Schoolcraft College is celebrating a taste of Emmy success after playing a key role in the award-winning documentary,
“Detroit: City of Chefs.”

The film, which earned a 2025 Michigan Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, for Best Documentary-Historical on June 14, explores Detroit’s dynamic culinary scene and the chefs who have helped shape the city’s cultural identity.

When thinking about Detroit, the Motor City and automobiles come to mind however not many think about the lush culinary scene that it has. That is exactly what Executive Producer/Director of “Detroit: The City of Chefs” and Visionalist Entertainment Productions Chef Keith Famie was trying to capture in his documentary.

An important aspect that Famie wanted to capture was the diversity of Detroit. He made sure to incorporate history and people from all of Detroit, from owners of Italian restaurants to the influence of the French to the culinary chefs here at Schoolcraft, all playing a
part in telling the story.

Students, faculty and staff from culinary, music, sound recording technology, and the media arts departments contributed their talents to the Emmy-winning project. Two key contributors who helped bring the Schoolcraft portion together were Culinary Arts Program Coordinator Chef Christopher Misiak and Media Arts professor Jeremy Salo.

Famie had the idea for what he wanted for the film, and Schoolcraft was the perfect backdrop to
tell the story of the chefs that had really influenced the culinary scene dating back to the 60s.

All of the photos that are seen in between interviews and all the little props they used were received from the Schoolcraft College archives.

“Schoolcraft had a huge part in this production. The kitchens, the chefs, the history and, of course, our competition team,” said Misiak.

Another important part was the opening sequence of the film. It is a stop motion masterpiece created by College for Creative Studies Animation students that incorporates a variety of Detroit’s rich environments in the first three and a half minutes of the film.

For this segment, Misiak took inspiration from other pieces of media he saw. For the claymation, he was inspired from a piece of media he found on HBO that had two wedding cakes with a bride and groom next to each other before revealing a third cake with the grooms on them.

He took the idea of the cake and put several of the chefs they interviewed for the documentary on the different tiers. He then had them come alive through the music.

For that component, he wanted to emulate the same ambiance as Pink Floyd’s song “Money.” Misiak did this by recording a lot of sounds from the kitchen. He then had the claymation chefs mimic the sounds. This is where he partnered with Salo from the Media Arts department, where they used the Sound Recording Technology studio on campus, to record instruments like guitar, piano and trumpet to add to the sounds of the kitchen and bring the piece together.

It was exciting to see such meaningful collaboration among the culinary, music, sound recording technology, and media arts departments,” said Salo.

To see the piece come together was a reflection of what Detroit is at its core, a melting pot of the different cultures and people that went into building Detroit to what it is today.

“It is proof that Detroiters do work really hard and are passionate about their heritage. It inspires people to perhaps not be so divided and to get together to find something that everyone can be excited about,.” said Salo in regards to how this Emmy reflects Detroit’s creativity in the
culinary community.

This documentary really highlights the diversity and perseverance of Detroiters. Not only has this film won an Emmy, but it also does an amazing job at highlighting the unique perspectives of multitudes of people. It brings together music, creativity, culinary and culture in a unique and thoughtful way.

To learn more about this film and their upcoming projects, visit www.detroitcityofchefs.com.