Chef Lynn Crawford rubs the dirt away from the eye-catching tattoos on the palms of her hands — a square labyrinth on the left, a Hindu labyrinth on the right.
They’re getting a bit faded, but the message is strong and clear. For Crawford, life is a journey in the pursuit of happiness.
And that journey is leading the talented chef and TV star back to Toronto to open Ruby Watch Co., her new 70-seat restaurant in Leslieville.
For the past 24 years, she has plied her trade in hotel kitchens, rising to the top of her game as executive chef for the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto and then New York, back in 2006, as well as starring in the popular Food Network TV show Restaurant Makeover, and competing in Iron Chef (she lost to Bobby Flay).
But, after working her ass off for more than two decades, Crawford lost her mojo. At the Four Seasons she was surrounded by the finest of ingredients, and the most talented chefs, but she rarely got to do what she loves: cooking for people. Overseeing five restaurants with multi-million dollar budgets and huge staffs, holding budget meetings, visioning, administrating, and ordering hundreds of turkeys for the Christmas holidays will do that to you.
She knew the ride was coming to an end more than two years ago when she started plotting an escape route. “I’ve been planning for a while,” says Crawford, when we meet at her new construction-site-cum-restaurant, surrounded by a work crew made up largely of family and friends. “I had no clue where or when, only that there would be a next chapter eventually.”
As it turns out, there wasn’t a next chapter, there were two. First came the offer of a new Food Network TV show called Pitchin’ In, which premiered last month. “Pitchin’ In was this incredible new chapter of my life; it was just an unbelievable experience,” says Crawford.
The premise is simple: the highfalutin chef would travel North America to seek out the farmers, growers, fisherman and foragers — the same people that provide the bounty for her high-priced New York City plates. In episode one, she works on a pig farm in Georgia where she encounters a number of colourful local characters, including the stern patriarch of the clan who isn’t too impressed by the city slicker trying to mess with his hogs. Mayhem ensues.
But, at the end of the day, Crawford repays the favour by taking the local ingredients and turning them into a gourmet feast in the farm fields. It is funny and touching, and it seems to have done wonders for Crawford. The show’s subtitle easily could have been, How Chef Lynn Got Her Groove Back.
“I get put in these situations, and maybe I’m the brunt of the joke, but so be it,” says Crawford. “It has just given me so much, such a gift.” In reconnecting with the “bounty of the land,” Crawford rekindled her passion for food and for preparing beautiful meals for people.
Chapter two: the journey home. When Rodney Bowers, a local chef and restaurateur (who worked under Crawford at the Four Seasons in Toronto) put the Citizen on the market, Crawford, along with business partner and restaurant designer Cherie Stinson (of Yabu Pushelberg fame) and Stinson’s husband Joey Skeir, decided to jump in with both feet.
As we tour the space she took over just a week ago, Crawford is clearly comfortable in her surroundings. This is her baby.
“People think it is going to be this five-star place, but it’s not,” Crawford explains. “Five-star service, yes. Five-star cuisine, yes. But we want it to be comfortable.” Not surprisingly, the new restaurant will focus on local ingredients and cooking with the seasons. Crawford is already making connections with local farmers.
“What we want to do is get back to the farms, back to the land where beautiful food comes from,” she says. Joining Crawford in the kitchen is former protege and Truffles chef Lora Kirk, who was also working in New York, with the Gordon Ramsay Group among others.
“She’s exceptionally talented,” says Crawford, with Kirk standing a few feet away casually surveying the ongoing renovations. “I find it hard to talk about you when you’re standing right beside me,” she continues, laughing.
Talent aside, lately Kirk has been busy laying kitchen tile, grouting (she says she has the pictures to prove it) and cleaning exhaust hoods an inch thick with grease. The restaurant is being completely gutted and gussied up from stem to stern for the expected March opening.
Ruby Watch Co. (named after finding a massive 13-foot sign at a vintage store in the Junction) will feature a Stinson design that will see the front facade pushed out to the street, taking over the awkward front patio of the Citizen.
Inside, expect plenty of reclaimed wood, an old barn door at the rear of the restaurant (A gift from Yabu Pushelberg.), a horseshoe bar and a butcher block station that links the open kitchen to the dining room. This is key, says Crawford.
“We take so much joy and pleasure from seeing that immediate reaction when people are eating,” says Crawford. “Nobody knows the blood, sweat and tears it takes to get something beautiful and real to the plate and to produce the beautiful food for chefs. We want to celebrate that.”
There has been a torrent of online chatter surrounding Chef Lynn’s return to town. And, if buzz is any indicator, it seems Toronto diners are as revved up about Crawford’s return as she is.
“I’m so flattered and very grateful,” says Crawford. “All I want to do is cook. I am high as a kite when I’m cooking.”
Ruby Watch Co. is located at 730 Queen St. E.
