An experiment, aimed at becoming an entertaining cooking show, quickly became something much more personal for former Hatter Oliver Schultz.
Schultz is a content creator, focused on creating different cooking videos for his viewers. However, he finds the narrow niche of the genre makes it difficult to establish himself against bigger names.
The idea for something entirely different, said Schultz, came to him while he was doing the dishes, rinsing out his returnable bottles and cans: could he create a fully functioning grill out of aluminium cans?
“I was just sitting at home, and I was in a bit of a rough patch, because I had run out of ideas,” said Schultz. “Eventually, I thought, here’s something I’ve never tried. What if I told an actual story about cooking, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do something like that in a cooking video.”
What followed was a mix of character-driven narrative and very real events, said Schultz. Oliver the character as presented in the video was not fully himself, but rather based on his younger self from four years past, and on a core belief that had shaped his actions then — that he was the greatest chef in the world, and the world simply did not know that yet.
“He’s this weird, insecure guy who is just starting his dreams working as a chef,” said Schultz. “Keeping him and me separate through this was surprisingly challenging at times, especially during the surprises. I found my footing about halfway through filming with this guy that I made, and after that, all the decisions that he made made full sense to me.”
While the character was largely fictional, as was the narrative constructed, the events that happened over the course of the roughly 40-minute video were genuine and many came as a surprise.
“There were lots of times where I’m playing a character, but I am genuinely upset as a person,” said Schultz. “The whole thing with my father not being there at the time, because of the heat wave, that was not anticipated. I basically messaged him before I left my tiny mountain town here, and then there was a sudden heat wave. He’s an air conditioner guy, so he was incredibly busy.”
The journey would take him to buying countless cans from bottle depots in Grande Prairie, to debating the health impacts of microplastics in Calgary, to finally building the grill itself with the help of his father here in Medicine Hat.
Schultz said he had fully planned to not be able to complete the grill, but was thankfully able to get some help.
“I was talking to my buddy, asking what do I do, where do I go with this, and he’s said, ‘you should go into a steak cook-off,’” said Schultz. “It took him saying that for me to go all in, I found a steak cook-off the next day.”
The cook-off, held in Bassano, was not informed of the design of the grill as he made his way there. With this in mind, Schultz had prepared for myriad outcomes, filming multiple endings that covered everything from somehow winning the amateur division of the cook-off to his car breaking down on the way there.
What he did not anticipate however, and what happened in reality, was he had misinterpreted the date of the competition and missed his chance entirely, putting perhaps the perfect bow on what Schultz called an “accidental documentary about obsession, failure and the uncomfortable need to prove yourself.”
“It really just lined up perfectly, and it was a happy accident. There were so many happy accidents during filming, which makes me worry about what’s going to happen in the next one,” said Schultz.
He intends to continue the story in the future of Oliver-the-character and his need to prove himself as the greatest chef, having found a unique path for himself in this method of storytelling.
Most importantly, Schultz did tell the News that while it was not the best he had ever consumed, the can grill did allow for an excellent steak
The video can be found on YouTube on Schultz’ channel, Cursed Cooking Content.By Anna Smith, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 09, 2026 at 14:26
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