So...this woman and her family originated from New York and now they are in North Carolina, pretending to be poor rednecks on Create? A big SMH. I would respect her more if she stuck to being a NYC girl and took pride in it.
100% dumbing down to grab ratings is far too common these days.
HARLEYS R4 YUPPIES
(my bumper sticker)
No, she is from North Carolina. She and her husband (who is from Chicago, Illinois) worked in New York City before returning to Eastern N.C. to open their restaurant. Why they would open two restaurants there, well, that opens up a new can of worms.
...the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad. - Tom Waits
If you'd paid attention for a few seconds more during the intro, you'd have seen/heard the part about NC being where Vivian grew up...
shareVivien Howard grew up in Kinston, North Carolina -- the daughter of wealthy hog farmers -- but she fled that little burg to go to first prep school, then college, then a SHORT stint in NYC in culinary college and working at a handful of restaurants.
She was never a chef in NYC and never owned a restaurant there. In fact, by age 26....2005!...she was BACK HOME in Kinston, a failure at her profession. Her wealthy parents gave her and her husband a free house to live in, plus free rent on an empty space in town to start their own restaurant.
Supposedly, "Chef and the Farmer" was a success from the get go, in 2005, and was successful for EIGHT YEARS -- in a remote rural area that is very poor and majority black -- before they were able to sell the "reality show" concept to PBS...hmmm, if it was so successful, why did they NEED to re-package it as a TV show?
The whole thing smacks of being fake to me, and is nothing more than carefully crafted reality TV show stunt. I have a hard time believe the backstory, it makes no sense and doesn't hang together at all.
Who would invest the hundreds of thousands necessary to BUILD a restaurant -- that seats 220 people! -- in a poor rural town of 20,000 -- 90+ miles from the nearest city of any size -- restaurants are VERY costly, requiring expensive freezers, commercial ranges, dishes, lighting, tables, linens, etc. -- hire and train staff -- for an operation that had zero chance of breaking even let alone a profit -- for EIGHT YEARS -- in the hopes that PBS would pick it up as a REALITY SHOW?
People are SO gullible....I have some swampland in Florida, if you are interested in buying!