How Mary Berg’s ‘Ratatouille’ obsession led to ‘The Good Stuff’

Mary Berg is ready to bring The Good Stuff to Canadians. But what does that mean, exactly? Anyone who has caught the MasterChef Canada winner and Mary Makes it Easy host on TV before knows that food will be on her new daytime talk and lifestyle series’ menu. But Berg wants to go above and beyond nosh to incorporate exciting and new areas of interest into the show, too.

“Obviously, every single day, I’m going to be cooking and we’re going to make a recipe that viewers can make at home that night or maybe on the weekends,” Berg tells Etalk. “But I’m also excited to bring new voices to Canadian daytime TV. I’m excited to learn from them. And I’m excited to try basically everything.”

She says that includes getting outside the studio (Berg has never downhill skied, for example, and thinks this show might be the perfect excuse to try it), and learning things alongside the live audience every single day. When she hosts artists who are on the road promoting a new album, movie or show, meanwhile, she thinks it would be fun to cook comfort food together and give them a taste of home.

“I’m ready to learn new things, dive in and get my hands dirty,” she explains. “I want to learn what the experts are teaching me because that’s always really valuable. Woodworking, or fashion, or makeup. My general need to try really hard will work really well,” she says, thinking about the strengths she will bring to this new show.

In other words, Berg is looking to include all that good stuff that makes up life. As far as she’s concerned, that makes The Good Stuff the perfect title for what she wants to accomplish. It doesn’t hurt that it’s all inspired by her favourite movie: Ratatouille. After all, it’s the Pixar flick that showed this self-taught personality that anyone can cook.

“The title is actually from a quote from my first cookbook inspired by—I feel like you can guess—I really liked the movie Ratatouille,” she says. “There's a line that Remy says, ‘If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff.’”

The good stuff theory is how the author, cook, host, and Canadian Screen Award winner wants to live life in general, and she’s bringing that in earnest to the new show when it debuts Sept. 5 on CTV.

“I think that’s it—I think we can fill our life with good things,” she continues. “That can be something as simple as a peanut butter sandwich or something that is as exciting and new and wonderful as watching makeovers happen, or home, or travel, or things that go a little bit wider than just our home life.”

In a world full of challenges, dark news, and scary things, Berg is hoping this talk show is a chicken soup-like antidote for everyone who tunes in.

“I want to provide people with just something that is good. And I mean that both in terms of it actually being good quality, but also good for the soul,” she wraps. “I really hope to live up to what people expect from me. And that slot in daytime, Canadian television is a very powerful slot with really big shoes to fill and I hope to live up to what people expect.”

The Good Stuff airs weekdays at 10 a.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app beginning Sept. 5.