Hallmark's Summer Nights Lineup Features A Real Life Married Couple

Hallmark's A Taste of Summer, about a pair of rival chefs who eventually fall in love actually stars a real life married couple as the main couple. Given this, it's logical to wonder if A Taste of Summer is a true story, too. I understand the confusion, but let me clear it up.

A Taste of Summer may star spouses Eric Winter and Roselyn Sanchez, but the flick is not based on any one true story. The movie was written by Laura Brienza, but I haven't been able to find any evidence she based it on real events. She could have been inspired by something that really happened, of course, but if that's the case, she's not spilling the truth.

A Taste of Summer follows chef, Gabby (Sanchez), after she moves from New York to the fictional town of Bright Shore, Massachusetts to open a new upscale restaurant near the already established bar and grille run by single father, and girls' softball coach, Caleb (Winter). They can't both be "the best" in town, so they enter Bright Shore's Taste of Summer Food Festival competition to settle it once and for all. They both play to win, but through the course of the summer, their relationship grows into something beyond the "frenemy" stage. I can't say who wins the competition, or which restaurant I'd rather eat at, but the duo sure makes chasing dreams look good.

In an interview with Parade, Winter said they had a lot of fun working together. "We actually have different styles where I’m joking around a lot and goofy on set and I like to get people laughing and she’s more focused and serious at times, which we would tease each other about," he said. "But we obviously got along well and it was never difficult. It was just great being able to work together and having the family all together in Vancouver." And Sanchez recently tweeted this project marks 14 years since the duo has acted together.

A Taste of Summer may not be a completely true story, but Sanchez's involvement influenced the final script changes. She spoke with Parade about differences she noticed in the script on the first read. "It’s interesting because when I first got the script she wasn’t written Latina, so they had to change that. And there was no reference to Latina cuisine. So yes they added to it to make it more organic to me." Sanchez also noted she worked in a restaurant as a host for "maybe six or seven months," so while it's a stretch to say Gabby is a version of Sanchez, there are a few similarities.

A Taste of Summer doesn't have to be based on a true story to give you all the rom-com feels. Like much of Hallmark's library of originals, writers curated Gabby and Caleb's story from scratch. And though the character journeys aren't true, per se, it doesn't mean A Taste of Summer won't inspire others who watch it to move to a new city, build a new restaurant from scratch, or enter some summer festival to prove their restaurant is the best of the best. It's unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

A Taste of Summer airs Sat., Aug. 10 at 9 p.m. ET.