Abby Ainsworth studied film at university, but other than a one off gig on a Food Network show, she put her media career on hold for a few years to work in Toronto’s restaurant industry, employed principally by Jamie Kennedy. Now, the young woman is back in video as the head of a team of up and coming filmmakers shooting In The Weeds, a show that matches ambitious young chefs with seasoned foragers. She’s shot three episodes, one of which she’ll air next week at series launch party at a Queen East gallery, and she plans to plans to shoot three more with her volunteer crew and producer Lindsay Kutner between now and the first snow fall. The series, at this point, is strictly for Web, although she hopes to develop it for broadcast television soon.
I caught up with Ainsworth at a coffee shop near the offices of her company Butternut Productions to find out more about the show. She explained that the premise was simple enough: for each episode she invites one or two budding chefs from the city’s red-hot independent restaurant scene, like chantecler’s Jonathan Poon, and matches them with a forager, like Dyson Forbes, either in Toronto or in the Ontario countryside, and hunting and cooking ensue. It all sounded straight forward enough until she pointed out that, in the case of foods like mushrooms that appear on their own schedule, she’s not always 100% sure when she can shoot. When I asked if posed a big problem, since chefs have notoriously tight schedules, she smiled and said no, “Our chefs are really excited to get out and be shown where this amazing food comes from.”
Watch the In The Weeds Pilot below, and follow the series at intheweedstv.com.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
