A Chef’s Life is a documentary and cooking series that takes viewers inside the life of Chef Vivian Howard, who, with her husband Ben Knight, returned home to open a fine dining restaurant in small-town Eastern North Carolina. Each episode follows Vivian out of the kitchen and into cornfields, strawberry patches and hog farms as she hunts down the ingredients that inspire her menus. Using a chef’s modern sensibilities, Vivian explores Southern cuisine, past and present – one ingredient at a time. A celebration of true farm-to-table food, the series combines the action and drama of a high-pressure business with the joys and stresses of family life.

Pimp My Grits
The restaurant gears up for a practice service when the new equipment and new menu will be tested in real time – but nothing goes as planned. One of the big changes to the restaurant’s menus is the addition of a section called “Pimp My Grits,” where Vivian exalts the lowly, quintessentially Southern ingredient in four distinct ways.