At Home With Lynn Crawford A Cookbook Review.

You may know Lynn Crawford from her hit TV shows Pitchin’ in on the Food Network Canada as well as Restaurant Makeover and some of you may have had the pleasure of dining at her Ruby Watchco restaurant  on Queen street east in Toronto. In this review we’ll take a look at celebrity chef Lynn Crawford’s latest cookbook – At Home With Lynn Crawford.

Here’s the condensed version of how At Home With Lynn Crawford made it’s way home with us. We were at the local Costco and as usual I hit the cookbook section to see who’s featured and any possible deals I can get. Caron’s eye was immediately drawn to Lynn”s new book as we’ve been watching her Pitchin’ In and quite honestly I love the approach of the show itself.  “We have to get this one“… the images are beautiful, the recipes seem simple enough and this is certainly a book I will actually use. Those were the words of Caron! I know from past experiences that Caron is a ‘package’ buyer, meaning that if the package is attractive she immediately wants to buy it. The book is simply beautiful, with lot’s of white space so the recipes don’t seem technical with tons of instructions and quite honestly, the food images are stunning.

Here’s my take on At Home With Lynn Crawford…

I didn’t have much faith in Caron ever giving this cookbook at test drive in the kitchen, but to my surprise she’s done both the “Mince & Tatties” (pg 161) and the “Fried Chicken With Lemon Thyme Honey” (pg 155) both of which she had good results with. Caron can only cook with a written recipe (as specific as possible) and it’s important that the final dish looks like the image in the book. This is one of the main reasons why she wanted the book in the first place… all the recipes comes with a full page image of what the dish should look like.  Having the finished fried chicken dish look like the one in the book was an accomplishment on it’s own for Caron.

I’m intrigued by Lynn’s take on “Grilled Jerk Chicken” (pg 177)  and will give it a run in the upcoming weeks as I get homesick during the cold winter months and need some comfort food. Looking at the ingredients in the jerk marinade and I know it will surely have a wicked blast of flavors.

Tip: If you have a membership for Costco you’ll save a few dollars off the cover price at regular book stores.