Moosemeat & Marmalade TV Show Presents Final Season

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A decade ago, Art Napoleon and Daniel Hayes They met on the set of the APTN children’s television series, Tiga Tales. Napoleon co-starred on the show and Hayes was the caterer.

The pair discussed Napoleon’s ideas for a variety sketch television show. The two clicked and decided they should try doing something together.

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All these years later, the couple is about to watch the seventh and final season of their hit APTN food and culture show. Elk Meat and Jam will air on May 7.

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Last season’s shows include the couple on a fishing expedition in Nova Scotia, moose hunting in Sweden and exploring the Malahat First Nation in British Columbia.

“It’s so fun that we were literally chatting in the lineup. “I was serving lasagna and he was ordering a plate of lasagna and we were talking about growing up as kids hunting,” he said. There is, originally from London, United Kingdom, during a phone call from his home in Victoria. “Of course, we come from very different backgrounds, but the beauty of it all is that it somehow unites us.

“It really doesn’t matter where you come from, what language you speak or what color your skin is. We are all equal. And Art and I get along very well in a very organic and unpretentious way.”

The series, with 16 million viewers worldwide, is often described as a food docuseries. But that definition is limiting.

“I’m surprised how dealers sell it,” said Hayes, owner and operator Cooking school with the London chef.

“Is it a travel show? No. Is it a cooking show? No. Is it a gastronomic show? No. Is it a hunting show? No. Is it a fishing show? No. Is it a comedy? No. But, I tell you one thing, it is a little bit of all of them.”

The show is also a discussion and celebration of indigenous culture.

“There are many natives who never grew up on their lands,” Napoleon said. “A lot of them never learned any of that, so their main source is watching Moosemeat & Marmalade. “It’s very good to know.”

Hayes is a trained chef who immigrated to Canada 16 years ago. Napoleon is an actor, singer-songwriter, cook, and former chief of the Saulteau First Nation in northern British Columbia.

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“We are definitely an odd couple,” Napoleon said. “(Viewers) see us, a non-native guy and a native guy arguing, but also getting along and looking out for each other. I think the chemistry between us really fits people… it’s not forced. It’s not invented. It’s quite natural.

“We have a plan about who we’re going to talk to, what we’re going to watch, but what comes out of our mouths, none of that is written.”

A sequence of the pair carrying trays of dirt has the feel of Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory from I Love Lucy, and you can’t help but smile when Napoleon laughs at his companion about his enthusiasm for jumping and leading.

“Dan has a tendency, like an invasive species, to just take over,” Napoleon says in the final season’s opening show.

For Napoleon, the couple’s palpable fun is good for them and for viewers, especially in today’s world.

“I think entertainment is very underrated,” he said. Napoleon. “We are at a time when it is even more important. There is a lot on people’s plates. We are almost on the brink of World War III, the civil war in the US. Colonization is openly practiced again. There are attacks against LGBTQ people and people of color. The price of everything is high. People are worried about droughts. It’s overwhelming. So, I think it’s good to find ways to enjoy life and laugh. I think if you can learn something while doing it, great. “I think Moosemeat & Marmalade achieved that.”

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When asked about his favorite moments from the show’s 91 episodes, Hayes said the international trips have been great, but it’s the stories at home that he likes the most.

“The obvious answer is to go moose hunting in Sweden. Or go to Spain to go underwater fishing. Going to Scotland or the UK, of course, is wonderful. And I feel very honored that someone wants to pay me to do that. But anyone can do that. If you have a checkbook, anyone can go moose hunting in Sweden tomorrow,” Hayes said.

“For me, it’s Canadian indigenous experiences. …I am a newcomer to these shores. You can tell by my ridiculous voice that I’m a newcomer. I am white and welcome in indigenous communities across Canada.

“I can’t think of another job, for lack of a better word, that would have given me that kind of experience and that honor.”

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