways Alliance luncheon. Food enthusiasts from around the country are coming to study BBQ & Vivian plans to serve them the ultimate tomato sandwich. She weighs the risk of serving something so simple to this discerning crowd, but in her gut she believes it will be the highlight of their trip.
E6 · Airs Oct 22, 2013 · 30m
The World is Your Oyster
Vivian goes to Cedar Island to explore the new culture of farm-raised oysters in the Southeast. She and Ben share plans of opening an oyster bar across the street from Chef & the Farmer in hopes it will be a place that adds character and variety to the tiny town's "dining scene." Vivian and her dad orchestrate their family's first-ever oyster roast and are blown away by how much everyone enjoys it.
E7 · Airs Oct 29, 2013 · 30m
Muscadine Time
Ben, Vivian and the twins pick muscadine grapes at a small local vineyard while learning the history of this native grape. Vivian visits Mike and Gator, her grape suppliers, and makes homemade wine. Back at the restaurant, Vivian makes a pizza with mulled muscadines, and Ben tests this new creation during their first stressful pizza night in the wine shop.
E8 · Airs Nov 5, 2013 · 30m
Amber Waves of Grain
Vivian travels to Columbia, South Carolina, to meet with Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills and learns about Carolina heirloom rice growing in fields on the Savannah River. Glenn explains Anson Mills' efforts to save heirloom grains and discusses the importance of ingredient biodiversity. Glenn's passion inspires Vivian to host a "rice dinner" at Chef & the Farmer, where each course centers around this grain. Scarlett, Vivian's mom, schools her daughter on how to make the chicken and rice she grew up eating.
E9 · Airs Nov 12, 2013 · 30m
A Peanut Pastime
Vivian visits neighbor Marty Harper's peanut farm just before and during harvest. Vivian's dad introduces Ben and Vivian to the old school break snack, a pack of salted peanuts dumped into a Pepsi in a glass bottle. At the restaurant, Vivian translates the snack into Pepsi glazed pork belly with country ham braised peanuts. Vivian reinvents the popular Southern snack, boiled peanuts, for the local farmers' market.
E10 · Airs Nov 19, 2013 · 30m
Love Me Some Candied Yams!
Vivian introduces us to Rob and Amy Hill, proprietors of one of the largest sweet potato farms in the country and two of the restaurant’s best customers. Vivian and her mom, Scarlett, make her grandmother’s candied yams and Vivian later re-imagines these for the restaurant with texture, sorghum and pecans.
E11 · Airs Nov 21, 2013 · 30m
Collard Green Queen
Vivian spends the morning with her neighbors, the Mills brothers, participating in their 100-year-old, all-male family tradition of making collard kraut. Vivian visits Warren at Brother’s farm to talk about the Eastern Carolina ingredient with a cult following, the Cabbage Collard.
E12 · Airs Nov 28, 2013 · 30m
The Buttermilk Belt
Vivian and Ben go to Maple View Dairy to pick up product for the restaurant. They talk buttermilk with the dairy’s manager, and the noise Ben makes while savoring his cup of the thick liquid annoys his wife.
E13 · Airs Dec 5, 2013 · 30m
Have Yourself Some Moonshine
Vivian visits Broad Slab Distillery, where they talk about the art and soul of white lightning. The restaurant’s mixologist works moonshine into several new drinks, while the restaurant staff struggles through the holiday party season. They end the season with a party of their own at Ben and Vivian’s new house, with AppleJack Moonshine cocktails making a guest appearance.