From delicate greens to foraged mushrooms, chefs across Canada are embracing seasonal produce to create dishes that reflect both place and culture. Here’s how six chefs are making the most of spring’s freshest offerings.
Braden Chong: Snow Pea Leaves
Mimi Chinese / Sunny’s Chinese · Toronto, Ontario
The sweet and tender leaves that grow alongside spring peas are an underrated green, according to Braden Chong. “They’re very Chinese, and so many of my employees have never had them,” he says.
He loves to combine snow-pea leaves with an egg white and B.C. crab meat in a slurry, which complements the leaves’ sweetness while maintaining their crunchy texture. “My first memory of having a dish like that was at a Chinese banquet, and those are the experiences I hope to bring to our restaurants,” he says.
Andreas Preuss: Rhubarb
Oxalis · Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Andreas Preuss is obsessed with rhubarb. In the spring, when rhubarb begins to pop up in Nova Scotia, Preuss loves to cook with it because “it’s very versatile.”
He uses it in everything from desserts to mignonettes to top fresh oysters. “I like to give my dishes different flavour profiles, and rhubarb has crunch, saltiness, sweetness and a little bit of acidity,” he explains.
Maria-José de Frias: Purple Sweet Potato
Le Virunga · Montreal, Quebec
At her African restaurant, Maria-José de Frias uses locally available produce to replace the sub-Saharan ingredients she typically needs for her dishes. Notably, the staple starch cassava is swapped out for a Quebec-grown purple sweet potato from Brin-Nature farm.
The chef uses the colourful potato like you would with any other: in a velouté, mashed or in gnocchi. Its sweet and subtly nutty flavour gives these common dishes a little extra complexity.
Andrea Carlson: Corn
Burdock & Co. · Vancouver, British Columbia
At her one-Michelin-star restaurant, Andrea Carlson focuses on sourcing seasonal ingredients from the Canadian Pacific Northwest. In the summer, she loves to take advantage of the season’s sweet corn. She’ll often serve a charred-corn risotto, which features dry-seared corn, puréed corn and corn stock made from the cobs.
“You get that creaminess to bind the charred corn together to create that risotto experience,” she says. The dish is also served with a fermented spicy crabapple broth and black-garlic oil. “There’s some spicy, some tangy, and it contrasts nicely with the incredible sweetness of the summer corn.”
Timothy Charles: Wood Blewit Mushrooms
Fogo Island Inn · Joe Batt’s Arm, Newfoundland and Labrador
Given Fogo Island’s diverse ecosystem, there are unique seasonal ingredients that Timothy Charles and his cooks have access to. Mushrooms, in particular, grow in abundance on the island, and Charles loves to forage for them.
The wood blewit mushroom is among his favourites. “It’s really meaty and super high in protein, and it’s highly prized in other parts of the world,” he says. He likes to prep the mushrooms by poaching them and then finishing them on the grill for a nice char.
Scott Iserhoff: Zucchini
Bernadette’s · Edmonton, Alberta
For Scott Iserhoff, summer is all about zucchinis. When they’re in season, Iserhoff likes to use them right from the garden. Inspired by his Indigenous background, Iserhoff uses summer zucchini in his Three Sisters Salad. Along with beans and corn, squash was one of three staple crops that Indigenous farmers cultivated.
“The three sisters are really important to us, because the way they grow benefits one another,” he says of the trio of ingredients. “The beans grow up the corn stock, and the squash grows densely around the corn.” Iserhoff finishes off the salad with a maple-syrup-and-lemon-based dressing.
A Celebration of Seasonality
Across the country, these chefs demonstrate how seasonal produce can inspire creativity, honour cultural traditions, and highlight regional ingredients. Whether foraged, locally grown, or reimagined, spring’s bounty offers endless possibilities in the kitchen.
More on ELLE Gourmet
- How Canadian Chefs Are Innovating Classic Italian Ingredients: From coast-to-coast, these six Canadian chefs are putting a new twist on classics like burrata and Straciatella.
- Every Canadian Restaurant on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 List: Each of the 11 restaurants that earned a spot on this prestigious list, including Quebec’s Mon Lapin at No.2 and Tanière3 at No.5.
- Inside Canada’s Most Thoughtful New Restaurants: From intimate neighbourhood spots to ambitious tasting menus, a closer look at the country’s evolving restaurant landscape.
