''Chef School'' is a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series which airs on

Food Network Canada Food Network, formerly called Food Network Canada, is a Canadian English language specialty channel based on the U.S. cable network of the same name. It airs programming related to food, cooking, cuisine, and the food industry. The Canadian versi ...

. It is a 26-part

docu-soap Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

that follows the experiences of 12 students at the Stratford Chef School, one of Canada's most prestigious culinary schools. The show airs in Canada, Hong Kong and the UK. Top chefs from restaurants in Toronto, Vancouver and New York judge and critique the students' cooking.

Series development

Crystal Asher, a second-year student at Stratford Chef School, approached Red Apple Entertainment president Rachel Low with the idea. Early in the program's development, the idea of a formal competition was ruled out, as the creators expected there would already be sufficient dramatic elements. For the first season, the producers chose 12 of 36 students in the school to follow. 1,000 hours of footage were edited down to the 13 half-hour episodes of the series' first season. Of the twelve students, only nine returned for the second season. One student, Danielle, did not graduate.

Reception

At the time of the series debut, John Doyle of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' wrote, "It's a charming series, much less noisy and more astute than some of the higher-profile cooking-school shows."

The 12 students

* Alex Landheer, the group's "troublemaker". * Allison Jones, who is a former pastry chef. * Andrew Coristine, who chose chef school over entering a PhD program in physics. * Ben Sachse, Swiss-Canadian, studied Anthropology before pursuing a career in cooking. * Danielle Stahlke, a former amateur hockey player. * Dave Lingard, who has the most prior restaurant experience of the 12. * Joyce Singh, a Stratford native. * Kelsey Murray, the youngest of the group. * Matthew Duffy, with a B.Comm in Hotel and Food Administration * Mike Brennan, who is a known party animal. * Richard Francis, who is putting his life back on track after drug-and-alcohol rehab. *Tim Besserer, the oldest and most overlooked member of the group.

References

External links

Chef School
on

Food reality television series Food Network (Canadian TV channel) original programming 2008 Canadian television series debuts 2000s Canadian reality television series {{food-tv-prog-stub