PEIWith temperatures on Prince Edward Island hovering in the 30s this week, restaurant and food truck kitchens are even hotter, making standing behind the grill excruciating for many in the industry.’I wish that everything would cool down… I will take 5 feet of snow at this point’Delaney Kelly · CBC News · Posted: Aug 13, 2025 5:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoIsland restaurants and food trucks battling to stay cool in this bout of extreme heatThe temperature outdoors is creating a lot of problems indoors this week, for people who work in P.E.I. kitchens. Some restaurants and food trucks are taking steps to help protect workers. As CBC’s Connor Lamont reports, this weather can actually be dangerous, not just uncomfortable.With temperatures on Prince Edward Island hovering in the 30s this week, restaurant and food truck kitchens are even hotter, making standing behind the grill excruciating for many in the industry.And it’s not just people getting red-hot. The owner of Yogi’s Food and Bar in Charlottetown thinks the heat caused a hamper full of used rags to smoulder and nearly catch fire on Monday. Pascal Gyr said it took staff several hours to identify where the smell was coming from. “We really got caught off guard on this one,” Gyr said. “I reached into the bag to pull the rags out and they were quite hot, so we took them outside in the parking lot and we emptied the hamper, poured water all over them and separated them.”They were fairly dark. They were black, brown. The bag itself got some stains on the outside.” ‘You can tell it stresses them. It’s more like a physical exhaustion after a long day,’ Charlotteotwn restaurant owner Pascal Gyr says of the heat. (Connor Lamont/CBC News )Gyr had never experienced anything like this before, but said people with the fire department had.The restaurant has now stopped using microfibre towels in the kitchen as much as possible, but the heat remains a challenge for kitchen staff. Gyr is trying to do as much as he can to make it comfortable for cooks to work.”You can tell it stresses them. It’s more like a physical exhaustion after a long day,” he said. “I wish that everything would cool down. We could use some rain — and I will take 5 feet of snow at this point.” Yogi’s Food and Bar has switched to using paper towels only until temperatures drop, after this pile of used rags started to smoulder in the Charlottetown restaurant’s kitchen. (Yogi’s Food & Bar/Facebook)’There’s no relief’Yogi’s Food and Bar is far from the only food establishment in the province struggling to stay cool during this heat wave. Dreadnaught Eatery in Morell reduced its menu on Monday because of the heat, then pulled the plug on Tuesday afternoon, closing for the rest of the day after posting: “It is no longer bearable/safe in the truck and the temp keeps climbing.” Go Fish Eatery in the Summerside did the same thing, posting at 11 a.m. Tuesday: “We will be back tomorrow once it cools down a bit. Sorry for any inconvenience!”With temperatures rising outside, kitchen staff can sometimes feel as flame-broiled as the meals they prepare. (Connor Lamont/CBC News)Chris Gallant is the owner and operator of The Beaten Path food truck, parked on University Avenue in Charlottetown. He said he is used to the hot days because of the nature of the industry, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. “It’s quite tough. You don’t know if it’s going to stop. There’s no relief, so it’s either close down or power through — and I understand a lot of people do close down and I understand why. It’s a lot,” Gallant said. His kitchen has been registering in the mid to high 30s this week. “In my case, there’s no place to sit down… you have to stand. You have to wait for food. A lot of people have air-conditioning in their cars, but I can’t imagine a lot of people want to stand outside in this weather,” Gallant said.What’s it like working in the kitchen in a heat wave?Tarn Tayanuth, owner of Dumpling Drop in Victoria, describes how heat in the kitchen seems to get worse every year.’This has been pretty brutal’ John Pritchard of Saucy Bird on North River Road in Charlottetown echoes the other kitchen owners’ sentiments. “This is about the hottest it’s been for this part of the business. We also do catering and we’ve had some pretty hot days outside without any air-conditioning. But for an ongoing period of time, this has been pretty brutal,” Pritchard said. His employees have been drinking plenty of water and a lot of Gatorade, and luckily their space had a good air flow.Pritchard said he knows first-hand, having worked in kitchens without good airflow, how challenging that can be. “I’ve worked in plenty of kitchens where there’s no air flow… I mean, I feel terrible for those people. It’s brutally hot. And I don’t blame people for closing down when it gets that way,” he said. ABOUT THE AUTHORDelaney Kelly is a digital writer with CBC P.E.I. who studied journalism at Concordia University. She was previously a reporter at Iori:wase in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. With files from Connor Lamont
You think it’s hot outside? It’s even hotter in these P.E.I. kitchens
