Listen to Chef Michael Smith’s very strong values about food and how to make it approachable and reachable to families. As a dietitian, making cooking at home accessible has always been something that I have appreciated about Chef Michael Smith and I am incredibly grateful for his messaging about eating together as a family.
Exciting news that he has been inducted into Hall of Fame – see post for all of his cookbooks!
If you ever have a bucket list option – I highly recommend travelling to stay at the Inn (and garden) both for a reset, comfortable high end space, and wonderfully delicious and healthy food. I love how the kitchen is in the dining room to be able to see the incredible effort of preparing the meal.
In fact – If you are up for a last minute exciting adventure Chef Michael Smith and his incredibly kind and stunning wife Chastity this Friday Dec 5, 2025 for an interactive festive feast.
“we are a unique restaurant we grow our own food, we grow almost all our own food, we grow more than 300 types fruits and vegetables and herbs and greens and salad ingredients… on this property… have an 8 acre vegetable garden and a beautiful formal herb garden… it takes passion and commitment.. and a little bit of insanity too… but it’s bringing my values what I’ve learned about true food.”Please enjoy a complete highlight of a podcast and a privilege – along with all of the other podcasts to learn from each other.
This photo is now from many years ago – so to begin to explain what it means to me to release this podcast – I would be incredibly grateful if you would like to be curious and take a listen and learn to either challenge or deepen your thoughts on food.
“Everybody cooked for – the power of the table and the power of simple straight forward scratch cooking. I grew up strong, clarity of thoughts, vibrant all of those things you get when you eat real food… and then I became a chef and I learned a completely new relationship with food which was all about creativity… and then I became a Dad and then I realized I don’t know a damn thing about food… and you don’t really learn food until you became responsible for somebody else.”
“My wife and I bought the Inn at Bay Fortune, where I grew up as a chef in the 90’s … and turned it into PEI’s only five star country inn and brought with us to the project the values I have learned… and a lot of those values are less about what we eat and more about the context of what we eat.”
“Taking the time to come together as a family, as human beings, and sit around a table is essential to finding our true selves.”
“Helping to find pragmatic solutions for real Canadian families.”
“Food at heart is dead simple. You see it on shows all the time, chasing perfection… food is messy… we screw things up regularly, what really matters is not whether you got it right or not, but whether you tried in the first place, whether you understand that outsourcing you and your family’s food to a factory somewhere run by a board room… and not a cook in sight that’s a bad choice and we got to do better.”
“Something to consider that has come up multiple times is anytime decisions made… do you have the people who are being affected by the decisions present?”
“The Inn at Bay Fortune could only be here on Prince Edward Island… We’re a place of authentic food, we are surrounded by people who get up early in the morning, get their hands dirty, and make food… it’s woven into the fabric every day on the Island. It’s a certain confidence in who we are and what’s around us…”
“As a culture, as a country… we’ve grown up… we’re not just enough, we’re more than enough, we’re amazing, we’re the best country in the world, and when we give ourselves that confidence, we start to look around us and realize hey this is cool, these things growing in the backyard that’s Canadian cuisine, that’s Canadian culture, food culture… but that is what defines us… we have the confidence to believe in ourselves… go out in the backyard, use what you have, and celebrate it”
“it’s shocking how many people will make a reservation and not honour it… incredibly unfair… with a very busy restaurant… it’s not about us…. but when we’ve got only 60 – 64 seats a night.., and a waiting list of 100 people to get into those 64 seats and 2 people or 4 people or 6 people that don’t have the common courtesy to call and say we’re not coming… it’s not about our business it’s about those 100 people that desperately wanted to come and can’t come… what happened?… this is indemnic in the restaurant business right now this is why so many people are forced to go to technology solutions…”
Happy Tasting!
Irena
Love this story!! The Inn sounds amazing however the link didn’t work for me?
Great photo and sounds like a sweet spot to visit when in PEI. I also appreciate the value placed on sitting down to eat as a family – keeps us connected on a daily basis no matter what is going on! Thanks Irena!! Love travelling with you across this great country, hearing about food as nourishment on so many levels!
Oh! I am so glad that you enjoyed it! It is such a great photo!! https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hy7wz-19b93e0 Here is the link – I was realizing the embeddable player isn’t working for the newsletter but hopefully it will soon!