- I’m organizing an event, can you be a part of it? Yes, I can. My team and I mobilize frequently to host interactive dining events around the world. We’ve got tons of experience organizing logistics from afar and know how to make memories for your guests. Contact: bookings@chefmichaelsmith.com
- I want to cook with you, do you do private bookings? Weddings? I do, but with my busy schedule, every day out of the office and away from my family is precious thus you may find it cost prohibitive to add me to a small gathering.
- Are you coming to my town soon? Please check my calendar and stay tuned to my Instagram, I just might be coming your way for an event or a cookbook signing!
- Can we come to a live show taping? We’re not currently in production - so there’s really nothing to see. Instead, I suggest you check out my calendar and see if any upcoming events are near you or consider joining us on Prince Edward Island for the Village Feast in July.
- Can I bring my older copies of your books to your book signing? You bet, the more worn out the better! Spoons and aprons are cool too and don’t forget your camera!
- Where is your restaurant? When can I visit and taste your cooking? I am very proud to showcase the FireWorks at The Inn at Bay Fortune. This custom built ‘beast’ is a 25 foot brick-lined, wood-burning, fire-breathing beast that anchors our Fire Kitchen. It includes every form of live-fire cooking known to man, a smokehouse, open hearth, grill, rotisserie, plancha and wood oven. No dials, no switches, no gas, no power, just old-school fire cooking. Curious? Our Fire Brigade is always proud to share its details and flavours with you and there’s nothing else like it anywhere in world! Our chefs create a new menu every day using ingredients from our very own organic farm and those from other Prince Edward Island suppliers. To compliment your feast, a finely curated selection of wine flights from Canada and abroad await you via our onsite sommelier. For more information, check out innatbayfortune.com.
- We’re coming to Prince Edward Island on vacation, where can we meet you? Your best bet is to come to the Village Feast in July. Also, check my calendar for a full list of all upcoming events. We're continuously adding to it as events are confirmed. Although, due to my ever changing calendar of events, I cannot promise I will always be present, I would also welcome you to visit The Inn at Bay Fortune, the newest venture for me and my wife, Chasity. In so many ways, The Inn at Bay Fortune is a return to our roots but also a firm step into the future. We’d be happy to have you come aboard for the ride! In 1992, I began my chef’s career behind the Inn’s stoves. Cooking in this beautiful place defined my career forever and now I get to do it again. The world has changed a bit in the last 20 years though, and fortunately so have I. Where once I tried to be creatively provocative, today I’d rather build a fire and share simple, honest flavours. That’s what Fireworks is all about. Join us for our nightly feast and you’ll see what I mean! 2015 was all about a fresh start for the Inn. We’ve worked hard to imagine a shared experience at the table that starts with our farm and finishes with flame. We’re excited but there’s lots more to come… We are Prince Edward Island’s only 5-star country inn. In the years to come you can expect a renewed focus and solid investment in world-class amenities. We’ve got lots of ideas and look forward to sharing them all with you. Stay tuned! Instagram: @innatbayfortune | Twitter: @InnAtBayFortune | Facebook: The Inn at Bay Fortune
- Where’s the best place to eat on Prince Edward Island? Well of course I think that the very best place to eat anywhere is my very own FireWorks at the Inn at Bay Fortune. Our chefs create a new menu every day using ingredients from our very own organic farm and those from other Prince Edward Island suppliers. At 6PM our guests are invited to ‘The Feast’ where the set menu begins with locally harvested oysters, smoked fish and house-made charcuterie. From there you will savor delicious seafood chowder, our famous home-grown house salad and the best of all, wood roasted meats, fish and vegetables all prepared before your very eyes! You can also expect lots of fresh baked bread along the way and exquisitely prepared desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth! If you’re looking for a few more places to check out, you’re in luck.On PEI we’re blessed with many restaurants that taste of time and place. Some of my favourites are Terre Rouge, Sims Steakhouse, The Olde Glasgow Mill, the Student-Run Restaurant at Culinary Institute of Canada, Shipwreck Café (my favorite fried clams), Rick’s (my favorite fish ‘n chips), Water Prince, and Clam Diggers. Also, check out my Pinterest board, My Local PEI Foodie Spots.
- Where is Chef Michael’s Flavour Shack and when is it open? My 12’ by 12’ retail empire is on Souris Beach in our Gateway Park, we’re right next to Colville Bay Oysters and the best Lobster Rolls on the island! We’re stocked with all my books–every one of them signed–and a whole bunch of other goodies from PEI including some of my artwork. We’re open mid June to early October every year. Check us out on Twitter and Pinterest.
- Where can I buy a signed cookbook? My Flavour Shack and The Inn at Bay Fortune are the best places to buy signed cookbooks. At the Flavour Shack, we also have a selection of signature swag: aprons, cutting boards, wooden spoons and prints. Yup, it’s all signed too! If you can’t make it to my Flavour Shack or the Inn at Bay Fortune, check my calendar for a signing near you or in a pinch, for an extra very special occasion, contact our office.
- Can I purchase Chef Michael Smith merchandise online? Yes. We now offer a limited selection of merchandise from my Flavour Shack online. Unfortunately, we can only ship within Canada at this time. Take a look at what we're offering!
- Is Michael an artist? Does he actually draw the illustrations himself and do his own chalkboard art we see on his shows? Yes, Yes & Yes. My first love was graphic design and fine arts, I actually spent a year in art school before discovering cooking and have dabbled to this day. These limited-edition illustration prints are archival quality, pen and ink, ready to frame and come complete with a finishing flourish of my hand carved stamp under my signature. They’ll look great in your kitchen!
- Where can I find your recipes? Visit chefmichaelsmith.com for a comprehensive selection of my regularly-updated favourites, sign up for my newsletter to receive a seasonally inspired recipe weekly, browse lentils.ca for lots of my favourite ingredients or click over to foodnetwork.ca for Chef Michael’s Kitchen, Chef at Home and lots more!
- Where can I find a recipe for XYZ? If it’s not my recipe, I suggest you do what we do every day in the test kitchen: Google it!
- I can’t eat XYZ. Do you have any recipes that don’t include it? I’m sure I do, just put your sleuthing hat on and click through the suggested recipe sites below: chefmichaelsmith.com foodnetwork.ca lentils.ca
- Where can I buy Old Bay seasoning? Old Bay is a classic Chesapeake blend of herbs and spices that I love to use with seafood. Once upon a time it was not commonly available in Canada, but some larger supermarket chains carry it nowadays. If you can't find it at your local stores, your best bet is to get Amazon to ship you some.
- How do you make your homemade vanilla extract? I don’t. I have tried (even on Chef at Home once) but I just can’t make it as delicious as the pure vanilla extract at the supermarket. What you see is actually my store-bought stuff poured over vanilla beans for added flavour.
- I’m planning a dinner party, what should I cook? I suggest you consider a blend of familiar favourites (so you’re not too stressed out about trying something new.) I also think it’s fair game to consider asking your friends to bring a side dish or two and to even find a real scratch-baked bakery and pick up a spectacular show stopper for dessert. When the party asks if you made it you can say “No, but I made it happen!”
- I love your bread recipe but I need help with it... There are so many variables that it’s hard to know which ones may be creating difficulties for you. Double check that your yeast is not old and dead (add a small spoonful to a glass of warm water and leave it for a few minutes, if it’s bubbling then it’s alive) and keep in mind that sometimes you just need to try again to get the hang of it. Remember too that thousands of home cooks have had tremendous success with this bread and you can too!
- Your recipes often call for a "stick" of butter...how much is that? A "stick" is 1/2 cup of butter, or 1/4 of the standard 1 lb (454 g) block of butter.Depending on your supermarket, you may be able to find 4 sticks of butter wrapped in foil then packed in a box. These are almost always more expensive - an easily avoidable cost. Simply take a standard 1 lb block of butter and cut it lengthwise into 4 sticks. Wrap each individually in plastic wrap or foil then refrigerate or freeze as normal.Having sticks rather than blocks of butter makes it easy to measure. 1 stick is 8 tablespoons, so if you mark the butter lightly with a knife into 1/8 squares, you'll be poised to quickly measure out exactly how much you need, whether 1 tablespoon or 3/4 of a cup.
- Do you have a recipe for gluten-free bread? Can I adapt your bread recipes and make them gluten free? I don’t and you can't. Here’s why. Simply stated since time immortal true bread has relied on the elasticity of gluten to rise and expand, and without gluten dough just doesn't work the same. You can approximate but you can never duplicate. It might look like bread but the taste and texture are often disappointing. For that reason I prefer to stay away from gluten-free bread. I think it's unfair to suggest that you can have the same bread experience without gluten. You just can't. I understand and appreciate the very serious issue of gluten-intolerance though, it’s truly challenging to live with. Fortunately your ability to eat real food is not affected. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, meat and fish are all fair game. You do have to avoid processed food but really you should be doing that anyway.
- I love asparagus but have always been curious about a certain, ahem, pungent side effect. Can you shed any light on this, ahem, phenomena?
Asparagus contains asparagusic acid, which on its own doesn't smell. The trouble comes 15-30 minutes after eating when your body starts breaking it down into smaller sulfurous compounds. But, like most questions involving restroom activities, there's no simple answer to understanding why asparagus makes urine uniquely pungent. It turns out this is a matter of biology on not just one, but two levels.
If you take a quick poll of your friends and family, you may find that not everyone knows what you're talking about. Why? Because not everyone produces the odorous compound, nor can everyone detect it. That means you can fall into 1 of 4 categories:
- Producer + Detector
- Producer + Non-Dectector
- Non-Producer + Detector
- Non-Producer + Non-Dectector
- How long are spices good for? There is no hard and fast rule of how long spices last. Without "best before" dates, there is no way of knowing how old a spice is before you bought it. To test if a spice has gone stale, give it a sniff. If you can't smell it, you can't taste it. Keep them fresher for longer by storing spices in air-tight containers away from heat and sunlight. Aim to buy whole spices when possible, as they don't go stale as quickly as ground spices. You can grind-as-you-go using an inexpensive coffee bean grinder, reserved specifically for spices. They're inexpensive and widely available at large retailers.
- Is there a particular brand of spice you prefer? Here in the Test Kitchen, we stock our shelves with spices and herb from Penzey's out of the US. A great Canadian company with an extensive selection of high-quality spices is The Silk Road Spice Merchant based out of Calgary.
- I would love to make your Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart but it is too large for two people. What is the time difference for using an individual ramekin (roughly 4" diameter)? How long should I bake them at 350 degrees? I've tried to make a smaller version of this recipe but it doesn’t turn out quite right. The bacon gets quite thick on the top, and with a smaller version it’s much too thick and the proportions are off. I suggest making the whole recipe and enjoy the leftovers, share with friends or family, or freeze it for a later date.
- I just saw your recipe, Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart, and liked the idea. There is only one problem, I don't eat cheese. Could I use cream and eggs as an alternative to replace the cheese? Sorry but this just wouldn't be the same tart. Cheddar is one of the key ingredients.
- In the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart recipe, you use 1 minced onion, 4 minced garlic cloves, and 1 tablespoon minced thyme. In the video, you do not say anything about these 3 ingredients. Do you put some on each layer of potatoes? There are two different versions of this recipe floating around out there. The onion, garlic and optional favourite fresh herb (thyme is great but so are tarragon and rosemary) are mixed together and layered in between the layers of potatoes before it all gets sealed up by the bacon.
- What is the best way to reheat the leftover portions of your Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart? A blast in the microwave is simple and effective. If you don't have one, place it in an oven-safe dish, cover loosely with foil and reheat in a 350 °F (180 °C) oven until heated through.
- What is the best type of bacon to use for the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart? I love thick-cut bacon and it's what I typically cook with. However, for this recipe I use regular bacon to keep it from getting too thick where it overlaps.
- How can I adapt the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart recipe to a cast-iron dutch oven? For years I used my trusty cast iron skillet to make this tart, and you can too. It's best to line the bottom with parchment paper before you start laying in the bacon. Dutch ovens are typically deeper than a skillet which might make it difficult to drape the pieces of bacon over the edge. If this is the case, employ a few sets of helping hands, promising the first slices in exchange. You might just have a line up of helpers!
- I don't have a pan like the one in the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart video, can I use a large round cake pan? Would it be better to rinse the bacon in cold water first to help with shrinkage? Absolutely you can use a cake pan instead. The bottom should first be lined before arranging the bacon slices. No need to rinse the bacon, I've never had troubles using it straight out of the package.
- When making the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart, I used a good cheese — old cheddar bought from Thornloe Cheese in Thornloe, Ontario and it seemed to liquify and seep out of the pie. When I drained the pie after it was done the liquid wasn’t just bacon fat, it was yellow and you could smell the cheese. Now there was some cheese in the pie but not a lot. What did I do wrong? Did I use too much cheese? The older the cheese is (i.e. the more it's been aged, not how long it's been in your refrigerator), the more likely it is to break under heat. Try using a younger cheese; I've had success with medium aged cheddar.
- I am curious about your aversion to eating raw eggs as an ingredient in dishes. I have several dressing recipes that call for an egg yolk. Is it just a personal preference? We all have certain aversions to various foods, sometimes logical, sometimes less so. In my case, I really don't like raw egg yolks. Eggs over easy? No way! Salad dressing ingredient? Nope! I use mustard instead because it also contains the emulsifier lecathin which helps dressings stay smooth. This preference dates back to my cooking school days when the risk of salmonella was drilled into my head by multiple instructors. While that risk is still real it does not define every egg so feel free to enjoy them as you like...
- Regarding the roast chicken with butternut squash and apples, do you cover it while it cooks, cover part of the way or not at all? Also, would you serve it as is or potatoes on the side? Is there any liquid produced from the chicken and veggies for a gravy? No need to cover this while it cooks, because covering it will prevent any browning/caramelization of the chicken, squash and apples. It’s completely up to your taste buds whether you serve it with potatoes/rice/dinner rolls on the side or as is. You could always add a couple chopped potatoes in with the squash and apples so it’s all roasted together. Shredding the chicken right in the pan over the veggies ensures you capture all the savoury drippings and juices. There’s enough to moisten everything, but I don’t think there would be enough to make a gravy.
- When you place a chicken on veggies, do they get fatty from the chicken? How would you get rid of the fat from the veg?
How fatty it gets depends entirely on how fatty the chicken is to begin with. All chickens will have some amount of fat on them. When I tested this recipe, I didn't find it unpleasantly greasy, and capturing all the drippings is a key part of how this recipe was developed.The veggies will catch any drippings off the chicken as it cooks as well as while you're shredding the chicken in the pan. What we really want to capture is the juice, however, it’s not possible to get the juice without the fat (at least not easily!). If you want to decrease the amount of fat on the vegetables, don’t shred the chicken on top of them. You will avoid the fat, but you will also miss out on the flavourful juices. If you want to avoid the fat on the vegetables all together, I suggest roasting the chicken and the veggies separately, although, this requires two pans and won’t have the same succulence or flavour.
- Who built your amazing kitchen and can I get them to build mine? I’m so proud of my good friends at GCW in St. Thomas, Ontario. They’ve really built a gem of a company and their craftsmanship is second to none!
- What knives do you recommend? The type of knife you use and how you take care of it is far more important than the brand of knife you choose. There are many great brands out there but what matters the most is that you get a sturdy, heavy knife with a full tang. I suggest a workhorse chef’s knife, a serrated slicer and a smaller pairing knife. Together the three will get just about any job done! Check out these videos for more detail: 3 Knives Knife Care
- What pots do you recommend? I suggest that you stay well away from cheaper, lighter pots and realize that good pots are an investment for life, that you get what you pay for. More than anything else heft is what matters. Heavy duty pots don’t have the hot spots that cause so much burning in cheaper lighter ones.
- What kind of Pressure Cooker do you use? I use a modern Kuhn Rikon but there are lots of others that can get the job done. Today’s pressure cookers are safe as can be. They’re also fast and energy efficient to say nothing of healthier for you since nutrients can degrade with longer cooking times.
- I’m working on a fundraiser in my community, can you help? If you’re helping raise funds for a family focused or food oriented charitable initiative we’d be happy to help. Send us a note on your official stationary and we’ll see what we can do. Contact charity@chefmichaelsmith.com
- Can you come and visit our school's food program? I’d love to but of course I’m severely limited by my own schedule and the time I spend with my family and in my community. Having said that, I routinely visit school food programs and culinary schools across Canada when I happen to be in town for other events. This will help you avoid onerous travel costs. I love spending time with students! Contact bookings@chefmichaelsmith.com
- How tall are you? I am precisely 2 meters tall!
- How can I do an internship with you? Although I am now a proud proprietor of The Inn at Bay Fortune, unfortunately, I do not have any internship opportunities as I am not consistently onsite or in the kitchen. My very talented Chef du Cuisine, Cody Wallace, leads the brigade at FireWorks!
- I want to be a chef, what advice do you have for me? Lots! Send us a note and we’d be happy to share with you my “Advice to Young Chefs” package.
- I want to go to cooking school, any advice? If you’re considering a career in the culinary arts, consider going to cooking school but consider waiting before you do. You’ll only get one shot at doing it right and to maximize this critical time in your life (possibly the only time you’ll spend strictly focused on learning about food and cooking) you have to be ready. You’ll get out exactly what you put in and the best investment is strong industry experience first. To succeed you don’t have to go straight to cooking school from high school. Better to work for a year or two in the industry and then go to school. This time investment will pay off large! Which school you chose matters but your attitude matters far more. Some of my favourites are The Culinary Institute of Canada, Niagara College, George Brown, NAIT, SAIT and VCC.
- Any new shows in the works? You bet! My team and I are always working on new projects. Have you checked out our globe-spanning Lentil Hunter series?
- Where can I buy a signed cookbook? If you can’t make it to my Flavour Shack, check my calendar for a signing near you or in a pinch, for an extra very special occasion, contact our office.
- Can I purchase Chef Michael Smith merchandise online? Yes. We now offer a limited selection of merchandise from my Flavour Shack online. Unfortunately, we can only ship within Canada at this time. Take a look at what we're offering!
- Is Michael an artist? Does he actually draw the illustrations himself and do his own chalkboard art we see on his shows? Yes, Yes & Yes. My first love was graphic design and fine arts, I actually spent a year in art school before discovering cooking and have dabbled to this day. These limited-edition illustration prints are archival quality, pen and ink, ready to frame and come complete with a finishing flourish of my hand carved stamp under my signature. They’ll look great in your kitchen!