Restaurant Spotlight: The Hearth by Chef Lynn Crawford
As one of Canada’s pre-eminent chefs and cookbook authors — and a Gemini-nominated TV host — Chef Lynn Crawford has been blazing trails her entire career. She was the first woman to become an executive chef at the prestigious Four Seasons global hotel chain (in both Toronto and New York) and the first Canadian woman invited to compete on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America.
Her beloved Toronto restaurant, Ruby Watchco, open from 2009 to 2014, won critical acclaim for being the only restaurant in the city that served a different four-course fixed menu each day. In 2015, with the opening of The Hearth, Chef Lynn brought her signature culinary style – crowd-pleasing comfort foods made with local, sustainably sourced ingredients — to Pearson’s Terminal 1.
The restaurant, created in partnership with global restaurateur HMSHost, went on to win “Airport Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year” at the 2018 Airport Food & Beverage Awards in Helsinki. Here’s what you need to know.
Where you’ll find it: Terminal 1, after security (USA), near gate F60
Open for: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
What’s on the menu? As a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement in Canada, Chef Lynn integrates fresh, seasonal ingredients into everything she cooks, and The Hearth is no exception. Here, comfort-food dishes are designed to highlight sustainably sourced ingredients from Ontario farmers and ranchers, and Canadian fisherman. The menu features small plates and appetizers (like a roasted beet salad with organic greens, goat cheese, and spiced walnuts), hearth-fired flatbreads (one has foraged mushrooms, onion petals, goat cheese and pesto), and elegant mains (like a cider-glazed pork chop with roasted apple chutney and sausage gravy). Also on the menu are decadent desserts, craft beers, local wines and signature cocktails like the “Pitchin’ In”, a spiced-rum and apple cider-based creation named for her former Food Network Canada series.
Why The Hearth? “Opening up a restaurant here at Pearson is really a dream come true for me,” Chef Lynn told the GTAA. “It’s a very special destination both for people coming to visit Toronto and for those off on a wonderful adventure. I wanted the Hearth here at Pearson to be like you were dining at my home.”
May we recommend: For a lighter meal, you can’t go wrong with the fish tacos — prepared with crispy Fogo Island cod, carrot and cabbage coleslaw and chipotle mayo. For something a little heartier, try the peameal on a bun, made with maple-mustard peameal bacon, tomato, aged Canadian cheddar, and onion jam and served with a side of house-cut fries.
