Plot Synopsis

A CHEF'S LIFE is a half-hour 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 North Carolina. Each 30-minute episode follows Vivian out of the kitchen and into cornfields, strawberry patches and hog farms as she hunts down the ingredients that inspire her seasonal menus. Using a chef's modern sensibilities, Vivian explores Southern cuisine, past and present -- one ingredient at a time. Season 5 of A CHEF'S LIFE premiered on Saturday, October 7, 2017 at 3:30pm on PBS (check local listings). In the new season, Vivian Howard finds plenty of reasons to celebrate, as Chef and the Farmer turns 10 years old and her first cookbook hits the New York Times bestseller list. So, she sets out on a book tour with her trusted team and a finicky food truck. In between greeting hordes of fans in multiple states, Vivian discovers small batch whiskey in Kentucky, fishes for trout in the North Carolina mountains, and breaks bread with fellow chefs in the Virginia hills where good food and good music meet.
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On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 9pm (check local listings), PBS premiered "The Final Harvest." In this one-hour special, which also serves as the series finale, Vivian Howard hosts a harvest dinner of epic proportions. After five seasons, only a handful of dishes remain on Vivian's bucket list. In this final chapter, she tackles them all: Vivian and Ms. Lillie clean out Warren Brothers' pepper patch to make this late summer relish some call chow chow and others call "Southern kimchi." Vivian's search for a couple of quintessential North Carolina ingredients take her to opposite ends of the state. She finds pawpaws -- a tropical-tasting fruit -- in a backyard orchard near Goldsboro, NC. Howard revisits memorable clips from past seasons and shares never-before-seen footage as the show's most beloved personalities gather for this celebration.