... Howard and Knight opened Chef & the Farmer, a seasonal, farm to table restaurant in 2006. Much more dynamic than a typical cooking show, A Chef’s Life follows Chef Vivian Howard as she explores the rich bounty of farm fresh cooking, family and community. The Chef & the Farmer restaurant burned one January morning in the first week of 2012, while New Year’s resolutions were still fresh and hanging in the air like a country ham. Chef & the Farmer has been a spark, creating an industry nobody ever envisioned for downtown Kinston: tourism. However, Howard, chef-owner of the lauded Kinston restaurant Chef & the Farmer, has a new PBS project in the works. PBS will reportedly close out A Chef… She owns two restaurants in Kinston, NC: Chef & the Farmer and Boiler Room Oyster Bar. Vivian Howard is a chef, author, and PBS personality from Deep Run, NC. Chef and The Farmer, Kinston: See 1,152 unbiased reviews of Chef and The Farmer, rated 4.5 of 5 on Tripadvisor and ranked #2 of 77 restaurants in Kinston. Ben Knight, who owns Chef & the Farmer with his wife, Vivian Howard, said it would be “a few days” before a reopening date could be determined. A Chef’s Life is a documentary and cooking series, airing on PBS. ... A fire nearly destroyed the kitchen at Howard and Knight’s restaurant, Chef & the Farmer. They are back in full swing. I often tell people that Ben and I had our first baby in June 2006. A Chef's Life. The series is produced by Markay Media and is broadcast by PBS. Vivian Howard is a chef, author, and PBS personality from Deep Run, NC. Vivian, Ben and the entire Chef and the Farmer staff hustle to complete the mammoth preparations necessary for her big luncheon at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. Traveled across the country to dine at Chef & The Farmer in Kinston, NC and it was worth the trip! After a fire damaged kitchen at the Chef and the Farmer, Howard’s acclaimed first restaurant and the frequent site of filming on A Chef’s Life, the pair took the renovation opportunity to add a wood-burning oven, “so that we could eat Shot documentary-style by filmmaker Cynthia Hill, ACL episodes pulled double-duty, chronicling both Howard’s day-to-day challenges of running a restaurant, The Chef and the Farmer, in Kinston, North Carolina, and one ingredient or dish indigenous to the eastern part of the Tar Heel State—fish stew, applejacks, and Tom Thumb among them. Vivian Howard (born 1978) is an American chef, restaurateur, author and television host. From 2013-2018, Howard hosted the PBS television series A Chef's Life focusing on the ingredients and cooking traditions of eastern North Carolina — using the backdrop of the Chef & the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina, which Howard co-owns with husband, business partner and artist, Ben Knight. Steven Martin of Kinston Fire & Rescue said. Definitely "elevated Southern cooking" - truly enjoyed each plate, from the Share Plate's Flash Fried Collards & Tom Thumb to the Small Plate's Turnip Roots & … Vivian Howard is head chef and her husband, Ben Knight, is …