Eggs are ‘the perfect food’ says celebrity chef Lynn Crawford

Toronto-based chef and restaurateur Lynn Crawford makes no bones about the fact she loves eggs.

“Honestly, I eat eggs all the time,” she says. “They are just so satisfying and delicious.”

Her love of eggs is not just a matter of taste. She is keen to promote awareness of both eggs as food—and of egg farmers as an important part of Canada’s food production system.

She says she is grateful to the egg farmers of Canada—a small number of farms across the country (about 1,000) producing what she calls the perfect food.

“Farming is not an easy thing to do, and when you look at the commitment and the hard work you have to put into raising hens and producing eggs, it’s quite something.”

“It’s a huge honour to be representing the perfect egg and those egg farming families across Canada who have made that commitment to produce the very best.”

Crawford is one of the most prominent people on Canada’s food scene.

One of the country’s best known celebrity chefs and an award-nominated cookbook author, she has over 25 years of culinary experience. She was the executive chef for the Four Seasons Hotel in both Toronto and New York and is now chef/owner of Ruby Watchco, a market-inspired, chef-driven, comfort food restaurant in Toronto that has garnered critical acclaim as one of the best restaurants in the country. She is also a regular on Food Network Canada shows.

Crawford says she often sees a disconnect between the foods we eat and our knowledge of where those foods come from. She hopes her work will help people see the links.

“With all my experience across the country, I see a heightened awareness about the food choices we’re making, knowing where our food comes from and identifying those farmers and farm families who are committed to providing Canadians with a wonderful product,” she says.

“Everybody is looking for good, healthy choices in what they are preparing for themselves. And the egg is the perfect food. It is so versatile and it’s something we are familiar with.”

She also sees growing interest in eggs as part of a back-to-basics trend in cooking that puts the focus on ingredients that have been taken for granted.

Besides, she says, there’s so much you can do with eggs that they can point the way to culinary adventure.
She says eggs can be as basic or as adventurous as you want them to be, from a simple morning omelette to a fancy sauce.

“And eggs are such a complementary food—they go with everything. From topping off a backyard barbecue burger to including eggs in baked goods, they make everything perfect.

“It’s about the really great recipe. If you go to eggs.ca and look, there are hundreds of different recipes that include eggs, and that’s where you get to have fun with them. If you have a dozen eggs in the fridge, you will always have a delicious meal.

So the ultimate Canadian egg dish, she says, really depends on who’s cooking it.

“It will be different for each chef,” she says. “It could be eggs benedict or an omelette with chanterelles or a frittata with spicy chorizo and manchego cheese.

“And I think what’s fun is just how much you can be creative with eggs. I had a beautiful Japanese ramen soup recently, and the egg in the soup was poached in soy sauce and sake. Eggs just go with so many things.”

Join Egg Farmers of Canada and chefs from coast to coast, and share with us your favourite egg-inspired recipes using the hashtag #FarmToChef. Follow @eggsoeufs on Twitter and Instagram and like Get Cracking on Facebook, and tell us how you are experimenting with new tastes and techniques using eggs.

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