Eatdrink #44 November/December 2013

38 www.eatdrink.ca
№ 44 | November/December 2013
Heavenly Hand-Crafted Baked Goods
from Lindsay Reid’s Sebringville Kitchen
Lindsay Reid’s motto is to “share really good
baking” that is made from scratch in small
batches, using high quality ingredients.
This requires patience
and precision — something he
appears to have in quantity in
the bake kitchen in the cellar
of his Sebringville home. Reid
incorporates only pure natural
ingredients, unbleached organic
flour, local eggs, honey and butter
in his baking. On offer are handmade
croissants, squares, tarts,
muffins and seasonal specialties. Reid has asked
me not to call his baking iconic — he and my
former London Free Press editor, Linda Barnard,
have recently declared a moratorium on “the
ridiculously overused pet adjective of lazy writers.”
So let’s call his delicious baking emblematic.
Reid has been employed in just about every
job in the “food biz,” beginning with an initial
stint at age fifteen, as a busboy at the Church
Restaurant in Stratford.
“A traumatizing experience to say the least.
At the time I vowed never to work in the food biz
again.”
High school jobs included night and weekend
baking at Buns Master Bakery and working in the
kitchen at the local A&W drive-in. Reid attended
the Stratford Chefs School after a two-year stint
studying journalism at university. Reid says, “I
felt the desire to follow a career path that involved
creativity and working with my
hands. A strong appreciation
for food and entertaining was
nurtured at home, so a career in
food seemed a natural choice.”
“My imagination and creativity
didn’t seem to be adequately
fired, being in my early
twenties where everything in
life seems to be either black
or white. I was much less experienced than the
majority of the apprentices when I began the
school. I remember Jim Morris (co-founder of
Stratford Chefs School) telling me to not move
around from job to job, best to stay in one place
for a while and learn absolutely everything you
can from the situation. ”
Reid apprenticed with Chris Woolf at
Woolfy’s (first incarnation) in Stratford. “Thanks
to divorce and my ‘All About Eve’ phase, (a
reference to the overly ambitious ingénue that
insinuated herself in to the life of an established
stage star and circle of theater friends in a
ruthless climb to the top, in the film All About
Eve) I ended up running the kitchen for Woolf’s
ex, who became sole proprietor.”
In 1992, Reid’s sister
Mari-Jane (M.J.), and
her family returned
to Stratford and they
decided to go into
business together. “We
purchased Tastes on
Wellington Street
and turned it into
Lindsay’s Food Shop,
offering deli, bakery,
and catering in 1997
and 1998. I also ran
Lindsay’s Restaurant
where Pazzo Taverna
is now located.”
Since leaving chefs
school, Reid has been
employed as a breakfast
cook at the Westin
Harbour Castle, server
at Canoe, and catering
and event manager
at Senses Catering in
Toronto. There was a
stage at Grano with
Lindsay Reid (centre) and
some of the delicious
baked goods