Canadian chefs are sharing their favourite recipes on Instagram for you to make at home

While Canadians are staying at home from-scratch cooking has become a daily reality for many. If you've always wanted to recreate a favourite restaurant dish at home, expand your cooking repertoire, or if you're simply looking for tonight's dinner inspiration, it's never been easier to get an intimate (virtual) cooking lesson from a chef! 

Many talented Canadian culinary pros are sharing recipes and tutorials on social media. Questions about techniques or ingredients are welcome in the comments too, plus, during Instagram Live sessions, and you could even screen record the instructions for top dishes for future reference and to make the meal at your own pace. And with the current restrictions on going out, most of these unfussy recipes prioritize flavour over ornamentation, and ask for a limited list of ingredients.

Here are some accounts offering great recipes and cooking demos on Instagram right now.    

If you've been craving Filipino comfort food — or just want to try making something completely satisfying at home —  you'll want to follow brunch-focused restaurant, BBs Diner. Chef Julian Ochangco is sharing recipes for warm, filling dishes like pork sinigang, arroz caldo and lamb shank kare kare. And so far, even though most of the recipes require hours-long cook times, they all take under 25 minutes to prepare. 

While this family-owned Hakka restaurant Yueh Tung is closed due to COVID-19, the Liu family is posting short videos for a "YT @ Home" cooking series. Head to their page to watch chef Joanna Liu make flavourful dishes like Mama Mei's Tomato & Omelette Stew, Kimchi Longanisa Fried Rice and Yueh Tung's famous Mapo Tofu at home. 

Chef Craig Harding has, in the past, featured decadent dishes like truffle pasta and lobster spaghetti-verde, some of which are served in his popular Toronto restaurants La Palma and Constantine. But in recent weeks he's introduced a casual IGTV series he calls #CraigsCovidKitchen, where you can see him (and chef friends) preparing comfort-food dishes like stewed oxtail, quinoa and beef salad, and a one-pot Moroccan/Ethiopian stew.  

Beautifully plated, well-photographed dishes are par for the course on chef and restauranteur Tomer Markovitz's account. But lucky for us, he's also started sharing a few of his recipes on the feed as well (check his Instagram stories), for everything from a caesar salad dressing to brownies to spicy Libyan fish. 

Since mid-March, Nova Scotia-based writer and MasterChef Canada winner Jennifer E. Crawford has been sharing recipes on Instagram Stories for everything from strawberry-rhubarb-rye "poptarts" to congee (each recipe is highlighted at the top of their profile). For their dishes, they use everything from store-brand canned peas to locally grown rainbow carrots — and their thoughtful perspective and positive outlook make the how-tos an enjoyable watch. 

Toronto's Kimchi Korea House  didn't even have an Instagram account until a few weeks ago. Now, while the restaurant is open for take-out only, owner Michelle "Mama" Lee  has been generously sharing a number of fun and easy how-to videos for classic Korean dishes like seafood pancake (haemul pajeon) and kimchi stew with new followers. 

Truc Nguyen is a Toronto-based writer, editor and stylist. Follow her at @trucnguyen.