The plant-based adventures continue as the CTV Life Channel original series, EVOLVING VEGAN, returns for its second season beginning April 16 with new episodes airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV Life, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, and also streaming on Crave. Recently nominated for Best Host, Lifestyle for Season 1 of EVOLVING VEGAN at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards, Mena Massoud (Aladdin) takes viewers to new dynamic destinations, exploring diverse approaches to vegan cuisine in each locale, illustrating how talented chefs and restaurateurs are making plant-based food delicious and accessible.
Over the course of six, all-new hour-long episodes, Massoud explores the vibrant plant-based food scenes of Philadelphia, Montréal, Miami, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Tokyo. Along the way, Massoud experiences local vegan cuisine with guests and experts, including famed magician and actor Penn Jillette; comedian Maz Jobrani; educator and food historian Zella Palmer; and New York Times best selling cookbook authors Carleigh Bodrug and Radhi Devlukia.
In the premiere episode of EVOLVING VEGAN Season 2 (airing Tuesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV Life, CTV.ca, and the CTV app), Massoud heads to Philadelphia, a city rich in history and hearty food surprises with elevated live-fire cooking, fresh Capalachi Pasta, and an unexpected turn on the classic Philly “Cheesesteak”. Mena also learns to make delectable donuts with funnyman Maz Jobrani, and crushes an absolutely monstrous “meatball” sub.
EVOLVING VEGAN is produced by Bell Media Studios. For Bell Media Studio, Jennifer Couke and Michelle Crespi are Executive Producers. Eva Filomena is Series Producer. Mena Massoud and Ali Mashayekhi are Executive Producers for Press Play Productions.
CTV Life Channel and Crave delve into the exploding vegan food scene across North America, with the launch of all-new Bell Media Studios original series, EVOLVING VEGAN, Thursday, March 30 at 8 p.m. ET. Hosted and executive produced by Mena Massoud (Aladdin), EVOLVING VEGAN is inspired by his online project of the same name, which itself has evolved into a cookbook, and now, an inspiring travel series exploring beautiful meals, talented chefs, and restauranteurs who are making plant-based living delicious and accessible.
Throughout the six, one-hour episodes, Massoud takes viewers on a plant-based escape, and serves up a refreshed look at a flourishing food scene in Los Angeles, Austin, Mexico City, Vancouver, Portland, and Toronto.
In Episode 1, Massoud explores the plant-based food scene in Los Angeles and restaurant-hops with friends Lilly Singh and Laura Marano, indulging in elevated vegan French pastries, “pastrami” sammies, Thai “chicken” wings, and unbelievable “carne” asada.
About Mena Massoud: Mena was born in Cairo and immigrated to Toronto with his parents and two sisters at the age of three. He began his post-secondary studies in neuroscience before transferring schools and programs and graduating with a BFA in theatre.
He is an actor, author, and entrepreneur. He has founded Evolving Vegan, a project which aims at making veganism accessible to all and has also launched a non-profit organization to aid underrepresented artists, the EDA (Ethnically Diverse Artists) Foundation.
The billion-dollar, international success of Aladdin inspired Mena to create Press Play Productions to continue paving the way for diverse artists and stories.
EVOLVING VEGAN is produced by Bell Media Studios. Jennifer Couke and Michelle Crespi are Executive Producers for Bell Media Studios. Mena Massoud and Ali Mashayekhi are Executive Producers for Press Play Productions.
Now that the world has returned to some sort of order—at least, as much as it can—many of us will face that all too familiar dread surrounding the holidays: the Christmas meal.
A too-dry turkey, gluey mashed potatoes (of which I have been guilty) and watery pumpkin pie are just three of many mishaps that can occur when folks congregate during the holidays.
But Mary Berg has got your (and my) back this year.
Debuting Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on CTV Life Channel with a special episode of Mary Makes it Easy called “Mary Makes it Merry,” the MasterChef Canada winner, cookbook author, celebrity chef and culinary coach aptly guides you through an easy as pie (see what I did there) bunch of recipes designed to keep you organized when family descends.
“It breaks my heart to hear that the worst part of the holidays for a lot of people is making the holiday meal. By the time you shop for the food and make the standard feast you’ve spent so long prepping, it’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed,” Mary says in a media release promoting the instalment. “With my shortcuts and time-saving strategies, I’m going to make the holidays so easy.”
It all kicks off with perhaps the easiest bread dish I’ve ever seen. I’ve struggled with making cinnamon buns in the past, eventually giving up and buying them from bakers. No more, thanks to Mary’s Cinnamon Roll Bread, which looks so simple even I could master it. The same goes for the Stuffed Turkey Roulade she tackles as the main dish. Once Mary completes a couple of sides, including dead easy cranberry sauce, I was convinced. I can, and will, do all of that for my family and more, over the holidays.
Mary Makes it Easy, “Mary Makes it Merry,” airs Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on CTV Life Channel.
There’s a reason Mary Berg has resonated with audiences and judges, first on MasterChef Canada and then with Mary’s Kitchen Crush. What you see is what you get with Berg, and you can’t help but cheer her on.
The two-time Canadian Screen award winner is back with her latest series for Bell Media, helming Mary Makes it Easy. Debuting Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on CTV Life Channel, Berg brings viewers into her real-life kitchen for easy-to-make (and equally easy to tweak) recipes, delivered with her trademark smile and humour.
We spoke to Mary Berg about Mary Makes it Easy, what viewers can expect from Season 1 and what it’s like to be an award winner.
How did Mary Makes it Easy come about? Is this something that you pitched to Bell or was this a collaboration? Mary Berg: I think it was a bit of both, to be honest. We definitely pitched it to Bell. It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a straight-ahead cooking show, in the kitchen, showing you how to make something, walking you through it, cooking show. And we definitely did that in Mary’s Kitchen Crush. With Kitchen Crush, it was about the end result. It was about the people coming over and making dishes inspired by people who you’re going to meet at the end, that was the payoff. In Mary Makes it Easy I think we did a good job at conveying this is it’s all about you and me in the kitchen together, because that is the biggest hurdle for most people.Â
It’s not necessarily having someone over. It’s how do you make something for friends, or even just your family that you live with or even just yourself? It is a hard thing to do when there are so many other options. This is about you and me, the person who doesn’t want to be pulling their hair out at the end of it when their guests arrive. It is just about prepping and making delicious food and making it as confident-filled and comfortable as possible for everybody.
You’ve always made it very accessible with your ingredients. Has that always been something that’s been important to you? Just keeping it easy for the home cook? MB: Totally. When I write recipes, I want someone who’s experienced in the kitchen to not think, ‘Oh, this is an easy recipe,’ but I want someone who isn’t also to feel like I’m there with them walking them through. With ingredients, especially over the last year and a half, my cooking style changed kind of completely. I don’t go to the grocery store every day anymore. I go once every two weeks, pretty much still like I’m still on that kind of schedule and it’s totally changed the way I cook. This show has a lot more options for substitutions. There are a lot more suggestions for if you don’t have this or you don’t like it, that’s fine. It’s not going to ruin the recipe. Make it yours because it’s about you.
How do you develop recipes? I love recipe development and I love food science. Basically, I have this Nancy Drew-style notebook, a composition book that I write my ideas in. I write what I think is going to work. I write estimated measurements and I just think about flavours that I think would go well together. It’s summertime right now, so obviously, everything I do has peaches and tomatoes in it because both of those things go so well together. So taking cues from what’s at the market, what’s at the grocery store, even what’s on sale, and then trying to figure out ways to do it in exciting but accessible and accomplishable ways.
You film Mary Makes it Easy in your actual kitchen. Was that always the plan? MB: This show was always going to be in my kitchen. I think I wanted to have people in my house [because] there’s a comfort level there that I think you can’t convey in a set in the same way. So having that and giving this whole show more of a comfortable, tight-knit, cozy, homey vibe, it feels a little more like you’re just hanging out at my, at my breakfast bar pretty much the whole time.
I enjoyed the bloopers at the end of the first episode. MB: Thanks, man! I wanted, throughout the show and throughout the episodes, to keep flubs in too. We kept things in where something goes wrong because that’s how it works. No one is perfect. In my world, in the kitchen, there’s no failing. You’re just like trying something and it might not work, but that means you learned how to make it not work. Sometimes things go wrong and you just roll with the punches and keep going.
Can you give me a hint about some of the upcoming episodes? The first is chicken. MB: We’ve got 25 episodes, and it was really fun coming up with the ideas for each episode because we wanted to think of common issues in the kitchen. For instance, chicken. It’s a great staple, so we wanted to do one that with 100 percent all on chicken. The next episode is date night. The thing with date night is no, you shouldn’t make like a souffle. That is an insane thing to do when you’re trying to impress someone because it’s going to go wrong. You need to do things that are quick, really impressive, but also still look like you aren’t sweaty and you just had a crying fit on the floor before your date arrived. There’s get ahead recipes, there’s one-pot there are lunches, there’s baking, baking recipes for like real beginners. Like if you want to make bread, I’ve got the bread for you as a beginner and you want to make a cheesecake, I got the cheesecake for you.
You recently won a second Canadian Screen Award. How does that feel? MB: It’s one thing to put something out there and think that you really like it and that the folks at Bell Media really like it, but it’s another when people vote and you find out that the Academy really likes you too. So how does that feel? Um, mindboggling. Oatmeal brain is what I call it. The fact that the show also won is so huge because so many people worked so hard on it. I know everyone says this, but I truly did not expect it either time.
I was a participation ribbon kid. I was the kid who you’re playing soccer and I’d be like, ‘No, I’m going to sit down and find a four leaf clover.’ It is really exciting and thrilling to work so hard on something and have that peer and Academy-based recognition.
Mary Makes it Easy airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV Life Channel.
CTV Life Channel, in association with Boat Rocker Studios, Unscripted through Proper Television, announced today that production has begun on new culinary series MARY MAKES IT EASY. Hosted by Canada’s culinary sweetheart Mary Berg, Canadian Screen Award-winner for Best Host, Lifestyle for CTV Original series MARY’S KITCHEN CRUSH, the new series for CTV Life Channel consists of 25 half-hour episodes, including a holiday special.
For Berg, cooking is life. Making and serving delicious food for friends and family is how Berg expresses her love for them. It’s also how she connects with fans and followers around the world who might need some help with their own cooking adventures.
Filming in Toronto at Berg’s home kitchen, MARY MAKES IT EASY follows Berg as she provides tips, tricks, and recipes to solve every day cooking woes. From ideas on what to make with a fridge full of leftovers, to lackluster chicken emergencies, Berg takes viewers through simple solutions, and leaves them with a newfound confidence to overcome any challenges they encounter on their culinary journey.
As part of the new series, Berg wants to know what cooking questions Canadians need answered. With submissions now open at AskMary.ca, people have the opportunity to send their inquiries to Berg, with some questions to be featured on MARY MAKES IT EASY.
Berg has spent most of her life cooking and baking for those she loves, and building a strong appreciation for the connective powers of beautiful, home-cooked food. Berg is the Canadian Screen Award-winner for Best Host, Lifestyle for MARY’S KITCHEN CRUSH, a CTV Original series. MARY’S KITCHEN CRUSH is a Canadian Screen Award-winner for Best Lifestyle Program or Series, and is currently sold in more than 100 countries. Berg is also the Season 3 winner of CTV’s MASTERCHEF CANADA, as well as a cooking expert on YOUR MORNING, THE SOCIAL, and THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW on CTV. Best-selling author of Kitchen Party: Effortless Recipes for Every Occasion, Berg is currently working on her second cookbook, which is set to be released in fall 2021.
MARY MAKES IT EASY is produced by Boat Rocker Studios, Unscripted through Proper Television, in association with CTV. Cathie James, Allison Grace, and Lesia Capone serve as Executive Producers and David Donohue as Series Producer.
