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There’s still a chance to be yelled at by Gordon Ramsay when he comes to T.O.

Jamie Kennedy, David Rocco, Massimo Capra and Mark McEwan show off their creations at the George Brown cooking school (Image: Karon Liu)

The city’s celebrity chefs converged at the George Brown cooking school yesterday at a media launch for Chef’s Challenge, November 20’s Hell’s Kitchen–esque fundraiser for Mount Sinai hosted by Gordon Ramsay. The premise is that five of the city’s top chefs—Mark McEwan, David Rocco, Jamie Kennedy, Massimo Capra and Lynn Crawford—will head up a team of 10 (consisting of the top 50 fundraisers) and cook the same three-course menu. Ramsay and a panel of yet-to-be-announced judges will determine who cooked it best.

: David Rocco’s rice balls

: Massimo Capra admires his duck confit crêpes

: Mark McEwan shows off his crostini

: Mark McEwan, David Rocco, Jamie Kennedy and Massimo Capra ham it up at George Brown College (Image: Karon Liu)

: Massimo Capra, Jamie Kennedy, Mark McEwan and David Rocco pose at George Brown College

: Massimo Capra, Jamie Kennedy, Mark McEwan and David Rocco show off their creations at George Brown College

: Jamie Kennedy and his cold smoked whitefish

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The Hype

Awards Season

August 31, 2010 | 1:42 pm

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Gemini Award nominations announced: Flashpoint, chef Lynn Crawford, Top Model host Jay Manuel among nominees

Flashpoint, Durham County and The Tudors are up for best dramatic series

The nominations for the 25th Gemini Awards were announced this morning, with CTV scoring major points for its Olympics coverage (it received 13 nods) and original drama Flashpoint (15 nominations). Flashpoint will go up against Durham County, Republic of Doyle, Stargate Universe and The Tudors for best dramatic series.

Toronto celebrity chef Lynn Crawford (Ruby Watchco) earned a nomination for best host in a lifestyle series for her work on Pitchin’ In; she’ll battle silver-coiffed Jay Manuel (Canada’s Next Top Model) and Sarah Richardson (Sarah’s House). The After Show, The Hour, MTV Live and Spectacle: Elvis Costello With… are up for best talk series awards.

CBC dominated the best news anchor category with nominations for Ian Hanomansing, Peter Mansbridge and Diana Swain.

See the full list of nominees in the program and performance categories after the jump.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

August 20, 2010 | 10:48 am

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Gordon Ramsay, Mark McEwan and Lynn Crawford head up epic celebrity cook-off at the Carlu

Normally, we have to watch celebrity chef battles from our couches, but this November, we’ll have a chance to see it all live and, just maybe, get screamed at by Gordon Ramsay. The Chef’s Challenge takes place on November 20 and 21 at the Carlu, with Ramseay hosting a cook-off between teams led by top T.O. chefs David Rocco, Jamie Kennedy, Lynn Crawford, Mark McEwan and Massimo Capra. Participants must raise a minimum of $2,500 (the money goes to Mount Sinai Hospital), and the top 50 fundraisers will be put into the cooking teams.

More information about the event is available here.

The Dish

From the Print Edition

May 31, 2010 | 12:03 pm

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The Fixe Is In: James Chatto on Lynn Crawford’s new restaurant, Ruby Watchco

At Lynn Crawford’s new restaurant, customers eat whatever she feels like cooking that day. The concept is bold and bossy, but the celeb chef has the talent and swagger to pull it off By James Chatto

I had to admire their cool. With only four hours to go before the grand opening of Ruby Watchco, the restaurant’s three owners—chef Lynn Crawford, designer Cherie Stinson and her husband, front-of-house veteran Joey Skeir—were showing no sign of nerves. They were just sitting around the lunch table at the back of the restaurant, laughing and swapping renovation stories over a bottle of pinot grigio and an excellent chicken cobb salad made by head chef Lora Kirk. If this were an episode of Restaurant Makeover, the TV show that made Crawford and Stinson celebrities, there would be cussing and tears and all sorts of last-minute nail-biting melodramas to negotiate. But everything was pretty much ready, or would be once the last of the green masking tape was peeled off the front window. Even the tall boughs of quince blossom in a vase on the bar co-operated: all the buds popped open that morning, precisely on cue.

Lynn Crawford and head chef Lora Kirk at Ruby WatchCo

Lynn Crawford (left) and head chef Lora Kirk at their new restaurant, Ruby Watchco, on Queen East (Image: Ryan Szulc)

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

May 10, 2010 | 3:50 pm

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McEwan tapped to be head judge on Top Chef Canada—plus, hilarious questions from the contestant application form

Not surprisingly, Food Network Canada tapped charismatic Toronto chef Mark McEwan (Bymark, One) to be the Canadian Colicchio on the Canuck version of Top Chef.

It makes sense to choose McEwan (we called it in a previous post), since he’s no stranger to the network, and his upcoming Fabbrica restaurant at Shops at Don Mills needs all the promotion it can get. We still expect to see other cross-promotion opportunities for other Food Network hosts, like Lynn Crawford, Bob Blumer, Chuck Hughes, Michael Smith and Laura Calder. But that’s still up in the air.

The application for the show is also now up on the site. After the jump, interesting tidbits from the 19-page application.

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The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

April 21, 2010 | 2:34 pm

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Canada gets its own Top Chef; wild speculation ensues

News came over the wire today that Canwest is producing a Canadian version of Top Chef that will air on the Food Network next spring, but few details about the show (casting, filming dates, judges, etc.) have been released yet. All we know is that the network has posted a video asking fans to pitch them challenge ideas (read: we’re exploiting Internet users as free labour).

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The Dish

Opening

March 29, 2010 | 3:21 pm

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Just Opened: Ruby Watchco, Lynn Crawford’s much-anticipated restaurant

After years of manning other people’s kitchens (the Manhattan Four Seasons), reinventing other people’s restaurants (Restaurant Makeover) and Pitchin’ In on other people’s farms, Lynn Crawford finally has a restaurant she can call her own. The venerable chef has opened Ruby Watchco in Riverdale, in the old Citizen space, with TV colleague (and Yabu Pushelberg designer) Cherie Stinson and her husband Joey Skeir as partners, and Four Seasons protégé Lora Kirk as the co–executive chef. The doors of the Queen East boîte opened last Tuesday, and it’s already booked solid.

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The Dish

Opening

March 23, 2010 | 4:05 pm

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Lynn Crawford’s Ruby Watchco opens tonight

After months of buzz on food blogs and Twitter feeds anticipating chef Lynn Crawford’s return to Toronto, her new restaurant, Ruby Watchco, will finally welcome its first diners tonight. Cherie Stinson of Restaurant Makeover, who is a partner with her husband Joey Skeir, has transformed the space formerly occupied by The Citizen into a dimly lit, autumn-toned dining room. Crawford will run the kitchen with Lora Kirk, who previously cooked at the Four Seasons.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

January 22, 2010 | 11:00 am

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Lynn Crawford’s new Riverdale restaurant to open in March

Celebrity chef and Restaurant Makeover star Lynn Crawford’s much-anticipated Riverdale restaurant, located in The Citizen’s former space, is set to open in March after its renovation is complete. The name, Ruby Watchco, comes from a 13-foot sign co-owners Cherie Stinson (a Restaurant Makeover interior designer) and husband Joey Skeir found at the Junction decor shop Cornerstone a few years ago. They immediately knew that the odd moniker would be the name of their dream restaurant.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

January 22, 2010 | 9:34 am

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The Rosebud up for grabs at $95K

Chef Rod Bowers is hoping to sell his Queen West restaurant The Rosebud by March 1—four days before his wife is due to give birth to their new daughter.

“I’m going to take some time off and see what it’s like to be a dad,” says Bowers, who has put the restaurant on the market at a shockingly low $95,000. “I’ve been in the kitchen since I was 18, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s time to step back. The Rosebud is great and all, but it’ll be great for someone else to take over.” Bowers’ other restaurant, The Citizen, was sold to star chef Lynn Crawford and Cherie Stinson in early January; the two are planning a March opening.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

November 25, 2009 | 11:11 am

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The rumours are true: celeb chef Lynn Crawford is taking over The Citizen

Restaurant takeover: Lynn Crawford moves into The Citizen (Photo courtest of Google)

Restaurant takeover: Lynn Crawford moves into The Citizen (Photo courtesy of Google)

After weeks of tongues wagging over the future of The Citizen, the Star has confirmed rumours that Restaurant Makeover stars Lynn Crawford and Cherie Stinson are taking over and revamping the Riverdale bistro. “Lynn had been hounding me for a full year to sell,” said former Citizen chef and proprietor Rod Bowers, who also owns Queen West’s Rosebud restaurant. Crawford hasn’t released her spot’s new name, or confirmed whether her former Truffles protégé Lora Kirk will be coming on board. “The food will be about sharing the table, supporting local,” she says. “It’s about me working with the growers, the farmers, the fishermen.” Cherie Stinson, who works for the international interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg (they did Canoe and the Hazelton Hotel), plans to complement Crawford’s socially conscious food by creating “a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant with communal tables and eclectic design.” The restaurant is scheduled to open in March 2010, managed by Stinson’s husband, Joey Skeir, who is also a partner.

• A restaurant makeover of their own [Toronto Star]

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

November 4, 2009 | 12:49 pm

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Lynn Crawford to take over The Citizen? Rod Bowers won’t confirm or deny

Rumours are flying that Lynn Crawford, executive chef at New York’s Four Seasons, may be returning to Toronto this year. TasteTO reported that the celebrated cook—who worked at Messis and Studio Café before going to the Big Apple—might be ditching her hotel gig and taking over a renamed and remade version of The Citizen on Queen East starting January 1, 2010. We contacted the restaurant’s chef-owner, Rod Bowers, to see if he could confirm or deny, but his response was evasive. “I also heard Jamie Kennedy is taking over The Rosebud,” he said. “I’m not going to agree or disagree with any of it.”

The plot thickens like so much meringue.

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

October 19, 2009 | 2:48 pm

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Tyler Cunningham and Frank Romano go spatula to spatula in Liberty Village booze-off

(Photo by backpackphotography)

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is staging a battle (Crown) royal tomorrow. House chef Tyler Cunningham and Frank Romano (of Far Niente) will face off in an Iron Chef–style cook-off to launch the LCBO’s What’s Your Whisky Festival. The chefs will compete during the preparation of four rye-soaked courses, each based on a Canadian brand of booze, to prove that whisky is—wait for it—the next, next red wine.

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The Dish

Deathwatch

September 2, 2009 | 3:27 pm

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Truffles to close: Toronto’s grandfather of fine dining bites the dust after 37 years

After nearly four decades of obsequious service and high-end dining, the Four Seasons’ restaurant Truffles announced that it will close on September 5—just before TIFF would have provided an influx of celebrities ready to savour its signature “black gold” truffle spaghettini. Staff will be partly absorbed by the Studio Café, but the new Four Seasons hotel, which is slated to open July 2012 at 60 Yorkville, will not resurrect the Truffles concept, signalling another mighty nail in the fine-dining coffin. A new direction at the hotel will respond to changing times and reflect the vision of Studio Café newcomers chef Claudio Rossi and pastry specialist Philip Vellagares.

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The Dish

Read All About It

August 28, 2009 | 8:57 am

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Truffles to close, the KFC “float-thru,” 64,373 kilometres of Twinkie wrapper

• Truffles, one of Toronto’s most revered fine-dining institutions, will serve its last meal on September 5. Four Seasons executive Dimitrios Zarikos told Corey Mintz that while business had been declining at Truffles for years, it was the recession that retired them at age 37. Internationally acclaimed alumni include Jonathan Gushue of Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Lynn Crawford of the Four Seasons New York and Jason McLeod of Elysian in Chicago. Predictably, Truffles will be replaced by something “more casual.” [Toronto Star]

• Howstuffworks.com has just ruined a few more foods for us. Each year, 64,373 kilometres of plastic wrap are used to package Twinkies; worcestershire sauce is mainly anchovies; and most disgustingly of all, the U.S. FDA allows up to 19 maggots in each can of assembly line mushrooms. If the latter doesn’t make one a Tupperware-toting slow-food vegetarian, nothing ever will. [Howstuffworks.com]

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