When I first met Chef Daniel Vézina he had just opened his restaurant and named it after his two his two children, Laurie and Raphaël. Even then, in the 1980s, he was starting to set up micro supply networks so tiny that he was having an Italian gardener grow his tomatoes. Since then he has become one of Quebec’s most well-known culinary personalities but, no matter what fame, Chef Vézina has always honoured the ingredients of Quebec...
In 2008 I had an incredible book tour….and one stop was Montreal. I love the Hotel Queen Elizabeth and headed to the legendary Beaver Club for dinner. Chef Alain Pignard rolled out the culinary red carpet and I can’t think of a better way of introducing him than to quote my blog after that evening…. – “The Beaver Club (c.1785). Pure elegance. A cart of chilled champagne and a menu that sings the praises and flavours of Canada...
Would that all restaurants were as proactive as DNA! Chef Derek Damman grew up on Vancouver Island and spent several years as Jamie Oliver’s Chef de Cuisine in London. With co-owner Alex Cruise, formerly of Montreal’s Decca 77, they are changing things. Tired of the limited Canadian wine selection from the SAQ, the pair decided that the only way around it was to establish themselves as wine importers. So they did. And now wines from all...
If you’re in the Ottawa Valley or the Outaouais and you mention the concept of regional cooking in Quebec, Les Fougères will be named. Chef Charles Part and Jennifer Warren Part are completely and utterly dedicated to serving forth the best food and wine to their clientele. And they share their knowledge as well. Their book, A Year at Les Fougères, won the Gold Medal/Food Culture at the Cuisine Canada Culinary Book Awards in 2008. Of course...
Christine Lamarche from Restaurant Toque! in Montreal writes: “Our brand new restaurant, BRASSERIE T! is now ready to welcome you. After weeks of intense activity and adjustments we are now delighted to invite you to live this new experience. We propose a happy toast to our team members for so quickly creating a vivacious sense of place at this unusual location. To help you find us in this very busy season of Festivals and huge crowds we are located...
It was at L’eau à la Bouche the I first began to understand fine French-Canadian cuisine…some might argue “the finest”. Chef Anne Desjardins is one of the best interpreters of the new provincial cuisine. She thoughtfully creates wonderful dishes with the traditional ingredients of old Quebec. Comfort food never tasted so good! A slim Gaspé salmon scallop on a little puddle of fennel scented butter sauce… quail breasts from the lower...
One of the neatest restaurants in Quebec, Les Jardins Sauvages, is owned and operated by Chef Nancy Hinton and forager/farmer François Brouillard. Aside from being a country eatery, they create and sell sell a line of products derived from wild plants and mushrooms at a farmer’s market stall at Marché Jean Talon in Montreal. Chef Hinton who hails from Newfoundland and trained under the tutelage of Quebec’s star Chef Anne Desjardins, writes:...
Chez Eric is one of those delightful places that one simply wants to claim for one’s own. It is a real treasure. On the banks of a spring-fed stream, Chef Che Chartrand and his wife/partner Lisa have created not only a gourmet haven but one where the young, eclectic families of Wakefield head for a meal. A sandbox full of toys is near the lovely outdoor patio. Che is a perfectionist who believes in Canada. We first met the Canadian...
Chef Normand Laprise and business partner, Christine Lamarche have been regaling dinners and promoting their suppliers for as long as they’ve been in business. Normand hails from the southeast shore of the St. Lawrence River in the very French, very rural Kamouraska. It’s a place where the rhythm of life is dictated by the seasons and by the river where eel is still trapped in weirs and sturgeon was a culinary tradition. Laprise and Lamarche...
As Sooke Harbour House is to Vancouver Island, Manoir Hovey is to Quebec. On the banks of Lake Massawippi, near North Hatley in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, this inn and Chef Roland Menard, have been harvesting the region and serving it forth for as long as I’ve been writing about it and, like me, he’s still ‘cooking’. His recipe that I published in 1990 for lamb tenderloin baked in phyllo pastry and served with a local honey/fresh mint...
