The cast and production crew from the popular Montreal-based travel and cooking program Bouffe en cavale visited Osoyoos last week to shoot an episode for next season. They visited local wineries and fruit stands and prepared a salmon dinner from fish caught in Osoyoos Lake at the Walnut Beach Resort. The cast and crew include (from left) producer Candide Proulx, host Norman Helms, chef Vincent Chatigny, field producer Stephane Tellier and photojournalist Daniel Lapointe. Director Carlo Harrietha wasn’t available for this particular segment. The show attracts as many as 100,000 viewers when a new episode goes to air, said Proulx. (Keith Lacey photo)
Tens of thousands of viewers from Montreal and other parts of Quebec are going to see just how beautiful Osoyoos and the Okanagan Valley are after a television crew spent 10 days here filming episodes for a popular French language television show.
Bouffe en cavale is a popular hour-long travel and food show that has been broadcast on the Quebec cable station Evasion for the past seven years.
The show’s on-air personalities – chef Vincent Chatigny and host Norman Helms – were joined by producer Candide Proulx, director Carlo Harrietha, photojournalist Daniel Lapointe and field producer Stephane Tellier during a visit to Osoyoos last week.
After visiting several local wineries, restaurants and fruit stands, the crew prepared a meal while shooting an upcoming episode at the Walnut Beach Resort last Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ve shot almost entirely in eastern Canada since the show started, but last season we travelled to the Mississippi Valley and shot 13 episodes down there and this year the decision was made to travel to western Canada to shoot 13 episodes,” said Proulx, who has been working in television production for 16 years.
The two hosts and film crew started their western Canadian tour during the last week in August in Calgary and filmed several episodes in Alberta before coming to the Okanagan Valley a couple of weeks ago, said Proulx.
They visited numerous wineries and events, including the Freak ‘N Farmer obstacle course race at Covert Farms in Oliver before visiting Osoyoos early last week.
One of the show’s 13 episodes for next season will be made up of footage shot in Oliver and Osoyoos, she said.
Bouffe en cavale is basically a show about “travelling around and finding interesting things relating to the food industry,” said Proulx.
“I would say the show is 60 per cent about travelling to new places and 40 per cent about cooking food that is popular in the different places we travel to,” she said.
The meal prepared on the show filmed in Osoyoos features the cooking and preparation of salmon caught in Osoyoos Lake.
Evasion is a relatively small cable channel, but Bouffe en cavale is one of the network’s most popular shows, she said.
“There are some weeks when we have 100,000 viewers,” she said. “Our show is one of the oldest and most popular on the entire network.”
Almost every episode of Bouffe en cavale broadcasts footage “to give our viewers an adrenaline rush” and that’s why the crew attends events where people gather in fun activities, she said.
They attended a rodeo in Alberta, demolition derby event in Penticton and the Freak ‘N Farmer event in Oliver as an example.
“We’re a cooking and travel show, but we always try to add some kind of adrenaline aspect to each episode,” she said. “We try and find places that are holding adrenaline events and we have our hosts there cooking up meals at these events.”
It takes two full days of shooting film to produce enough material for a one-hour television show, said Proulx.
Chatigny is the only crew member who had ever visited British Columbia before so it was very exciting for everyone else to visit this region, said Proulx.
“Speaking for myself, I’m just so impressed with the Okanagan because it is even more beautiful than I thought it would be,” she said. “And I have to admit Osoyoos is my favourite of all the places we’ve visited. I’m a runner, so I’ve spent a lot of time after we’re done shooting to run around town and I’m just amazed at how beautiful this place is for a small town.
“I am most certainly thinking about coming back here for vacation with my husband and kids.”
It takes about three months of production work to get an episode ready for broadcast, so Proulx is expecting the episode of Bouffe en cavale that was filmed in Osoyoos and Oliver to be broadcast around Christmas.
If the shows in B.C. prove popular with viewers, there’s a very good chance the cast and crew of Bouffe en cavale will return in the near future, she said.
“We’ve had a great time and I hope we can come back soon,” she said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Host Norman Helms and chef Vincent Chatigny prepare a meal. (Keith Lacey photo)
