A man who could have stayed in a Michelin-starred kitchen in Europe but opted to cultivate his own vegetables on a windy island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is truly disarming. Prince Edward Island and Canadian culinary culture in general have changed since Michael Smith made that decision years ago. It’s difficult to get to his restaurant FireWorks, which is located inside The Inn at Bay Fortune. Driving along Route 310, you pass fields and historic farmhouses before the property opens up and you realize you’ve come to a place that takes itself seriously without being overly serious.
Between art school and ambition, Smith began working as a professional chef at the age of seventeen. He progressed through kitchens in South Africa, the Caribbean, and New York before enrolling at the Culinary Institute of America, where he placed second in his class. Eventually, that trajectory—restless, global, constantly searching for the next kitchen—bent back toward simplicity. When he started as head chef at The Inn at Bay Fortune in 1991, the pace and produce of the island seemed to hold him in a way that no kitchen in Europe had.
The FireWorks Feast, which costs $295 per person plus tax and is held annually from May to October, is the best representation of what Smith has been creating for decades. Bay Fortune is visible from long butcher-block tables. A wood-fired oven produces bread. Serious portions of seafood chowder are delivered. The season affects the catch of the day. It is farmhouse dining elevated to the point where the elevation is undetectable, which is perhaps the more difficult to accomplish. In 2015, Smith and his wife Chastity made an outright purchase of the inn, transforming the project from a work assignment to a sincere personal commitment. You can sense the difference in the details.
It’s difficult to ignore how uniquely local the entire operation is. The food served in the kitchen is grown on the property’s culinary farm. The chefs, farmers, foragers, and sommeliers collaborate before, not after, the menu is created. Even though the collaborative model seems clear when explained, the majority of restaurants still don’t use it. Long before the term “farm-to-table” became a catchphrase for everything, including airport lounges, Smith was adamant about it.
He is now one of the most well-known figures in Canadian cuisine thanks to his television career, which began with The Inn Chef in 1998 and continues with the current series Chef on Fire. Some claim the inn would never have gained the international recognition it has without those performances. However, it’s also possible that Smith’s passion for local, fire-cooked, sustainable food came across as real rather than staged, which is why the shows were successful. Even through a screen, people can typically distinguish between the two.
Smith’s efforts as a chef, businessman, and supporter of regional food systems earned him an appointment to the Order of Canada in 2019. He and Chastity expanded the business without, according to most accounts, diluting it when they opened The Inn at Fortune Bridge as a sister property that same year. As a reminder that Smith’s influence extends beyond the plate, his thirteenth cookbook, Wood, Fire & Smoke, published in May 2025, made Indigo’s list of the year’s most anticipated titles.
Though both are impressive, the fire and the locally sourced seafood aren’t what really make the Chef Michael Smith PEI restaurant experience memorable. It’s the impression that this specific chef has been narrating a single, cohesive story for thirty-five years, and that the story takes place on one of Atlantic Canada’s more picturesque landscapes. New recipes, seasons, and partnerships are just a few examples of how that story is still being written. However, the Bay Fortune kitchen fires are still going strong.
FAQs
1. How much does the FireWorks Feast at The Inn at Bay Fortune cost?
The FireWorks Feast is priced at $295 plus tax per person.
2. Where is Chef Michael Smith’s restaurant located?
It sits at 758 Route 310, Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
3. When did Michael Smith purchase The Inn at Bay Fortune?
Smith and his wife Chastity bought the property outright in 2015.
4. What kind of food does FireWorks serve?
All dishes are locally sourced and cooked entirely over live fire.
5. Has Chef Michael Smith received any major national honours?
He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2019.
