Charmayne Carlson, owner of Dolly’s Fish Market, has always been an avid fan of the Food Network, but never dreamed her restaurant would be featured on the channel.
But at the end of June, a Food Network crew and one of Canada’s most well-known celebrity chefs were at Dolly’s Fish Market filming for a future episode of Pitchin In.
“I’m just a business girl trying to do the best I can. I was shocked when I got the phone call,” Carlson said.
“Apparently we’re doing something right here.”
Carlson said the Food Network contacted her in mid-April about being included in an episode of the popular Food Network series, alongside Lynn Crawford, who has more than 25 years of culinary experience. The series follows Crawford as she visits fishermen, farmers and food growers around North America searching for the freshest and best ingredients.
“They said they were going to call back in a couple of weeks, but we didn’t hear back from them until a week before they showed up,” she said.
Crawford and a Food Network crew spent five hours shooting at Dolly’s on June 30, and Carlson said she helped with every aspect of the restaurant.
“From making the Elites, to being on the line, to serving food, answering my phone. Just everything. It was crazy,” she said, adding the whole team at Dolly’s was involved in the filming.
Carlson promises the episode Dolly’s will be featured in will be anything but dry. The crew interviewed both Carlson and her daughter Yaishia Schlez, who manages the front end of the restaurant.
“I was being me ... it definitely will not be a dry show. There was a lot of humour in there. It was so fun working with her. She’s such a high energy, bubbly person. Her and I together, it was like a stick of dynamite going off,” laughed Carlson.
“She’s my mentor. I love Lynn. She’s a Canadian girl; I love her personality and the way she cooks. I watch her on the Food Network all of the time,” said Carlson, adding she’s was glowing for a week after filming.
Carlson feels honoured to have worked alongside Crawford, and said the celebrity chef even asked to bring back one of her recipes with her to Toronto.
“She asked to take my Halibut Elite burger recipe back to Toronto to put on her menu there,” she said.
“It’s been 10 years of hard work to get here. I work seven days a week, and very, very long hours,” Carlson said, adding all of her hard work has been worth it.
A broadcast date for the episode of Pitchin In that Dolly’s will be featured in has not yet been announced.
On top of the Food Network, Carlson said BC Tourism is also filming at the restaurant in the afternoon of July 9.