Chef Lynn Crawford has become one of Canada's culinary ambassadors. With thirty years in the industry and several television shows under her belt her enthusiasm for food has shone through. We talk in a brief lull during a busy day for Chef Lynn at her latest restaurant endeavour - Ruby Watchco.
We discuss the influences on her that lead her to become a chef and she says, warmly, "I've always had a love of food going back to my childhood. I always loved helping my dad prepare dinner and I was very hands on in the kitchen. Our family always celebrating sharing the table at dinner every night, sharing our day's stories and trying out new recipes. I guess at a very early age cooking was always a big part of my growing up."
She cites the influence of her friends while she was attending Guelph University. They were in the hospitality program there and inspired her to move in that direction. She also adds, "I was always a big collector of cookbooks and I love collecting cookbooks. I read a lot. I remember that one of my first cookbooks was Julia Child. I just got absolute pleasure and enjoyment out of reading that. For a chef collecting cookbooks it keeps you current and it keeps you motivated."
Culinary Education
Our conversation turns towards Chef Lynn's philosophy about food. There's passion in her voice as she says, "I'm a big advocate of supporting our local farmers and growers. In our day to day lives we should try to make the right choices about we choose to prepare and looking at quality as opposed to quantity. That old expression, 'you are what you eat' is really true. We have to be well educated. If a majority of consumers knew exactly how their food was raised, where it was raised and who was raising it they'd make better choices."
The chef tells me that this commitment to local products and seasonality is expressed in the menu at Ruby Watchco. She says, "Things would be very different on the menu had Ruby Watchco been located in Southern California. You have to work with the seasons for sure. You don't have asparagus on the menu in December, absolutely no. We're true to that concept here. We might have our brandied cherries on the menu but they're cherries we've preserved at the height of the season."
The topic moves towards Chef Lynn's approach to creating dishes for the menu she pauses to consider the question and answers thoughtfully, "Every dish is created for a particular reason. That's what I do and have done all my career. It all depends on the different scenarios."
After another momentary pause she starts to brainstorm ideas, "What's the principal element of the dish? If its a beautiful duck breast, great! Are we going to make sure that we're going to have the duck legs so we can confit them? Are we going to render the fat so that I'm going to be able to cook the beautiful Anna potatoes or Lyonnaise potatoes?"
My next question about her favourite ingredient is accompanied first by an exclamation of 'Oh jeez' followed by, "Y'know it really depends on the day. It depends on where you are. The last episode of Pitchin' In was at a scallop farm on Vancouver Island. They were the best scallops I'd ever had. At that time we had local chanterelles and sweet corn was in season. The combination of the brown butter roasted mushrooms, the silky sweet corn and the delicate, fantastic sea scallops topped with a little truffle pesto. Come on! That's a beautiful combination."
Chef Lynn answers simply when we talk about how she cultivates good relationships with her suppliers. She says, "Positive relationships are very important. Ultimately you have to have a strong relationship with the people you're working with. You have to have the trust factor there and you have to have the quality there. You have to ensure that the people you're working with keep the integrity of the product. Chefs will only be as good as their ability to cook for sure but also they'll only be as good as the ingredients they work with."
There's sincerity in her voice when the conversation turns to what's important in her relationships with the people she works with. She says, "You're only as good as your team. I've never been one to work any less than anyone else around me. I set the standard for sure. I want people to work hard and achieve their goals but collectively to be the best alongside your team you have to have mentorship and leadership skills and you have to have the passion for sure and you have to work harder than everyone else. There's no magic mystery to being a great chef or a great businessperson. You have to have that care and you have to lead by example. You have to be committed and passionate to ensure that you're constantly setting the bar higher."
Inevitably we talk about the media interest that Chef Lynn's generated over the last few years and she responds modestly, "The reality is that I wake up every morning wanting to do the very best I can in the day. I have self-reflection each and every day. You have to have that. I wake up, I go to work, I'm here at 9 in the morning usually I get home at midnight. That's a typical Lynn day. I'm a chef and that's what I do. Everything else is just icing on the cake."
She adds, "I never take any of it for granted. I don't expect it. "
Her commitment and dedication to cooking and being a chef are fueled by many factors, she says, "Every day there's something new to learn. I'm excited about what's going to be on the menu tonight, about the guests coming through the door. I love pushing the envelope. There's a bunch of things we're working on to fill the shelves at Ruby Eats. We have a cookbook coming out in January and I'm excited about that. I want people to learn how to cook and I want people to be excited about food and I'm just going to keep on going. That's my goal! I want people to cook!"
For more information please visit: http://rubywatchco.ca/ and http://www.rubyeats.com/blog/archives
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This interview with Lynn Crawford was conducted on December 6th, 2011 via telephone.
