Canada is going to find out something about a Turner Valley restaurant folks in the foothills have known for more than a decade — Chuckwagon Café is a place where “You Gotta Eat Here!”
Filming for The Food Network’s new series You Gotta Eat Here! took place at the Turner Valley restaurant on Dec. 15 and 16. The series, which also filmed at Evelyn’s Memory Lane in High River, features eateries across Canada which provides “comfort food” according to its host John Catucci.
“We’re looking for the best comfort food across the country — those that are institutions in their communities,” Catucci said.
After cooking and dining at the Chuckwagon Café last week, Catucci was so comfortable he could have slept for the winter.
“This is a true steak house,” Catucci said on Dec. 16. “When you think of Alberta and you think of beef, this is the kind of place that comes to mind. I have never had a steak as tender as I have had here — it has spoiled and ruined me for every steak I am every going to have in my life again.”
The first day of shooting had Catucci cooking in the kitchen, with the second day of filming he is interviewing regulars while they dined at the Chuckwagon Café.
Jamie Moore and his wife Sue Brockelsby have been coming to the café for 11 years. He usually goes for breakfast, but this was the first time he has ever dined with a boom microphone and a camera in his face.
“The hard part was having to sit there and look at my food and not be allowed to eat it for a while,” he said with a laugh. “It’s all part of the game.”
Moore’s favourite is usually the breakfast burritos, but today the Food Network had him eat the Huevos Ranchero —fancy Mexican-style cooked eggs.
“They wanted to have different foods from the menus and that was okay with me, everything is good here,” he said. “We didn’t have to take a whole lot of takes.”
Moore has a beard that would make Santa envious, but he said he wasn’t worried about leaving a few morsels in his beard while on film.
“That’s just treats for later,” he said with a laugh. “That’s a joke. I’ve been eating with a beard for a lot of years so I am used to it.”
The segment featured Chuckwagon Café’s Eggs Benedict on top of a strip of tenderloin steak, the beef and barley soup and of course the award-winning Chuckwagon Café burger.
“To have an eggs Benny with a piece of tenderloin that was ridiculous,” said Catucci, a comedian from Toronto. “To say what was my favourite, I’m going to say the burger. It was incredibly juicy and all beef. It was beef that he (Chuckwagon Café owner Terry Myhre) grinds here. He literally goes from the pasture to the plate.”
Myhre said the fact he raises the cattle for the beef served at the café was one of the reasons it was selected for “You Gotta Eat Here!”
It’s flattering that they were interested in what we are doing,” Myhre said. “I like to think that when people are eating here, they just don’t want it to end.”
He said he wanted to reward his regular customers with a chance to be on film.
“They are great customers, they have the right personality to be in front of a camera and some of them because they are involved in beef production,” Myhre said. “They understand what I do and what it takes to get to the plate.”
Catucci even learned a thing or two about the west. He was on horse for the first time since he was eight years old.
“We did it like we were arriving in on horseback,” he said. “I’m feeling it a bit today.”
He admitted he was tired after two days of shooting at Chuckwagon Café.
“I had a burger, the Eggs Benedict and the beef and barley soup and meanwhile Terry is coming out with different foods for us to try,” Catucci said. “You have to hibernate after a meal here. What’s more comforting than meat and potatoes — and it’s the best meat you ever had.”
Catucci got an early taste of the holiday season during his stop at Evelyn’s Memory Lane Café on Dec. 4 in High River.
“The roasted chicken sandwich is the perfect chicken sandwich,” Catucci said. “It reminded me of Christmas or Thanksgiving. Having a cold turkey sandwich with your cranberry and mayo. It’s a great everyday thing — but it would be really great for Christmas.”
Catucci was busy Dec. 4 preparing Evelyn’s beef stew. As well he tried his hand at the Medicine Tree ice cream.
Catucci admitted he was full after preparing and then eating the dishes.
“I’m stuffed, but I have learned not to eat the whole thing during shootings,” he said. “You can end up taking more than one take — I’ve learned to take small bites.”
Not only did the High River restaurant provide comfort food, owners Don and Evelyn Zabloski made him feel right at home.
“This place has a great vibe — like home,” Catucci said. “Evelyn made me feel like her son and now I’m going to make ice cream with Don.
“It’s great when mom makes you a sandwich and dad gives you dessert.”
“You Gotta Eat Here” will premiere on the Food Network in January. Representatives from the show could not give a specific date as to when the episodes featuring the Chuckwagon Café and Evelyn’s will air.
For more information on the show go to www.loneeagle.tv/show-you-gotta-eat-here.php
