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The Worst Episodes of A Chef's Life

Every episode of A Chef's Life ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of A Chef's Life!

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A character-driven documentary and cooking series that takes viewers inside the life of Chef Vivian Howard, who, with her husband Ben Knight, left the big city to open a fine dining restaurant in small-town Eastern

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  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 8 - Amber Waves of Grain
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Amber Waves of Grain

    S1:E8

    Vivian travels to Columbia, South Carolina, to meet with Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills and learns about Carolina heirloom rice growing in fields on the Savannah River. Glenn explains Anson Mills' efforts to save heirloom grains and discusses the importance of ingredient biodiversity. Glenn's passion inspires Vivian to host a "rice dinner" at Chef & the Farmer, where each course centers around this grain. Scarlett, Vivian's mom, schools her daughter on how to make the chicken and rice she grew up eating.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 9 - A Peanut Pastime
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    #2 - A Peanut Pastime

    S1:E9

    Vivian visits neighbor Marty Harper's peanut farm just before and during harvest. Vivian's dad introduces Ben and Vivian to the old school break snack, a pack of salted peanuts dumped into a Pepsi in a glass bottle. At the restaurant, Vivian translates the snack into Pepsi glazed pork belly with country ham braised peanuts. Vivian reinvents the popular Southern snack, boiled peanuts, for the local farmers' market.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 10 - Love Me Some Candied Yams!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Love Me Some Candied Yams!

    S1:E10

    Vivian introduces us to Rob and Amy Hill, proprietors of one of the largest sweet potato farms in the country and two of the restaurant’s best customers. Vivian and her mom, Scarlett, make her grandmother’s candied yams and Vivian later re-imagines these for the restaurant with texture, sorghum and pecans.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 11 - Collard Green Queen
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Collard Green Queen

    S1:E11

    Vivian spends the morning with her neighbors, the Mills brothers, participating in their 100-year-old, all-male family tradition of making collard kraut. Vivian visits Warren at Brother’s farm to talk about the Eastern Carolina ingredient with a cult following, the Cabbage Collard.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 12 - The Buttermilk Belt
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - The Buttermilk Belt

    S1:E12

    Vivian and Ben go to Maple View Dairy to pick up product for the restaurant. They talk buttermilk with the dairy’s manager, and the noise Ben makes while savoring his cup of the thick liquid annoys his wife.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. A Chef's Life Season 1 Episode 13 - Have Yourself Some Moonshine
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Have Yourself Some Moonshine

    S1:E13

    Vivian visits Broad Slab Distillery, where they talk about the art and soul of white lightning. The restaurant’s mixologist works moonshine into several new drinks, while the restaurant staff struggles through the holiday party season. They end the season with a party of their own at Ben and Vivian’s new house, with AppleJack Moonshine cocktails making a guest appearance.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 1 - Blueberries and Boiling Over
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Blueberries and Boiling Over

    S2:E1

    After a year recovering from a restaurant fire and re-opening Chef and the Farmer, Vivian and Ben go all-in to open a burger/oyster bar called The Boiler Room. Vivian boils over with the stress of staffing adjustments, testing new menu concepts, and the enormous task of putting 500 pounds of blueberries to good use.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 2 - Shrimp Sells
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Shrimp Sells

    S2:E2

    Vivian and Ben head to the beach for their annual summer vacation with the Howard family. Vivian turns up the heat with a bit of friendly competition with her older sisters. Frogmore Stew, cooked outside at the beach of course. She visits a fish camp and learns the heads and tails of fresh shrimp. Back in Kinston, the devil is in the details as Vivian and Ben prepare to open a second restaurant.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 5 - Don't Tom Thumb Your Nose at Me! (Part 2)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Don't Tom Thumb Your Nose at Me! (Part 2)

    S2:E5

    Excitement turns into heightened emotion and real nerves for Vivian as she faces one challenge after another in the prep kitchen before her big SFA luncheon. Vivian is glad to have Chef Jason Vincent to lend some street cred. Rice almost brings Vivian to her breaking point but everyone pulls together for the big event and her parents join her on stage for an emotional and watershed moment for her.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 6 - Apples
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Apples

    S2:E6

    As Vivian returns from her Mississippi road trip to the fall harvest, she confronts her long absence from the dinner service at Chef and the Farmer. She travels to an heirloom apple tree collector, Creighton Leigh, the Johnny Appleseed of the Southern apple, who grows 800 varieties in the rolling hills of North Carolina’s Piedmont. Savory and sweet heirloom apples are in grits with cheddar and ham.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 7 - The Fish Episode, Y'all
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - The Fish Episode, Y'all

    S2:E7

    Vivian presents a few of the many ways fish makes its appearance in Southern cooking, from dried mullet roe to a friendly fish stew competition with Warren Brothers’ buddies. Vivian gets schooled on the rules of a good Eastern NC fish stew: Make it a social event. Use whole hog bacon. Resist your urge to stir! And most importantly, start crackin’ eggs and don’t forget a side of white bread.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 8 - Obviously, It's Pecans
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Obviously, It's Pecans

    S2:E8

    It’s November ya’ll and that means it’s busy at Chef and the Farmer. Vivian is feeling the stress of both work and home as she juggles running the restaurant after suspending her sous chef and preparing for her own Thanksgiving feast. She and Ms. Scarlett head to Ms. Scarlett’s family farm where they source their pecans and have a run in with Uncle Dwight’s wild boar.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 9 - Turnips: The Roots
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - Turnips: The Roots

    S2:E9

    The heady heyday of hot Summer vegetables are over and rainy winters can bring some dull varieties. Few are more unglamorous than the turnip. Nevertheless, Vivian is determined to showcase the sexiness of this seemingly vanilla root vegetable. Unlike the bitter, earthy purple-top variety, Warren and Lilly show Vivian how to cook the tender, silky Hakurei turnip.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 10 - Turnips: The Greens
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Turnips: The Greens

    S2:E10

    Late winter brings “run-up” turnip greens, which Vivian sees as central to her approach to southern food, capturing both the spirit and the letter of what Chef and the Farmer is all about. Miss Scarlett helps out by procuring greens from a local produce stand, washing them four times, and discussing the how-to of buying and cooking good turnips to satisfy her "southern people."

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 11 - Chicken Lickin'
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Chicken Lickin'

    S2:E11

    As Vivian waits for Spring’s vegetables to appear, she pauses to appreciate chicken’s endless capacity as an ingredient. The restaurant’s new best-seller is a whole chicken, pounded and stuffed with broccoli salad, a method that takes a free-range bird much further than it can ordinarily go. Meanwhile, her effort to deconstruct chicken salad, a Southern favorite, turns out better in theory.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 12 - Ramp-ing up to Spring
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Ramp-ing up to Spring

    S2:E12

    Vivian hunts for ramps—an Appalachian wild leek—with renowned bacon purveyor Alan Benton near his home in the Tennessee countryside. The restaurant world goes wild over ramps, after a winter of few fresh vegetables. Vivian’s “ramp dealer” brings her his freshest stash, foraged from the North Carolina mountains. Theo and Flo show off a piglet and a baby goat at the ag show.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 13 - Eggs A Dozen Ways
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Eggs A Dozen Ways

    S2:E13

    Vivian finally makes good on a promise to cook for a friend’s supper club, and she seizes the moment to experiment with an egg dish that she hopes to wow New York City’s James Beard House crowd in a few weeks. She visits with her egg producer and learns the ins and outs of egg varieties, from chickens to ducks to guineas to partridges.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. A Chef's Life Season 2 Episode 14 - Eggs Two Dozen Ways
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Eggs Two Dozen Ways

    S2:E14

    Ben and the kitchen team pack up the van and hit the road for New York. A month of planning and preparation peak as Vivian’s invitation to cook at the prestigious James Beard House becomes a reality. Back in New York, she reflects on the beginning of her journey as a professional chef. Warren Brothers, his wife Jane, and other friends for Kinston bring their particular brand of Eastern NC charm.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 1 - Stop, Squash and Roll
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Stop, Squash and Roll

    S3:E1

    With squash season in full effect, trouble with the twins, staffing issues at the Boiler Room, and a new cookbook overloading her plate, Vivian seeks motherly advice from Mrs. Scarlett and her sister Johna over a Southern classic: squash and onions. Despite nerves, Vivian plays it cool on camera, as Ben and all of Kinston anticipate her appearance on The Today Show.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 2 - Pretty In Peach
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Pretty In Peach

    S3:E2

    Vivian's mother shares the secrets of Gramma Hill's canned peaches as well as memories from her childhood. Vivian also sweats through a Thanksgiving-in-July photo shoot, and there's a major mix-up at the restaurant.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 3 - Gettin' Figgy With It
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Gettin' Figgy With It

    S3:E3

    Vivian has three days to write a book chapter on figs. The resulting stress leads to a fig-honey-bourbon slushie tasting; and a fig preserves session. In other events, Vivian and Ben decide to charge for bread at the restaurant.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 4 - Pickle Perfect
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - Pickle Perfect

    S3:E4

    Vivian visits a friend, who serves homemade pickles, chicken salad and chocolate cake. Ben and Vivian also audition a new chef.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 5 - Prickly Business
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Prickly Business

    S3:E5

    Vivian learns that picking okra is a prickly business and receives a crash course in food styling during a photo session for her cookbook. Scott Barton, Vivian's mentor, visits the restaurant and they discuss the African roots of okra.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 6 - If You Can't Beet 'Em...
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - If You Can't Beet 'Em...

    S3:E6

    Vivian learns to make pickled beets. She also incorporates beets into an unconventional chocolate cake for Ms. Mary's 89th birthday.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. A Chef's Life Season 3 Episode 8 - Honey, I'm Home!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Honey, I'm Home!

    S3:E8

    Vivian makes chicken livers drizzled with hot honey. Ben preps for his art show in Durham, N.C. and Vivian checks out the city's restaurants.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Amber Waves of Grain" is the worst rated episode of "A Chef's Life". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 11/5/2013. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "A Peanut Pastime".