TORONTO — Ron McKinlay is the new chef de cuisine at Toronto’s Canoe Restaurant.
After completing a Culinary Arts diploma in his hometown of Vancouver, McKinlay moved to Scotland to train under Michelin-star chef Tom Kitchin, who would become a great influence and mentor. He spent nearly four years at The Kitchin in Edinburgh, cooking classic French food with Scottish ingredients.
In 2010, he moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he helped to open Maze by chef Gordon Ramsay, and then moved on to work under chef Scott Pickett at Estelle Bar & Kitchen. After rising up to senior sous chef, he was appointed by chef Pickett to open and lead Saint Crispin as chef de cuisine, which would earn two hats in 2014. The following year, he took a chef de cuisine position at the Six Senses resort in Zighy Bay, Oman. While he embraced his autonomy and took the opportunity to create and test out new dishes, after 18 months he was ready to come home to Canada.
As the newly appointed chef de cuisine of Canoe, McKinlay is excited to innovate new dishes and flavours influenced by Canadian ingredients — from B.C. seaweed and Ontario birch syrup to foraged Labrador tea and Fogo Island crab.
To mark McKinlay’s arrival, Canoe will be hosting an exclusive dining experience on June 17, featuring McKinlay’s innovative tasting menu, featuring seasonally inspired ingredients reflecting Canada’s rich and diverse landscape.
