For its twenty second season, Prime Chef has headed to Canada. That is the primary time the present — to not be confused with Prime Chef Canada, a separate competitors that has been on-air since 2011 — has set a season in our northern neighbor.
However the season, which premieres on Bravo as we speak, arrives on the weirdest doable time in United States-Canada relations: Our usually amicable alliance has taken a nosedive in current weeks after President Trump introduced plans to levy tariffs of 25 p.c on Canadian imports and made feedback about Canada changing into a U.S. state. Trump’s plans have been a complicated whiplash of international coverage, now having been delayed after which suspended.
The injury has been achieved, nonetheless. Earlier this month, the Liquor Management Board of Ontario, a main purchaser of alcohol, pulled American-made spirits from cabinets. Canadians, who’re the biggest group of worldwide guests to the U.S., have been ditching their journey plans. “Canadians really feel disrespected, and that’s very difficult to them as a result of now we have all the time been such loyal, loyal companions,” Catherine Prather, president of the journey professionals group Nationwide Tour, instructed NPR. Some Canadians are boycotting U.S. merchandise. The specter of retaliatory tariffs has adopted.
As of this writing, the official Prime Chef Instagram has been enterprise as normal. You wouldn’t guess from taking a look at it that we’re in an impending commerce battle with the nation it’s selling. Neither is there any point out of the present state of affairs in early screeners of the premiere, which had been circulated amongst media final month.
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As an alternative, within the Season 22 Prime Chef premiere, well-known Canadian culinary figures, together with Noma’s former director of fermentation David Zilber, exhibit a Canadian bounty. For the primary elimination problem, the cooks should cook dinner utilizing pantries impressed by every of Canada’s 5 areas: Canada’s west coast provides Pink Fife wheat and salmon; its prairie area produces canola oil and lentils (Canada is the world’s largest lentil producer); its central area grows peaches and corn; its Atlantic area supplies cod and potatoes; and its north area yields oats and Arctic char. Even when the present doesn’t state it outright, it finally ends up a reminder of how vital Canadian agriculture is, together with to the U.S., with Canada our largest provider of agricultural imports. In 2022, Canada provided 20 p.c of our recent vegetable imports.
Within the context of the present political state of affairs, the Prime Chef premiere feels barely ominous to observe: We all know one thing that everybody right here doesn’t, and it’ll proceed to be that approach for the remainder of the season. But when something, present affairs supply a brand new sense of intrigue to a season that may in any other case be extra of the identical (much more — as with final season, the episodes are nonetheless a “supersized” 75 minutes). How dangerous would issues need to get for Bravo to acknowledge the state of affairs? We’ll see!
Prime Chef is in the end a promotional alternative. Tourism boards foyer, usually financially, for the present to function their vacation spot. For this season, Prime Chef labored with Vacation spot Canada, the Canadian tourism board. Accordingly, the season will traverse the nation from Toronto, house of choose Gail Simmons; to Calgary; Montreal; Canmore, Alberta; and Prince Edward Island. And on this respect, the present is definitely arriving on the good time: at a second when, to many, Canada instantly seems to be much more interesting than normal.
The Prime Chef premiere airs Thursday, March 13 at 10:15 p.m. ET / 7:15 p.m. PT.
