Prince Edward Island Potato Board is proud to announce that it has partnered with Canada’s most famous chef to showcase the province’s culinary excellence in a new original online web video series, Food Country, through the Culinary Alliance of PEI. The ongoing weekly series features Chef Michael Smith’s food adventures as he sources ingredients throughout the province then returns to his kitchen to cook and create the simple flavourful dishes he’s known for.
“Food Country is an online showcase of Prince Edward Island’s flavours, people and stories,” says Chef Michael Smith. “We’re showing the world what a special food destination we are, how food is woven into the tapestry of our culture and why we’re worth a special visit.”
Each week a new episode will launch, alternating between “field” and “kitchen” episodes. In the field, Chef Michael Smith visits potato farms, vegetable farms, beef farms, oyster beds, local markets, a vodka distillery or heads to sea aboard a lobster boat. In the kitchen, Michael transforms the ingredients he finds into simple dishes that will inspire viewers in their own kitchen.
Gary Linkletter, PEI Potato Board Chairman says “We are excited about this project, for many reasons, but particularly because of the nature of the medium. By being entirely online, it gets the PEI Potatoes brand in front of our entire customer base, wherever they may be located.”
Launching on Friday January 7, 2011, on Food Country’s first episode, Chef Michael visits Brookfield Gardens, a vegetable farm in the heart of Prince Edward Island. The PEI Potato Board has sponsored 4 episodes – 2 in the field, which will feature two of our own Island growers demonstrating how we grow our famous PEI Spuds; and 2 in the kitchen, with Chef Michael Smith cooking with the potatoes that he dug himself. The PEI Potato episodes and the subsequent recipes will be airing at the following dates:
Family Farming in PEI: January 18, 2011
Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart: January 25, 2011
Growing PEI Potatoes: March 1, 2011
Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes: March 8, 2011
There are 24 episodes initially created for Food Country, and they can be found at www.foodcountry.ca.
They can also be viewed on a Youtube Channel www.youtube.com/user/PEIFlavours, Chef Michael Smith’s website, www.chefmichaelsmith.ca; as well as the PEI Potato Board Website www.peipotato.org. We are also using the Pack Your Appetite webpage to promote the episodes, and take advantage of the high traffic volume. We are working on adding a full tab allocated to Food Country on the promo website www.packyourappetite.ca.
These videos are available for everyone’s use. If you have a blog, facebook or twitter site, or a company website and would to include these videos, go to the Youtube channel and you can right mouse click on the video and copy the imbedded HTML address. From there, you can upload on to your site. Check back often for uploads – tips and tricks in the kitchen, video demonstrations, and exciting contests!
For more information, please contact me at the PEI Potato Board office.