Lynn Crawford

Cherry Walnut Babka
Cherry Walnut Babka

Cherry Walnut Babka excerpted from Two Chefs in the Garden by Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk. Copyright © 2024 Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk. Photographs by Ash Nayler.

Two Chefs in the Garden by Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk. Copyright © 2024 Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk.

Over 150 flavourful, everyday vegetarian recipes celebrating the ease and versatility of cooking with vegetables that will satisfy everyone, from award-winning chefs Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk.

Two Chefs in the Garden is packed with vegetarian recipes inspired by country living, growing vegetables, and a desire to eat more plants. From the endless bounty of their garden—sweet cherry tomatoes, spicy arugula, earthy leeks, zucchini, eggplant, pumpkins, potatoes, and more—chefs and vegetable farmers Crawford and Kirk’s stunning collection of over 150 recipes coax the most out of vibrant seasonal produce in unique and exciting dishes: Pan-Roasted Asparagus with Sage, Shallot Cream, and Crispy Parmesan; Tempura Eggplant Tacos; Garden Ratatouille Pasta Salad; End-of-Summer Tomato Risotto; Celery Root Soup with Brown Butter Sunflower Seed Pesto and Hickory Sticks; Sweet Corn, Potato, and Leek Chowder; Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Leeks and Spinach; Beet Falafel with Lemony Tzatziki; Pumpkin Mac and Cheese; Apple Brown Sugar Pancake; Ginger Rhubarb Custard Tarts; Cherry Ruffled Milk Pie; and Summer Berry Spoon Cake with Vanilla Sauce.

Crawford and Kirk take readers on a culinary tour through a stunning array of recipes, showcasing the abundant rewards of their garden throughout the seasons. You’ll discover new and approachable ways to cook with vegetables and make plant-based foods the central part of your meals. Featuring beautiful photography throughout, Two Chefs in the Garden celebrates the ease and versatility of cooking with vegetables that will satisfy everyone. (more…)

Q&A with Chef Kirk Morrison of Restaurant 18

Restaurant 18 has been a mainstay of Ottawa’s fine dining scene since 2001. After a company shake-up last fall, Kirk Morrison was installed as the restaurant’s Chef de cuisine. Drawn to cooking at a young age, the 30-year-old chef fondly recalls his initial toe in the water as a budding young chef, cooking alongside his dad. Now at the helm of one of the top restaurants in the city, Morrison showcases menus that display an impressive set of skills he’s been developing since he interned under superstar Chef Lynn Crawford at the Four Seasons. I caught up with Chef Morrison to discuss his culinary roots, his experience feeding hungry Olympians, his earnest stint as a butcher, and the evolution of his recent menu.

Do you come from a family of foodies?
My dad was actually a doctor, but he was an amazing home cook and that’s where I picked it up. He always had me on the counter when I was a kid. You know — making breakfast for the family in the morning or helping with dinner parties on the weekend, even watching the Urban Peasant on TV together — that kind of stuff.  That’s what I grew up with. That was one of the reasons I gravitated towards professional cooking because, through my dad, I acquired a respect and passion for food at a very young age. My mom still doesn’t cook. Can’t boil an egg to save her life.

Sometimes it’s just not in ya.
She [mom] never had to. My dad would always do the cooking. At the end of the day, that’s where I got my kick-in-the-pants to go and become a chef. I remember when I finished high school, my dad and I were talking and looking at possible universities, and I just wasn’t keen on anything. I didn’t want to go to university. It just didn’t look fun and none of the subjects interested me. I had been working in a few kitchens, but nothing on a professional level at that point. When my dad said, “Why don’t you go to cooking school?” I just never had thought about it as a career option. “Why don’t you learn to be a chef,” he said. And, from the time he said that, to the time that I applied and got accepted to George Brown, it was probably three months. It was incredibly quick. It was the year of the double cohorts when all these kids in grade 12 and 13 were applying to colleges and universities at the same time. There was so much competition. And, the fact that I got into one of the top culinary schools in the country was so incredibly surprising to me. It was a crazy experience and a bit of a whirlwind from that point. All I remember is that conversation, and then all of a sudden I was walking into my first day at chef school. Looking back on it, it was the first day of the rest of my cooking life, so to speak.

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