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HOLLAND
COLLEGE • March 5, 2002
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instructor whips up delicious vittles for TV viewers Stacey Colwell scolwell@eastlink.pe.ca Since he began starring in the Food Network's genre-bending Cook Like a Chef series last year, instructor Tim McRoberts of the Culinary Institute said his students have discovered a gold mine of material to use to poke fun at him. "Little mannerisms you have they start picking them up and imitating you, but it's fun. It makes their time here more enjoyable," laughs the 33-year-old, who's worked at the culinary school for seven years. "They laugh at how fast I walk or sometimes how I run around the place or how I say the word Ôbeautiful' all the time." McRoberts said he's a little more serious at his day job. "What you see on TV and what you see here every day are two very different things. For the TV to capture your personality you need to turn up your energy level at least three times. If I acted in the classroom the way I did for the TV show I'm sure they'd lock me up because it's just crazy." Cook Like a Chef is trying to redefine the cooking show genre with its 360 degree camera work, jazz music and frenetic action. "The concept of the show is we don't tell you what to cook, we tell you how to cook," said McRoberts, P.E.I.'s chef of the year in 1999. "The bottom line at the end of the day is if we've inspired you to get into the kitchen to enjoy cooking then we've done our job. It's very fast-paced, artistic and funny." One of six chefs on the 39-episode series, McRoberts recently finished shooting five appearances in Toronto and will go back again in July. He'll be joined by fellow instructor Allan Williams, who acts as his sous-chef. "We go for about a week or for a long weekend and you just film night and day and get them all done. It's grueling, we're up at about five o'clock (a.m.) and if it's a good day I'm home at 10:30 (p.m.)" Things don't always go as smoothly as they appear on-screen. "There was one time when I had to snap some nice crispy asparagus and throw it in a pot. When I went to grab the bunch and snap them they weren't very fresh and they just kind of bent," he said with a laugh. "That kind of stuff happens all the time." Although he enjoys his work on the program, it can't match his passion for teaching the art of cooking at the Culinary Institute. "When I teach I imagine all these lightbulbs on top of the student's heads and they're all off when we begin," said the former sous-chef at Toronto's prestigious Royal York Hotel. "There's nothing better than the feeling of walking out of the class and the lightbulbs are all turned on. "That's how I judge what I do and that's how I get happiness." Cook Like a Chef appears Monday through Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on the Food Network. McRoberts' next appearance is about poultry on March 8.  STACEY COLWELL PHOTO Chef Tim McRoberts prepares a tray of food at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown last week. Besides working as an instructor at the institute, he also stars in Cook Like a Chef on the Food Network. |
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