Preview: Four Senses continues tasty TV recipe for AMI-tv

There have been changes both in front of and behind the scenes at Four Senses, but the show’s main recipe has stayed the same.

Season 2, returning tonight on AMI-tv, continues with blind MasterChef winner Christine Ha and sighted Top Chef Canada champ Carl Heinrich at the helm. The program once again features embedded description, with Ha, Heinrich and their guests—tonight Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson—describing their actions for viewers who are blind or partially sighted. (Future guests include Frank Ferragine from BT Toronto, chef Bonnie Stern, Canadian Living food director Annabelle Waugh and Looneyspoons’ sisters Janet and Greta Podleski.) And everyone continues to create wonderfully tasty dishes.

As for the changes, the biggest is the setting for Four Senses. Instead of filming in a slapdash arrangement in downtown Toronto, Varner Productions decamped to Pie in the Sky Studios in East York. The spot enabled them to create a more effective studio kitchen tricked out by bright colours and a more cozy environment. The on-screen relationship between Ha and Heinrich has grown in this sophomore season as well. Any first-year jitters they had are gone and the culinary duo have developed a witty, entertaining repartee that oozes fun.

Another new ingredient to the show finds Ha and Heinrich hitting the road for on-location shoots. Friday’s return plants Heinrich in Enniskillen, Ont., where he visits Eric Baldwin, owner of Gallery on the Farm, a family run cattle farm. That provides an important farm to table link to Heinrich’s main dish during tonight’s “Roasted and Toasted” episode: a braised hunk of beef. Heinrich, Ha and Robertson all take turns serving as sous chefs while creating the beef, Ha’s side dish of roasted potatoes and Robertson’s awesome-looking chocolate chip studded banana bread.

Four Senses may offer description for those blind and partially sighted, but it’s a also a first-rate cooking show for anyone interested in making healthy, tasty meals. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some banana bread to make.

Four Senses airs Fridays at 4 p.m. ET/PT and 7 p.m. ET/PT on AMI-tv.

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