Welcome to Luke's! 

 My husband and I opened Luke's! in 1993 when our son, Luke, was 18 months old. From the beginning we believed in making everything from scratch, and supporting local purveyors for everything else.

 In 2000, we purchased 17 acres of waterfront property in Waupoos, located in Prince Edward County, and planted vineyards and gardens. The gardens were soon supplying Luke's! with most of it's produce.

 Luke grew up in this environment, first learning front of house; describing foods and techniques to customers, taking orders, answering the phone, etc...,all the while becoming more intrigued by the food coming out of the kitchen. When he was 11 years old, Luke entered the kitchen and announced his desire to become a Chef. We took this announcement seriously and proceeded to teach him everything we knew. We supported him as he then embarked on a culinary self-taught journey. We were overwhelmed with pride and amazement when he became engrossed with charcuterie, the centuries-old art of preserving foods through brining, smoking, salting, and curing.

 When he was 15 years old, he decided that he was ready, and we agreed. He was given carte blanche, developed his own menus, and the kitchen became his.

 Luke is now considered a master charcutier; using local organic pigs he does all his own butchery, producing fresh and cured sausages, terrines, bacon, guanciale, pork tuna, Braise et Bouree la Tete et la Pied du Cochon, prosciutto, Tuscan wild fennel salami and, with the torso, Tuscan Arista. He also loves working with ducks, making confits, sausages, and cured duck hams. He makes our ricotta and chevre, all the pastas, breads, pastries, and everything else on his menus,including the butter,which is hand-churned! He changes  the menus 8-10 times a year to reflect our philosophy of eating as Mother nature intended--locally and seasonally.

The Food Editors of both The Toronto Star and The Ottawa Citizen have done feature articles on  Luke. Many evenings we have a full house and there are very few Kingstonians in the room.Foodies are travelling from all over the map to experience Chef Luke's cuisine.

 He has an uncanny memory for flavors, and the breakdown of a flavour's individual components. A while ago, when planning a new tasting menu, he decided that one course would be lobster ravioli, extra-virgin olive oil "muffin", squid ink-lobster sauce, peanut tuile, and popped corn. I wondered about the last two items until he explained that the two foods that share the most flavor components with lobster are nuts and corn. The recipients of that tasting menu exclaimed that it was like eating lobster for the first time and gave Luke a standing ovation!

 People are coming initially because of Luke's story and because he is only 16 years old; they are returning and spreading the word because his food is, in their words, the best they have ever experienced.

 And Luke? He is happiest when in his kitchen, experimenting and creating,or when poring through his collection of more 300 cookbooks and food history books. He is happiest when when talking about food, his passion barely contained, his modesty apparent. His goals, when asked,are inspiring;to become one of the finest Chefs in the world, to set up a foundation  to help children  experience real food on  a  daily basis, to change the way people look at food, one plate at a time.

Carrie Hayes and Rob Alexander

Click here to read feature story in THE TORONTO STAR

Click here to read feature story in THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

Click here to read feature story in FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE