Restaurant Adventures of Caroline & Dave – Reality TV Show featuring Zen Kitchen

In 2009, we acted as Designer and Project Manager to revamp an existing property in Ottawa’s Chinatown for Chef Caroline Ishii and Sommelier David Loan.  The new restaurant, called the Zen Kitchen, was the city’s first gourmet vegan restaurant.  Upon completion, the new design created an environment that was sophisticated but not pretentious, pairing clean lines with rich, warm colours inspired by Chef Ishii’s spice rack.

The process of the clients quitting their jobs to follow their dreams and open Zen Kitchen was documented from start to finish in a 13-episode miniseries titled, appropriately, The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline & Dave.  Shot in a docu-drama style, the show focuses on the trials and tribulations of starting a new business.  The show first aired on January 6, 2010 on the W Network, and most recently on the Asian Food Channel.

The clients were very satisfied after working with Urbanomic Interiors.  Caroline Ishii wrote:

Heidi Helm is a very talented designer who worked with us in imagining and implementing the design and renovation of Zen Kitchen restaurant from start to finish. She is inventive in coming up with unique ideas to meet the needs of the client. A very hardworking, dedicated and enthusiastic individual, it was a pleasure to work with her this on this project.

We couldn’t ask for higher praise!

You can find out more about the project on Chef Caroline Ishii’s web site, 
and also on the web site of the production company Mountain Road Productions.