Adam Prudhomme
Editor
When producers of an upcoming cooking show known as City Girl Eats The Country were in a bind, Topsy Farm’s Michael Murray was there to answer the call.
The 14-year-old chef agreed to appear on the show with less than 24-hours notice, stepping up to fill a last minute cancellation and welcoming the hosts and camera crew onto the Amherst Island farm. The crew was in the Kingston area looking to film three episodes of their ‘farm to table’ cook show. After shooting the first two episodes on a Friday and Saturday, their scheduled guests for the Sunday shoot informed the crew they had tested positive for COVID-19. That led to a bit of a scramble, with the crew reaching out to Topsy Farms to see if they’d be able to help out. They called around 8:30 p.m. the night before and by 9 a.m. the next day the crew showed up at the farm.
Fortunately for the film crew, Murray was already planning to be in the kitchen that day.
“I did chicken tender and honey elderberry dip kind of pub food,” said Murray. “On Sundays my dad and I both really love watching football. On Sundays at 1 p.m. we just tell everyone we’re not working for the rest of the day, it’s football time. Every few Sundays I try to make a pub style dish for my dad to enjoy while we watch football.”
As it turned out Murray was able to do what he was planning to do that day anyway-with the added twist of having a camera crew follow him through the cooking process. Murray is the youngest chef featured on the show, though he’s far from short on experience.
“I’ve been cooking all my life, I’m 14 turning 15. I’ve been cooking and baking all my life but every once in awhile I’d help my mom,” said Murray, noting he really started to get into the hobby in 2019. “My dad was helping Kubota lead a national gardening campaign. He was getting so stressed that he had just stopping eating and he would grab a banana in the morning and then not eat until his next banana the next day kind of thing. (Cooking) was the best way I could think of to help him out and so I started cooking and I’d bring him food on his skid steer while he was working on gardens.”
Prior to filming the episode Murray’s experience on camera was limited to live streams on social media he did to promote Topsy Farms.
“It was definitely a huge change of pace,” said Murray. “It was definitely a little stressful but they needed someone and I was able to be that person.”
As the name suggests, the show will feature Toronto-based chef Sara Schwartz Geller and sous chef Jewels Krauss touring rural locations and exploring farm to table recipes.
“It’s kind of like a tourist and cooking show,” said Murray. “They showed up at 9 a.m. and for the first half of the day I was just showing them around the farm and talking about the farm. Then the second half of the day was cooking.”
The episode is scheduled to air in September 2023 on the Bell Network.