COMING SOON

Shane Harper once plated desserts with immaculate precision. Now, he watches dishes leave the pass with dirt under his nails. At 24, he was a rising star in the culinary world, a pastry prodigy in North America's finest kitchens. But perfection has a price. Years of burnout, and then a life-altering diagnosis, that cost him vision in one eye, forced Harper to confront a devastating truth: the life he built was no longer one he wanted to live. So he did what few chefs ever do. He walked away.

 

Harper left the city and threw himself into farming: first on borrowed land, then under the experimental ethos of Restaurant Pearl Morissette, where the boundary between garden and kitchen dissolves entirely. Last Fall, Pearl Morissette garnered both a Michelin Star and a Green Star for sustainability, and in May 2025 was named the Best Restaurant in Canada. Harper, a self-taught “chef de farm” whose crops are harvested within hours of being plated, is the quiet engine behind the restaurant’s commitment to growing the food on their land. While others strive to source within 100 km, Harper lives and works within 100 meters, putting in 12-hour days in the field, never taking a day off because of his unyielding love for the land. He is still chasing perfection, only now he grows it - part of the team leading Pearl Morissette in its audacious pursuit of a spot among The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

 

Pirate Produce is a story about transformation, obsession, and devotion to craft. At its centre is a man who stands in contrast to the restaurant he serves: where the food is ethereal, plated like fine art, Shane Harper is earthy and unvarnished - he swears like a pirate and wears a pirate patch - but beneath the swagger is a quiet, relentless kindness.

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A Good Grit Films Production

Director, Writer, Executive Producer: Sandy Chronopoulos

Cinematographer, Executive Producer: Ed Middleton

Editor: Luke Higginson

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