"Chef at Home" is on a Set

[Khadija]

Viewers of Canadian Food Network will be familiar with Michael Smith's "Chef at Home." The theme of the show is, obviously, the chef cooking whatever he cooks at home. Unlike a lot of other shows with this format (Christine Cushing: Cook With Me!), the set does not look like a studio; it looks like a real kitchen in a real house. Other parts of the house, the backyard, and the outside of the house are also caught on camera. Throughout the show, the chef's cooking projects are contextualised a lot, in terms of his family life (e.g., the chef makes stew in between cleaning the garage with family; new neighbours move in and are invited for dinner). I always had the sense while watching the show that this was really this guy's house and life, even if he was hamming it up (a lot) for the camera.

Then, my partner let me know that I am wrong. He has talked to the producer of the show, and although it is indeed shot in a house, the house does not belong to Michael Smith. The house belongs to some other people, who rent it to the producers of the show. My partner tells me that it would just be too chaotic to have film crews running around in someone's actual house, while they are living there.

I know that the kind of deception I am talking about is not a serious moral issue or anything of that nature, but nonetheless I am kind of bothered that the show is not really about the chef at his real home. I'm wondering if the same thing is happening with shows like Giada's and Ina Garten's? Does it matter to anyone else if a tv cook is presented as being at his or her home, but really isn't?

[Chris Cognac]

Giada's show has been shot at several different homes during its run...they lease the home for the duration off the shoot and the occupants move out.....but than this is L.A. and that is not that uncommon.

Hell, if they want my 1951 3 bed tract home behind the Toyota HQ that would be great....I would even throw in my 1951 wedgewood stove/oven complete with griddle

[Della]

I am not an expert and don't have any inside info but I believe Ina's show is shot in her house and Giada's is on a set. I also saw a show where they said Giada's show can take up to 14 or 15 hours to shoot per episode but I could be wrong.

I haven't seen the show you are referring to but I don't think I would care if it isn't really in his house - I can't imagine that it would be convenient to have a show filmed at home if you live with more than one person. Kids- forget it!!!

Just my 2 pennies.

D

[Khadija]

Now that I think about it, maybe it's just this show that bugs me. I'm not surprised that Giada's show is not shot in her real home. She rarely brings her "real life" on camera. She just has a lot of parties for her friends, but they aren't usually "characters" on the show. Ina Garten's is different. The show tends to feature her husband (and friends) as characters, and it seems like the show is kind of a window into her life (focussing on her cooking).

The "chef at home" bugs me, because now I realise that its even more contrived than I thought it was. This guy spends a lot of time going on about little humdrum aspects of his home life, like how his kid is sick, so he's going to make him a peanut butter sandwich or something and then take it up to the kid's bedroom (all on camera). I think I would rather have him simply say: "this is my kid's favourite sandwich, and here's how to make it."

[Badiane]

Wow...I never suspected that at all...but it makes sense. It's a pretty small town and he would be way too easy to find. Of course my husband says they just say that so people don't come to the door and ask to meet Michael.

I always found it a bit odd that there was so little counter space and that the counters weren't higher (because he is soooooo tall) and that the oven was so low and whatnot...but of course if it isn't his kitchen....

I only have one real annoyance with the show and that is his even worse than Giada theatrics of tasting his food....he always reminds me of Tom Hanks in The Green Mile when he takes a leak for the first time after Coffey cures his infection....Ahhhhhh...the orgasmic relief of yet another pot of spaghetti sauce Clearly he has been told to 'Eat Sexy'. Blech.

I adore Gabe tho...he will eat anything. We should all have a kid like that. My personal favorite moment was when Michael made some kind of parmesan cream mixture that looked like ice cream when it was served in a martini glass with a balsamic reduction...he told the kid it was vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. ROFL...poor kid. Kudos to him for not spitting it out and crying tho...he swallowed it and said "Daddy...you are MEAN!!!!"

[Sugarella]

I always figured that kitchen he was using was the "set" kitchen for the show.... it's way too small for the house, and the doors going behind are always closed. I assumed the house has a real kitchen plus that little one.

I'll bet it is his house, actually. They probably just say it isn't to give him some privacy.

Then again, even if it isn't, there's no reason Gabe couldn't really be sleeping upstairs while they're filming...he's with Dad all day until he's older, right? Oh well, doesn't bother me either way. I like Michael Smith.

I only have one real annoyance with the show and that is his even worse than Giada theatrics of tasting his food....he always reminds me of Tom Hanks in The Green Mile when he takes a leak for the first time after Coffey cures his infection....Ahhhhhh...the orgasmic relief of yet another pot of spaghetti sauce    Clearly he has been told to 'Eat Sexy'.  Blech.

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Actually, that's just Michael; he's not acting for the camera. He did that on the Inn Chef, on Chef at Large, on that other little show he did with his restaurant Maple (does he still have that place?) and now with chef at home. At least he no longer refers to all of his appliances as "handy-dandy time machines."

As for the 3 year old that'll eat anything.... I think they all will if parents just act like that's what's normal......

[Grub]

That shouldn't be a big shock to anyone -- the premise of the show itself is pretty contrived... Cooking without a recipe, and having the luck to find a whole bunch of stuff that just happened to have been made the other day, that makes a perfect match for whatever slab of protein he stumbled upon.

It's not a bad show -- I've cooked some of the things he made, and was very happy with the results. Haven't seen too many of these shows though. If he was as over-exposed as say, Rayray, I reckon he'd get old pretty fast.

These guys are celebrities; they're resourceful folks -- why the hell can't they get some acting lessons? Less is more, people -- unless you're performing for six-year olds on Prozak, or you're a professional wrestler -- could we please have a little more Sidney Poitier, and a little less William Shatner?

Edited May 26, 2006 by Grub (log)

[Shalmanese]

over at Television Without Pity, they confirmed that it is actually a house that is for-rent on a weekly basis on PEI. I think it was something like $10,000 a month.

[Anna N]

That shouldn't be a big shock to anyone -- the premise of the show itself is pretty contrived... Cooking without a recipe, and having the luck to find a whole bunch of stuff that just happened to have been made the other day, that makes a perfect match for whatever slab of protein he stumbled upon.

...

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Yeah but don't you envy that pantry and that fridge? So pristine, so stocked, so organized.

[FlourPower]

The set thing doesn't bother me but the camera work certainly does. Good God. Extreme close ups, sweeps and pans...it's almost like the cameraman's had a pitcher of margaritas or something. It's really hard to watch.

[Kim Shook]

What always bugs me about this whole shtick (the faux chef home thing) is that the producers think that that is important to me . Why am I any more likely to cook someone's recipe if they are filming in their home than on a set??? This is what drove me to scream at the tv during that Next FN Star show. I was constantly disagreeing with what the execs were telling the contestants. "The audience wants to think that this is your home, not a set". NOOOOOO! I don't care where they are, I care what they are cooking!!!

[tommy]

one would reasonably think that the point of the show is to illustrate what a chef might cook at home, rather than highlighting a chef's home.

[Toliver]

Well, they aren't really lying. It's titled "Chef at Home" and it just happens to be someone else's home, not the Chef's.

This is ripe for a Monty Python takeoff...the Chef taking a sandwich upstairs to little Billy who is sick and when he enters the room Billy sits up and yells "Who are you? And where's Mummy and Daddy?!" and begins pelting the Chef with everything laying around the room...

[Jason Perlow]

The realities of producing television in the modern age really prohibit TV cooking show chefs from actually producing this content in their real homes -- lighting, camera placement, et cetera don't neccessarily fit in with the kitchens these people actually cook in when they are in their actual houses.

As mentioned in the first post about Micheal Smith's show, some homes however are actually scoped out to be good cooking locations, however. The house used on Good Eats as I understand is a real house with a kitchen, not a set. It's not Alton Brown's, though.

Cooking show kitchens are for the most part as real as Fred Rogers' living room. They are functional, but they are a set, in a studio.

Edited May 26, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Chris Cognac]

Actually the Good Eats stuff used to be done at a house, but now its done at Altons "Be Square" compound in Atlanta...from what I understand it is quite large with a test kitchen, good eats sets and thhe whole 9 yards....I think I recall one of his guys telling me it was around 2.5 acres....which to me is huge (since I am from L.A.)

[tommy]

Actually the Good Eats stuff used to be done at a house, but now its done at Altons "Be Square" compound in Atlanta...from what I understand it is quite large with a test kitchen, good eats sets and thhe whole 9 yards....I think I recall one of his guys telling me it was around 2.5 acres....which to me is huge (since I am from L.A.)

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2.5 acres is huge to anyone.

[iharrison]

Michael Smith's voice and bug eyes have the same effect on me as Mary Hart's voice to Kramer on Seinfeld.

His delivery is so bloody condescending, as unintentional as I'm sure it is. I feel like he's talking to retarded kids or lobotomy patients with absolutely no motor skills or familiarity with anything cooking or kitchen related. Everything is so labored, forced and overexplained to death.

"Mmmm, coriander!!! It's also called cilantro!!! What a versatile herb!!! Give it a try in YOUR kitchen today!!!" Oh shut up already.

Just get him and Rachael Ray and Bobby Rivers a room. And get him a haircut please.

Give me Ina Garten. She's natural on camera, completely at ease and damnit, there's something really attractive about that woman.

How did he get nominated for a Beard award anyway?

[Artichoke]

Michael Smith's voice and bug eyes have the same effect on me as Mary Hart's voice to Kramer on Seinfeld.

His delivery is so bloody condescending, as unintentional as I'm sure it is. I feel like he's talking to retarded kids or lobotomy patients with absolutely no motor skills or familiarity with anything cooking or kitchen related. Everything is so labored, forced and overexplained to death.

"Mmmm, coriander!!! It's also called cilantro!!! What a versatile herb!!! Give it a try in YOUR kitchen today!!!" Oh shut up already.

Just get him and Rachael Ray and Bobby Rivers a room. And get him a haircut please.

Give me Ina Garten. She's natural on camera, completely at ease and damnit, there's something really attractive about that woman.

How did he get nominated for a Beard award anyway?

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You are so right!!! Forget Gitmo, sit an al Qaeda operative in a room with tapes of this guy's show running and he will be singing in no time. Smith easily trumps Rachel Ray in the catagory of most annoying food personality. As long as we are ranking on him, whats with the three day growth he always happens to have? Did they shoot all the shows on one day or is it in his contaract to shoot the show, shave, shoot again in three days time. Perhaps he is too used to speaking to his baby son who is sometimes on the show, but he talks as if his audience is made up of wide eyed morons.

Not to pick on my neighbors to the north, but the other Canadian tv food personality that makes me leap for my remote is Rob Rainford of License to Grill. Was he a motivational speaker in his previous carrier? Chill the hell out, "ohhhhh yeah, these shrimp are lookin gooood!" " Mmmmm, you wanna talk gooood!" I mean, I enjoy cooking more than most anything else, but nobody narcotic free can be that enthusiastic about griling a pork chop.

Oh how I long for the days of my youth watching the warm and graceful Madeline Kamman or Pierre Franey. I pretty much have stopped watching TV cooking shows all together, with the exception Lidia Bastianich and Jacques Pepin. Instead, I recently bought the DVD collection of Julia's French Chef and watch that, what a joy, childhood revisited.

I used to like Kylie Kwong, whatever happened to her? I do miss Nigella Lawson, I could not tell you what she used to cook, but damn she is beautiful to look at.

[Keith Talent]

Not to pick on my neighbors to the north, but the other Canadian tv food personality that makes me leap for my remote is Rob Rainford of License to Grill.  Was he a motivational speaker in his previous carrier?  Chill the hell out, "ohhhhh yeah, these shrimp are lookin gooood!"  " Mmmmm, you wanna talk gooood!"  I mean, I enjoy cooking more than most anything else, but nobody narcotic free can be that enthusiastic about  griling a pork chop.

To defend my countries honor, I've gotta say that I don't think anyone north of the fourty-ninth really thinks of Rob Rainford as anything more than schedule filler for Food TV. He's kinda the television equivilent of the lips and eyeball component of a hot dog. "We got this shit lying around on the floor, throw it out?" "Naw, put it on in the middle of the day when only the terminally unemployed, the elderly or insane people are watching."

Yes, he makes Bobby Flay look narcoleptic.

I fully expect the only real world food interaction I'd ever have with Rob Rainford to go something like "And I don't care if you were on Food TV, make sure I get ketchup in the bag with my fries this tiome, beeyotch. And how am I going to drink this milkshake without a straw? Joe Pesci was right in Lethal Weapon 3 (A movie as bad as your show Rob,) they do always screw you at the drivethrough."

[Chris Cognac]

I love Rob Rainfords show and want whatever house they shoot it at...what a great pool house in the background....I like his energy and love for food....

[Keith Talent]

Poodles after espresso have "energy" too, that doesn't make it good. Give a Chiuahua a Red Bull if energy is what you're after.

[Chris Cognac]

Poodles after espresso have "energy" too, that doesn't make it good. Give a Chiuahua a Red Bull if energy is what you're after.

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To each his own I guess.....just goes to show how difficult it is to make and program food television....

[Khadija]

What always bugs me about this whole shtick (the faux chef home thing) is that the producers think that that is important to me    .  Why am I any more likely to cook someone's recipe if they are filming in their home than on a set???  This is what drove me to scream at the tv during that Next FN Star show.  I was constantly disagreeing with what the execs were telling the contestants.  "The audience wants to think that this is your home, not a set".  NOOOOOO!  I don't care where they are, I care what they are cooking!!!

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That's exactly my complaint. I think the idea behind making the viewer feel that she or he is really going into the host's home has to do with captialising on the idea that tv audiences love celebrities (now even celebrity cooks), especially when it can be shown that celebrities are just average Joes (but richer and better looking). Young, dipshit pop stars actually get rich and famous by putting the monotony of their daily lives on tv, so I suppose, sadly, those tv execs aren't completely wrong in thinking some viewers would love to think they are seeing their favourite celebrity chef's real kitchen.

Michael Smith makes some okay stuff, sometimes, but I want to hear more about cooking and less about his cute kid and his fake neighbours (and I really do think his kid is cute). As for Rob Rainford, he drives me up the wall, which is unfortunate because I have occasionally caught him giving interesting tips (e.g., make eggs for a crowd using a muffin tin). Rainford has a lot of fake parties, which I find a bit annoying (Giada does it a lot too). I don't feel deceived about the parties, it's just that the timing of preparation is completely unrealisitic. Nobody would make a huge platter of carbonara (set it aside), then grill some bread (set it aside), then grill some steak (set it aside), then make a dessert, then decorate the table, and then have all the guests arrive to a fresh, piping hot platter of carbonara.

[Chris Cognac]

Its a storyline....a show needs one in order to be produced....executive are not going to give 100k per episode to someone who just says "well, we are gonna cook something"....they want to know exactly what they are getting for the money...and they need a "hook" for everything that is done..

[CaliPoutine]

It does kinda bug me, I always thought it was his home, even if he was way too tall for it. My spouse loves his pantry, all those mason jars filled with everything you could possibly want. And, he's right on the water too.