Chef School is a reality television series which airs on Food Network Canada. It is a 26-part docu-soap that follows the experiences of 12 students at the Stratford Chef School, one of Canada's most prestigious culinary schools. The show airs in Canada, Hong Kong and the UK. Top chefs from restaurants in Toronto, Vancouver and New York judge and critique the students' cooking.

Series development

Crystal Asher, a second-year student at Stratford Chef School, approached Red Apple Entertainment president Rachel Low with the idea. Early in the program's development, the idea of a formal competition was ruled out, as the creators expected there would already be sufficient dramatic elements. For the first season, the producers chose 12 of 36 students in the school to follow. 1,000 hours of footage were edited down to the 13 half-hour episodes of the series' first season. Of the twelve students, only nine returned for the second season. One student, Danielle, did not graduate.

Reception

At the time of the series debut, John Doyle of The Globe and Mail wrote, "It's a charming series, much less noisy and more astute than some of the higher-profile cooking-school shows."

The 12 students