Caroline Ishii cooks up one of ZenKitchen’s gourmet vegetarian dishes.
Starting a new business isn’t easy, but add TV cameras to the experience and it becomes an even more dramatic undertaking.
That’s exactly what David Loan and Caroline Ishii decided to do when they opened their new restaurant in Centretown.
For over a year, Ottawa-based Mountain Road Productions filmed the ups and downs as the couple pursued their dream of launching ZenKitchen, a gourmet vegetarian restaurant.
The result is The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave, a 13-episode reality TV show that airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on W Network.
“The show is funny, fast-paced and it’s real,” says Loan.
He adds that they love the show, but they have to record episodes since it airs during restaurant hours.
The restaurant, which is open for dinner every night but Monday, was busy before the show even aired, says Ishii.
Since the show premiered in early January, business has improved.
Ishii says that the show is a great chance to showcase Ottawa.
“People think Ottawa is too conservative and not creative, but that’s not true,” she says.
“Viewers get to see the city. Ottawa’s a great place.”
Ishii says she thinks there is a real “hunger” in Ottawa for gourmet foods.
Support from the neighbourhood has been great she says.
All the food at ZenKitchen is prepared with local organic ingredients.
Loan and Ishii ran a gourmet catering service out of the Chelsea Club, but when the club closed they decided to consider a full restaurant.
Loan says it was a “coincidence of timing” that Mountain Road Productions was planning a reality TV series about a couple hoping to open a restaurant.
Loan and Ishii responded to the Mountain Road Productions casting call.
Tim Alp, the executive producer at Mountain Road Productions, says from the first meeting with the couple he knew they would be a good fit for TV.
The couple agreed that they enjoyed filming their adventure for TV, but both say it made the experience challenging.
Ishii, who is the head chef at ZenKitchen, says that learning to work in the kitchen with wires and mikes was like an “awkward dance.”
Overall, filming the show went well, says Tim Alp, the executive producer at Mountain Road Productions.
“There were interesting storylines,” he says. “I had no idea how dramatic it could be.”
Alp says he thinks the best parts of the show came when the couple had difficulties with renovations.
“Everyone can relate to it if they’ve ever done renovations,” he says.
“It’s all very true to life, we’re not fabricating anything.”
Loan says there were some interesting moments when they filmed actual customers in the restaurant.
“Some of our shy customers were caught by surprise,” says Ishii.
So far the restaurant has gotten excellent reviews.
Alp says the response for the TV show has been greater than expected and entirely positive.
The couple say that running the restaurant is “ongoing craziness.”
But, they look forward to seeing more Centretown neighbours come through their doors.