Mary Berg Spreads the Love in Mary’s Kitchen Crush

Mary’s Kitchen Crush host Mary Berg talks to TV Real about her love of cooking and how she hopes to share that passion with viewers at home.

Mary Berg was in school and working as an insurance broker when a friend gave her the push she needed to audition for MasterChef Canada. Though admittedly terrified every step of the way, Berg not only won the season but went on to launch her debut show. At the center of her surprise rise to celeb-chef stardom—and Mary’s Kitchen Crush—is her love of cooking.

“I’ve always loved cooking,” Berg says. “It’s kind of always been the way that I relax. And it’s the most creative part of my day. To be honest, my mom is a terrible cook, and I learned out of necessity. My father passed away when I was a kid. Cooking was a way that I could help my family. It was something that I enjoyed. It’s my way of sharing with people that I love and showing them that I care about them.”

When Berg parlayed that love of cooking into a run on MasterChef Canada at a friend’s behest, she found herself intimidated by the competitive kitchen. “I’ve never been one for competitions and things like that, so it’s kind of ironic that I went into a cooking competition—and I won,” says Berg. “It’s the only trophy I’ve ever won and it sits on my bar, because I don’t know where to put trophies [laughs].”

For Berg, the strangest aspect of participating in a show like MasterChef was that after toiling away at a dish, she just had to set it down before the judges and wait to see what they made of it, creating an unfamiliar disconnect. “You cook something, you put all of your efforts into it and you put it down and you just watch someone eat it,” says Berg. “You don’t eat it with them. That’s the most jarring part, because when I cook it’s really expressing how I’m feeling. It is really intimidating to be judged on that, but in the kitchen you can always get better, so it was really helpful.”

When setting about creating her own show, it was essential for Berg that she be the one writing the recipes. “It was really important to actually put my food on a plate,” says Berg. “I love recipe development. I’ve always loved food science and going from that direction. It was important for me to create that because every episode is dedicated to someone in my life, and I didn’t want someone else making the food for them; I wanted it to be me.”

Mary’s Kitchen Crush introduces viewers to Berg’s mother and husband, her brother and others. How closely those watching are brought into her life is part of what Berg believes sets the show apart. “Everybody who I really care about is in this show, and the food that I make is simple, delicious and tasty and will make you look like a culinary wizard,” she says.

Determining what to cook comes down to who Berg is cooking for in the episode and what they might want to eat. “With my mom, I started with thinking about what her favorite foods are; I thought, what would she just go bananas over,” says Berg. “She loves lamb, she loves pie. That was the starting basis of the savory and sweet aspects of the meal, and then I went off from there. Because when I cook, I cook for people. If I’m left to my own devices, my husband says that I eat like a raccoon because I’m just grabbing whatever. But when I cook for people, it’s my way of showing that I love them.”

Berg, whose favorite meal to make for company is a classic Sunday roast, hopes that those who tune in to watch her program feel like they’re in the kitchen with her. “It’s really nice that people feel like they know me,” says Berg. “To me, that’s what makes these instructional cooking shows really warm and wonderful and sets them apart. The ones we remember are the people we feel like we’re their best friend. That’s what I think we convey in Mary’s Kitchen Crush.”

Berg also hopes that Mary’s Kitch Crush does for viewers who’ve yet to master their own skills in the kitchen what food shows did for her. “That’s how I learned how to cook—I watched TV and I read cookbooks. So hopefully I’m teaching the next generation how to cook!”

Mary’s Kitchen Crush is produced by Proper Television for CTV and distributed by Boat Rocker Studios. The series is also available in Canada via the SVOD service Crave. The first season was acquired by Tastemade in the U.S.