Michael Smith (chef)

Michael Dixon Smith is an American born chef and writer now residing in Canada, host of The Inn Chef, Chef at Home, Chef at Large, Chef Michael's Kitchen, Chef Abroad, and Chopped: Canada (all of which have appeared on the Canadian Food Network).

Born in New York City, Undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 1984, member Phi Sigma Kappa national fraternity. Michael Smith graduated with honours from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York City in 1991. He then worked in restaurants in London, South America, and the Caribbean before coming back to North America to cook in different restaurants in Manhattan.

In 1992, Smith joined Prince Edward Island’s now famous country inn, The Inn at Bay Fortune in Fortune Bridge, Prince Edward Island which was soon regarded as one of Canada's top 10 restaurants with the chef noted for his intense focus on regionalism and the foods of Prince Edward Island.

Six years later, Smith's television show The Inn Chef debuted on the Life Network and later moved to Food Network Canada. The series featured Smith as he took viewers inside the inn's real-life country kitchen. The Inn Chef won best Variety/Music/Cooking Show in TV GUIDE Canada's 2001 Reader Poll. The series currently airs on Prime TV.

In 1999, Smith opened his own restaurant, Maple, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It quickly became recognized as one of the top venues in the country for Canadian Cuisine. In the fall of 2001 Smith left Maple to focus on his new Food Network Canada series Chef at Large. In May 2002, he was presented the James Beard Award for "Best National Television Special" for his documentary Saturday Night. He is 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall; and often jokingly refers to himself as the "World's Tallest Freestanding Chef" (a play on Toronto's CN Tower, which for years was billed as the "World's Tallest Freestanding Structure").