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Archive for the ‘Canada’ Category

The Restaurant at Peninsula Ridge

10 Apr

peninsula ridge 1

Down in Niagara and in need of lunch, I ended up at the restaurant at Peninsula Ridge winery on the Beamsville Bench. You can’t miss the house, a handsome, turreted, red-brick Victorian home set high on a hill with the winery buildings and carriage house behind it. The place was built in 1885 by prominent local doctor William D. Kitchen and meticulously restored by the winery’s proprietor, Norm Beal, when he bought the property in 2000. He opened up the rooms both upstairs and down but left the gorgeous original woodwork (including a fine cherrywood staircase).

I first visited in 2001, very soon after the restaurant opened. Ned Bell was the chef – a celebrity appointment following his critical successes at Accolade and Senses – and the meal he cooked for me was exceptionally good. Alas, Ned had moved on before my review had even appeared. Several chefs followed, including Niagara’s talented Ross Midgely for a couple of years. The current incumbent arrived in 2012 – a Quebec City native called Pierre Bourget who had been sous chef at the wonderful Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island before coming back east.

The restaurant was very much as I remembered it – even the same warbling, upbeat jazz playing slightly too loudly (though my chair was right underneath the speaker). Two local couples and a matched pair of businessmen shared the dining room with me. The friendly young woman who served us was surprised when I sat with my back to the window and the stunning  vista down the rolling benchlands to the lake and distant Toronto on the blue horizon. Old habits die hard. I still instinctively choose a chair that lets me see the restaurant not the view.

Manila clams with saffron broth and chorizo

Manila clams with saffron broth and chorizo

Chef Bourget’s menu read well – there was plenty to tempt. The wine list sticks to Peninsula Ridge’s own wines with 18 offered by the glass, including the limpid, aromatic, mineraly Wismer vineyard Sauvignon Blanc. I began with a hearty dish of tender, juicy Manila clams steamed in a rich saffron broth with little chunks of peppery chorizo. Espalette pepper added sweet capsicum flavours while a concassé of fresh tomato lightened the overall weight. Chef had sprinkled pea sprouts and chopped chives over the top and finished the dish with a slice of toasted multigrain baguette as a crouton spread with pungent Kalamata olive tapenade – a nice bitter counterpoint to the spicy sweetness of the broth.

A notably tender fillet of arctic char, sweetened with a marinade of maple syrup and grainy mustard, was served on a cedar plank. Flanking the fish on one side was a mound of fingerling potatoes, lightly smoked then roasted off in duck fat until they were soft inside, crispy on the surface – quite the yummiest potatoes I’ve had in ages. On the other side was a cornucopia of vegetables – three spears of crunchy white asparagus, a muddle of soft red pepper strips like a sweet peperonata, a noble stalk of green kale. A garnish of purple basil leaves made their own aromatic contribution.

dessert

Both dishes were served piping hot, which is always attractive, and though there was nothing unconventional about the ideas, execution was pretty much flawless. Ditto dessert. There were five to choose from and I ended up with sticky toffee fig pudding – a dense cakey puck that really did taste of figs glazed with a toffee sauce. Crumbled sponge toffee and a scattering of berries shared the plate, along with a serving of walnut praline ice cream.

All in all, most satisfactory. The Restaurant at Peninsula Ridge is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Saturday and for Sunday brunch. 5600 King St. W., Beamsville, 905-563-0995.

 
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Bouillon Bilk, Montreal

20 Mar

bilk wee

A flying visit to Montreal – tout seul – so, where to eat? Of course, it’s a Monday night and the usual suspects are closed. Thumbing through recent suggestions from two friends on the local Gold Medal Plates judiciary panel, Robert Beauchemin of La Presse and Lesley Chesterman of the Gazette, I see that they both seem to like Bouillon Bilk, on Boulevard St. Laurent – which makes it a longish but doable walk from my hotel. And it opens seven nights a week. So be it.

But Bilk? The SOED defines “bilk” (noun) as “a hoax, a deception.” Are we to presume that the bouillon here has been brewed with a kettle and a stock cube? To me, the name conjures vivid memories of Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band whose greatest hit was undeniably Stranger on the Shore, a plaintive melody with no lyrics, performed by Mr Bilk on the clarinet. It was a theme of my childhood since I too learned to play it on my shrill, ex-U.S.-marine-band, nickel-plated instrument and would terrify the judges at music competitions who were expecting the minuet from Mozart’s clarinet quintet. But I digress. In her review of the place, written two months after it opened, in 2011, Lesley Chesterman explains that “the restaurant’s name… really has no significance other than it sounded good to the owners when they dreamed it up.” As honest a reason as any.

It turns out to be just what I needed – a simple, modern room with white-painted walls, a bar in one corner and a couple of high tops to vary the look of the dozen or so tables, each one dressed with snowy linen and fine stemware. The greeting is warm and the sound level drops to a sophisticated hum once two large early-dining parties leave. The conversation all around me is about the food on the menu and the smart, well-trained servers are kept busy explaining nuances of ingredient and technique. Chef Francois Nadon’s menu is small – maybe half a dozen starters, five mains – but there are a couple of specials and everything sounds intriguing. By the end of the evening I have written “Wow” in my notebook half a dozen times – something that hasn’t happened for years in Toronto.

I start with an “amuse” for $6 – a delicious and elegant little appetizer of a moist, warm duck drumstick, impressively tender and succulent beneath a sweet chili glaze. It sits on a streak of black bean paste painted onto the plate and is topped with shaved triangles of pineapple and a flurry of seedlings. The salty sweetness of the black bean and pineapple is a delightful counterpoint to the richness of the duck.

Then a dramatic presentation of soft beef carpaccio cut to form a scarlet rectangle on the white plate. The meat is wet with a soy and citrus marinade and is crowded with toppings – pieces of fresh heart-of-palm and shaved rounds of radish beneath which hide amazingly tender little clams. Torn crumples of crisp nori add another flavour and texture and there are different red and green seedlings here and there together with an invisible and delicate scent of ginger. It’s a plate of remarkably fresh flavours rendered just a little pleasantly funky and decadent by the unexpected fishiness of the clams, though I feel there may be a drop too much soy. The wise sommelier recommends a very light, unoaked Pinot Noir from Australia’s Yarra Valley called Pepé le Pinot (Jamsheed 2011) that suits it perfectly, the dish emphasizing the earthiness beneath the wine’s cheerful red fruit.

My main course is a crisp-skinned fillet of sea bass smothered in chopped razor clams. Teaspoon-sized dollops of green pea purée are a lovely foil as are shavings of ginger, two soft discs of fondant potato and some quarters of baby turnip. A sauce vierge of chopped red grapes, minced bacon lardons and salted capers matches the clean, lucid flavours on the plate, making little islands of buttery wilted greens seem all the richer. With this, we go to a Portuguese white wine with much more chewy texture and oakiness than the graceful Pinot – a 2010 Bical from Campolargo in Bairrada. That also gets a Wow.

The wine list has certainly grown since the place opened. It’s now full of regional treasures from Jura, Savoie and Gaillac (so unusual in Ontario) and other French destinations that add a stripe of exoticism to the more expected Old and New World offerings. One of the Jura treats is a Macvin (unusually, a red one made from fortified Pinot Noir) that works brilliantly with the four Quebec cheeses I try – a Sorcier de Missisquoi, like a Canadian cousin to Morbier; a firm, sweet cow’s-milk cheese called Le Canotier; a soft, creamy, white-bloom goat’s cheese called Chèvre à ma manière; and a semi-soft, yellow slice of Les Métayères. They are all splendid, served with a sweet compote of figs, glazed walnuts and hazelnuts and a teaspoonful of white honey. The Macvin reveals all sorts of cherry-herbal-prune aromas with a subtle, almost medicinal hit, like a chinoto wine.

Such a good meal – and not wildly expensive. The staff remain friendly to the end and I step out into the night feeling less like a Stranger on the Shore than I usually do in Montreal.

Bouillon Bilk is at 1595 St. Laurent Blvd. (near de Maisonneuve Blvd.). 514 845 1595. It’s open Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Mon.-Sat. 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

 
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Coronation Day

21 Sep

 

Chef and co-owner of Atelier, Marc Lepine and his sous chef, Jason Sawision

To Ottawa for the coronation of Chef Marc Lepine of Atelier as Canadian Culinary Champion – a joyful and delicious evening. If you missed the competition last February, Lepine was a very worthy champion who leaped into the lead during the first of the three contests (the Wine Matching contest) and never stumbled. It was a strong field and all the chefs were on top form but Lepine was simply on fire. It was like watching Andy Murray in the Olympic finals – no one was going to keep him from that gold medal! The verdict among the judges was unanimous and a worthy Champion was celebrated.

On Tuesday last, we held the actual coronation, the traditional launch to the next Gold Medal Plates campaign. The trophy was presented before a small crowd of media, VIPs and all the Gold Medal Plates Ottawa-Gatineau judges who had taken Marc Lepine to the podium in last year’s regional event. Cameras flashed, glasses were raised and the general mood was one of undimmed merriment and congratulation.

Lepine and his team had generously offered to cook for some of us so we duly sat down. Those who had eaten at Atelier before were just as full of anticipatory excitement as those of us who had not. I wasn’t sure what to expect – a couple of apps? In the end we were treated to a 14-course dinner of extraordinary quality.

Smoke

But first, a word about the restaurant. There is no name on the door of the low, detached building at 540 Rochester Street, Ottawa (613 321 3537). The windows are guarded by a fashionably rusted metal grill and there are rough stones laid around the base of the façade. Inside is a tiny room with grey walls hung with very small framed paintings done by Chef’s daughter when she was five years old. The wee room seats 22, mostly in huge, cream-coloured leather armchairs that are wonderfully comfortable. I counted 5 people in the kitchen and three servers – a ratio of staff to customers that promises much but must challenge the restaurant’s profitability. Interestingly, there is no actual stove in the kitchen. “He uses induction, and circulators, and sometimes a blowtorch or a soldering iron as a heat source,” someone mentioned.

Not to mention a warm sense of humour. The first canape to be passed among the little throng was an empty shot glass. Not quite empty: there was a tiny pinch of dark dust at the bottom. We were instructed to down it in one. Our mouths tasted gin and tonic.

Then there were wobbly brown bubbbles that burst into liquid gazpacho in our mouths. Confited quail legs coated in prune purée (the soft, seasoned flesh sliding from the bone between our lips). A popsicle of frozen yoghurt that wasn’t sweet at all, just a brilliant palate cleanser.

Lepine was a stagiere at Alinea in Chicago a few years ago. Clearly, it was a highly influential experience. I have eaten in the restaurants of several Grant Achatz alumni. Though Lepine doesn’t have a kitchen brigade of 50, he comes closest to Achatz’s aesthetic of surprise, wit, true flavours, wry juxtapositions and unexpected harmonies.

Lepine’s dishes all have amusing names, apparently chosen from suggestions offered by the team in the kitchen. The best was the last course, involving mango as purèe, jelly and as a dehydrated pickle paired with lemon balm, cardamom ice cream and fried bread covered with saffron syrup. The dish is called “A Mangoes Into a Bar” – which is great. But I’m jumping ahead.

Give Peas a Chance before the soup hits the porcelain

The problem for the critic is that each of the 14 courses involves at least 14 ingredients and a dozen different  techniques, some molecular, some not, others more a matter of studiously letting something like a marigold leaf or a tiny yellow chili appear entirely unadulterated. I’m sitting here looking at my laborious notes and realizing that listing a hundred flavourful grace notes isn’t really going to give much of an impression. The pictures show how stunning the dishes looked and perhaps you can see the little coloured dots and moments of pale powder and minuscule dice made of jelly. Analysis is probably not the right response (though I think Lepine appreciates the awe of the ingredient-nerd). It’s the same with Susur Lee and Claudio Aprile in toronto – and maybe Grant Achatz, too. They are magicians who would rather the audience sat back and were amazed than bent forward, squinting, to try and understand the sleight of hand. But let’s look closely at one or two plates and see if we can see what’s going on.

Here’s the dish called “Smoke,” which arrives under a glass cloche filled with applewood smoke that is whisked away, perfuming the dining room. On the plate is a PERFECT piece of Quebec bison, cooked sous vide for half an hour at 52oC the pan-seared. The meat is heavenly – juicy and red with a faint flavour of woodsmoke. Beside it is a teaspoonful of crumbled fried potato, like the sort of pan-roasted breadcrumbs my mum used to serve with gamebirds. A finger of deep-fried French toast sings a similar song (and what a good idea for breakfast!). there’s a sautéed radish, some white drops of onion soubise, a dollop of ground pink peppercorn mustard, three salt-cured grapes that have the texture of cherries and a fine tarragon powder. The dark smooth sauce at the top of the plate is a liquidized boudin noir – rather an extravagant way to make gravy but it tasted amazing. A single marigold leaf was the token green on the plate. Busy? Yes. Crowded? No. And the bison’s role as star of the show was never jeopardized.

“Give Peas a Chance” comes from a less multi-dimensional place – almost an experiment to see what can be done with something as simple as a pea, the better to express its essential peaness. It begins with solids in a bowl – fresh little peas, chunks of sweet pea meringue, and more pea meringue crushed to powder. A smear of crème fraiche up the side of the bowl lets pea tendrils climb almost vertically from the tiny pool of pea purèe at its base. Slices of green grapes cling to the slope; a morain of frozen green apple snow brings sharp acidity. And see the golden cubes of apple cider jelly! They add a different sweetness to that of the green peas, and a different kind of tang to the green apple’s tartness. Now the waiter pours on a chilled pea soup – thick and green as Wiberg’s pine essence for the bath, sleek as paint. The dilemma is whether to scoop a bit of everything greedily into the spoon or try to pick out the different components, as curiosity demands. Either way, it’s absolutely delicious.

Piggie Smalls

Those are just two moments from the evening. “Sebastien and Pinchy” featured lobster and crab. “Piggie Smalls” showed off piglet tenderloin with blowtorched corn, pickled chanterelles, a powder made of ramps and truffle oil, and umpteen other nuanced details.

What fun it all was.

On Monday, we begin this year’s cycle of Gold Medal Plates events with a chauffeur-driven judges’ day visiting our competing Toronto chefs and tasting their dishes – all in lieu of a gala this year. Then it’s on to Regina for the great party on October 11. I can’t wait.

yer actual trophy (not actual size)

 
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Niagara College

19 Jun

Chef Michael Olson in Benchmark restaurant at Niagara College

On Friday I was up at the crack of dawn to drive down to Niagara College to deliver a convocation address to some of the students and to receive an honorary diploma in Media Studies. It truly was an honour to be thus gowned and hooded and the graduating students were impressively polite and patient with this old geezer at the podium. The trip also gave me a chance to check out Benchmark, the restaurant in the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake campus. It has been thoroughly worked over in the last ten months by Michael Olson, the renowned chef (Liberty, On the Twenty) who also teaches at the College. He runs Benchmark as a classroom where students in the culinary and hospitality programs can learn the realities of the business.

That’s how Niagara College works, with excellent and famously hands-on courses. It also has 40 acres of vineyards on the beautifully landscaped 114-acre campus, tucked up under the Niagara escarpment, where students can learn viticulture, growing the grapes that they then turn into wine in the teaching winery. Those wines are routinely entered for professional competitions and have so far won 140 awards! I remember coming across one years ago when I was one of the many judges for the Ontario Wine Awards. I thought it was a joke until I tasted it. Dazzling! Renowned winemaker Jim Warren was il professore at the time, which explains a lot. I believe it won gold that year. The College also has its own brewery, beer store, greenhouses and now a chic, ultra-modern wine boutique beside the vineyards where anyone can buy the wines. Production is very small, obviously, so this is actually the ONLY place to do that. Reserve wines are referred to as Dean’s List and some of the labels are designed as report cards filled out by none other than Tony Aspler. I strongly recommend you visit and buy, next time you’re down in Niagara.

Our very own spargelfest

And stop for a meal at Benchmark. Our lunch there was delightful, set in the restaurant’s airy rotunda with its wrap-around view of the vineyards and escarpment. The place is open to the public and is a local favourite, especially now that Olson has done away with much of the formality of service and dramatically lowered prices. The five of us were served family style with platters of food set down in the centre of the table for the appetizer courses. We began with silky slices of Mario Pingue’s yummy local prosciutto and slices of Guernsey Gold from the Upper Canada Cheese company in nearby Jordan. The College’s own semi-dry Riesling was a fine accompaniment.

Crispy battered shrimp with coleslaw and a peppery aioli followed, then Olson emerged with a casserole of perfect white asparagus grown by farmer Peter Janssen in Simcoe. He doesn’t grow enough for the commercial market but advertizes in German-language newspapers and sells the lot to ex-pats who miss Germany’s obsessive spargelfest. Olson’s students cooked it beautifully, dressing it with fresh orange, a Riesling-orange hollandaise and chopped chives from the garden. Our hosts brought forth a second wine for good measure and reasons of scientific comparison – a gloriously golden barrel-fermented Chardonnay. It was hard to say which wine better suited the asparagus but I think the Riesling was the ultimate winner. There’s something to be said for classic combinations.

A preview of scrumptious cookies and pastries from Anna Olson's new show, Bake that starts production in September.

For a main course I ordered tender pork with a sweet, sticky glaze of maple and beer – roast potatoes and vegetables were exemplary. Then Olson brought out another unique treat, a sort of soprbet made by freezing the pure wort from the brewery before any hops had been added. It was, as you might expect, marvelously malty and sweet – quite the most original and delicious ice I’ve had in ages – and full of the taste of barley. We finished with platters of cookies and pastries that were actually a preview of recipes from the upcoming tv show starring Anna Olson (Chef Olson’s wife). It’s called simply Bake and will be well worth following if the scrumptious apricot pastries and empire cookies are anything to go by. “It’s an inverse puff pastry,” explained Michael Olson. “Instead of starting with dough and adding butter, we start with a sheet of butter and add dough. It makes for a more even result.” Absolutely lovely!

 
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Urgent information

16 Jun

The piglets of Eigensinn Farm, making hay while the sun shines...

Tuesday, if you recall, was a spectacularly beautiful day – cloudless skies of periwinkle blue, a slight breeze, pleasant temperatures, Ontario looking bright green and bushy-tailed, Vancouver still full of hope and innocence – the ideal time to set off into the countryside, heading north to Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm. It was a private invitation, an opportunity to see a preview of the great artist’s new project, the Pine Spiel. Inspired by the waldschule, his childhood school in the forests outside Lübeck, and by the pine circles of the native peoples of Ontario, it promises to be an extraordinary creation – a walk through the pine forests on his own 100-acre farm with pathways and “rooms” fashioned in the woods, places for spiritual reflection and delectable food… So we drove north to see it, my wife, my son, his wife and me.

It has been a couple of years since I last saw Eigensinn Farm and the trees have grown up around the driveway so that I drove right past and had to double back. But there were Michael and Nobuyo and their three apprentices busy in the gardens and about the open fire-pit outside the kitchen door.

“The Pine Spiel,” mused Michael… “Actually, I’ve postponed it until 2013 – Eigensinn’s 20th anniversary.”

“Oh…”

“Still, we can see it…”

So we walked – down to the pond, now stocked with brown and speckled trout but used more often as a swimming hole on sweltering summer nights than as a source of provender. Up the lane to the teepee field where a French landscape artist is going to create living sculptures using lines of plants along the contours of the land. Into the pine forests…

Mosquitoes were thick around us but they were Eigensinn mosquitoes and knew not to bite. We saw the work that Michael and his apprentices have already accomplished – pathways delineated by brushwood, clearings here and there, still abstract concepts, it’s true. No way this could be completed by August. And we came upon the scultpures left over from the last major walkabout – the sculptures of the Heaven on Earth project – the chef with his tray, the earth-mother oven, the god of wine, the farmer made of rusting machinery, the underground house, the play house… Michael showed us where he will plant an allee of 300 shoulder-high pine trees to lead from one patch of pine forest to the next – he’s dedicating it to David Suzuki. Then he showed us the Outside Dining Room, a new area planted to conifers where people can commission an al fresco dinner for a dozen friends. It will be ready by mid-August and is the sort of magical place that will be remembered for ever by those lucky enough to dine there.

Memories of Heaven on earth - a chef even taller than M Stadtlander...

And then we were back in the farmyard, admiring the litter of piglets (a red wattle and black English cross), the new chickens, the indolent marmalade cat lying in the herb beds, the sunlight on the blackcurrant bushes. One of the apprentices brought out a plate of lightly smoked New Brunswick sturgeon sliced onto rye bread with a dab of crème fraîche and pungent purple chive flowers. Another brought slices of Eigensinn ham and a plate of cucumber, sliced thickly and briefly pickled in the Japanese way in miso and beer.

I was going to bring some of the new Carmenere rosé from Cono Sur – my favourite foreign rosé this summer, so full of juicy flavour – but thought it politic to stick to local wine, choosing Trius Sauvignon Blanc and Cave Spring Gamay. To honour my daughter-in-law, Kayo, Nobuyo brought out various rare sakes including something I had never tasted, an awamori at 43% abv – more like an eau de vie than a sake and dazzlingly yummy. We drank it from beautiful little glasses that Nobuyo explained were made in Okinawa from vegetable ash and recycled Pepsi bottles from the local U.S. navy base. Magic! To turn the crass detritus of our shallow culture into splendid art is cause for celebration – and a toast in awamori.

A sake glass from Okinawa made from recycled pepsi bottles from the U.S. navy base - beauty from trash

Dinner took place indoors with friends, apprentices and family all sharing the farmhouse table. Nobuyo cooked rice and slippery mizuku seaweed, the first asparagus from the garden served with delicate fillets of pickerel, and a dish of crumbled wet tofu and dandelion greens. The main event was two legs of the least fortunate of Eigensinn’s piglets grilled outside on the barbecue until the juicy flesh was succulent and the crackling crispy and tissue-thin. With it came mashed potatoes stirred in with a handful of raw lovage leaves. Dessert was a rottegruze of stewed strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries and black currants in apple cider, topped with a chunk of sweet woodruff ice cream. We were eating the farm and it was heavenly.

Conversation? We discussed Haisai, Stadtländer’s whimsically beautiful restaurant on Singhampton’s main street. He will be cooking there for all of July and then passing the kitchen over to two guest chefs from Germany. They sound pretty cool and I think I’ll have to go and check it out. He is also looking for a manager/maître d’ to run the place for the foreseeable future – a brilliant gig for a front-of-house person with both savvy and soul.

We also discussed the appalling mega-quarry threatening the entire area between Eigensinn and Toronto. Even if you are entirely indifferent to the country and province in which you live, to the health of the water that you and your children drink, you ought to find out about this Satanic initiative. Below is an article by Donna Tranquada that explains the issue, originally published in Homemakers magazine.

The sun shone brightly over our small farm in Dufferin County yesterday as I worked in my garden, weeded the vegetable patch and watched tractors plow the dark earth in nearby fields.  It was one of those perfect spring days in the country. Our little “homestead” is perched on the top of a hill about 90 minutes northwest of Toronto. We’re surrounded by rolling pastures, gabled farmhouses and grey-weathered barns that have survived a century of seasons. It’s one of the most stunning regions of Ontario and is known as “The Hills of Headwaters.” But looming over the landscape is the threat of a mega quarry that will destroy vital farmland, jeopardize fresh water and devastate our environment.

As you drive westward from our farm, the land rises to a vast and fertile plateau in Melancthon township, north of Shelburne. It’s the highest point of land in southern Ontario and contains the best grade of soil in the province: Honeywood silt loam. Farmers love it. Not only is it fertile and rock-free, it sits upon a massive limestone aquifer, which offers a perfect drainage system for growing potatoes and other crops. Fifty per cent of the potatoes consumed in the Greater Toronto Area are grown on this plateau.

The region is also the source of water for four watersheds, including the Grand and Nottawasaga rivers. It’s estimated one-million people downstream rely on the fresh water. Local wells, ponds and streams count on the headwaters for replenishment.

Agriculture or Aggregate

Enter the Highland Companies. Over the past few years, Highland, which is backed by a $22-billion Boston hedge fund, has purchased about 7,000 acres of the 15,000-acre plateau. At first, Highland said its focus was growing potatoes and, after assembling so much land, it’s now the largest potato producer in Ontario.

But, in March, Highland confirmed suspicions that it was far more interested in the limestone beneath the fields. Highland filed a 3,000-page application to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to tear up the fields and excavate the largest open pit quarry in Canada for the lucrative aggregate market. The proposed size is staggering. The mega quarry would span 2,300 acres. It would be deeper than Niagara Falls and plunge 200 feet below the water table.

Forever is a long time

 In order to keep the quarry from filling up with water and draining the watersheds, Highland says it will have to pump 600-million-litres of water a day, 24 hours a day. Forever. That’s the same amount of water used by 2.7 million Ontarians each day.

At a recent public meeting hosted by Highland, I expressed doubts about a pumping system running in perpetuity. The hired water-management consultant replied “We have the technology.”  Well, the Japanese thought they had the technology to protect their nuclear reactors from earthquakes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was equally confident about its levees around New Orleans. Pumps fail, and when that happens, the results will be catastrophic for those downstream.

Not Welcome in the Neighbourhood

The mega quarry would also be a troublesome neighbour for the Niagara Escarpment, which runs through the Hills of Headwaters and is recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve. The Florida Everglades and Galapagos Islands share the same designation. The Niagara Escarpment Commission says it is “one of the world’s unique natural wonders.” The Escarpment also supports “300 bird species, 53 mammals, 36 reptiles and amphibians, 90 fish and 100 varieties of special interest flora including 37 types of wild orchids.”  Yet, the largest quarry in the country would stretch alongside this environmentally-sensitive area. No government would ever allow a quarry of any size near the Florida Everglades or in the Galapagos Islands.

Deep Down on the Farm

 Once Highland extracts the limestone it intends to farm the bottom of the pit. That’s right, the bottom. The company claims it will spread topsoil in this deep, massive scar and, if the pumps don’t fail, it will grow crops. But according to current provincial legislation, Highland is under no obligation to rehabilitate the quarry pit because it would be below the water table.

Help Stop the Mega Quarry

 There’s so much more. Up to 300 heavy diesel trucks an hour would rumble to and from the pit each day, polluting our air and clogging our roads. And, incredibly, the largest proposed quarry in Canada is not subject to an Environmental Assessment in Ontario. This is unacceptable.

The Hills of Headwaters is normally quiet and bucolic. But it’s now noisy with opposition to the proposed mega quarry. What can you do to stop it?  Write letters of objection to the province of Ontario. Please demand an Environmental Assessment. The deadline is July 11, 2011. Click here to learn more.  You can also e-mail Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty here.

And for further information about the mega quarry, visit www.ndact.com and www.citizensalliance.ca, and join us on Facebook at Stop the Quarry for news updates and events.

 
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Return of Makoto

07 May

Makoto Ono presenting an omakase dish at Edohei, his father's restaurant in Winnipeg

I just got off the phone with an old friend – chef Makoto Ono, who won the first-ever Canadian Culinary Championship back in 2006. We held it in Whistler, B.C., beautifully looked after by the Hilton hotel, and Makoto came through against some very tough competition, including Mark McEwan, representing Toronto, Robert Clark, representing Vancouver, and Michael Blackie, representing Ottawa-Gatineau. With enormous charm and humility, Makoto, representing Winnipeg and the restaurant where he worked (a small bistro-cum-food store called Gluttons) and brilliantly assisted by his pastry chef Chantalle Noschese, aced the three-day competition.

The rest is history. Chantalle became pastry chef at Canoe in Toronto before going back to Winnipeg (the call of the prairies). Makoto was head-hunted to China where he opened a huge and dazzling restaurant in Beijing, called Makoto, which was our principal rendezvous during the 2008 Olympics. When the games were finished he left for Hong Kong, opening a tiny, precious spot called Liberty Private Works, where he cooked an omakase meal for a handful of very select gourmets every night. He also partnered in a big sports bar for the same backers and basically became the talk of the town.

Makoto comes from restaurant roots. His father, Sadao, opened Winnipeg’s renowned Japanese restaurant, Edohei, and Makoto grew up there. He returned early this year to take over the reins while his father battled cancer (the prognosis is positive). Meanwhile Liberty Private Works needed someone to take over and chose Vicky Cheng, a young man who used to work at Canoe, Auberge du Pommier and for Daniel Boulud in New York. If you’re in Hong Kong any time soon, I would recommend a visit.

As for Makoto… His victory in the Winnipeg 2006 Gold Medal Plates was historic for many reasons, not least because it was the first and last time we staged a GMP event in that city. Until this year. We’re going back in the fall, which fills me with happiness. That gives us nine cities across the country, from St. John’s to Vancouver, all prepared to play the GMP game, raising money for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. And with the 2012 London games on the horizon, anything we can do becomes very important. Makoto is going to be a part of the event, serving as an honorary judge on the jury of experts who will determine the gold, silver and bronze medallists, and also preparing delectable canapés for the couple-of-hundred VIPs at the preliminary reception.

What the future holds for Makoto is a mystery. His girlfriend is a pastry chef from Vancouver, currently working in Hong Kong where she stars at an all-dessert restaurant (a three-course dessert prix-fixe, like Chickalicious in New York). The idea of doing somewhere together has been broached, he tells me, but who knows where? Vancouver? Why not Toronto, sez I? Meanwhile, we should all go to Winnipeg and ask Makoto to cook for us, omakase style, in his father’s restaurant. I can guarantee it will astonish and seduce the most jaded buds.

Edohei is at 355 Ellice Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 204 943-0427. www.edohei.mb.ca.

 
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The Coronation of Martin Juneau

13 Apr

Chef of the day at Newtown, Montreal

Last night I was in Montreal to help present chef Martin Juneau with his trophy as Canadian Culinary Champion, a title he won in February at our Gold Medal Plates final. Juneau is chef of Newtown, the restaurant and bar once owned by Jacques Villeneuve – or rather chef of the chic, modern restaurant on the second floor of the four-storey property. His jurisdiction does not extend to the bar and terrace and the whole enterprise is overseen by Executive Chef Daren Bergeron who has often competed in Gold Medal Plates from his other location, Decca 77.

But last night belonged to Juneau and a bunch of us gathered to hand over the engraved cup that will be his for the next 10 months and the superb silver-and-gilt plate, both designed and created by BIRKS, which he is entitled to keep for ever. GMP Montreal Senior judge Robert Beauchemin was there; so was GMP Ottawa-Gatineau Senior judge Anne DesBrisay (who took these pictures) and a surprise guest, Sinclair Philip of Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island, who was in town on Slow Food convivium business and stayed to show the support of the west. The tone of the evening was set by Juneau himself, who tends to hide his heartfelt emotion behind a casual, laid-back manner, but the applause was long and loud for the champion and the two sous-chefs who competed alongside him in Kelowna, Laurent Roy Julien and Nicolas Point.

When we had done our happy duty, half a dozen of us stayed for dinner, ordering family style with the food set out in the middle of the table for all to share. We began with bison carpaccio sliced so thinly it almost painted the plate. One could have dragged a fork across it and left half behind. Juneau had seasoned it with a grinding of a spice that seemed uncommonly aromatic and exotic but was merely very fresh black pepper. Beside the meat stood piped dots of intensely flavourful grano padano cream, a salad of diced raw zucchini, and another of arugula topped with grated padano.

Scallops, seared to take them beyond gumminess but so briefly that their juices had barely seized, played a game of camouflage alongside braised cippolini onions in a potato foam; poached quail eggs provided a third example of soft, round, white delectability.

Quail breast rolled around a gently spiced boudin noir was cooked sous vide to give it a rare, trembling texture not found in nature. Beneath the meat were slices of raw Granny Smith apple and under them, a purée of browned onions with a deep, sweet flavour that balanced the boudin noir beautifully. A mound of lightly stewed apple and fennel served as a soft condiment.

Beefy beef cheek cheeky with carrots

Juneau loves to take a single, often humble vegetable and use it in several ways on a dish. He also likes involving a raw ingredient to provide freshness and texture, especially when the main protein is rich and unctuous. The dish with which he won the Championship – crisp-skinned St. Canut piglet belly glorified with various iterations of beetroot and Granny Smith apple – was one case in point. Another was last night’s beef cheek, the first of three main courses we also shared. The big chunk of meat proved marvellously tender and unctuous, set over carrot cut and cooked like fettucine and sauced by the beef’s seeping juices. Buttery mashed carrot shared the plate and the whole thing was smothered with ribbons of raw carrot. Bugs Bunny would have had a field day but for me, it was one carrot too many.

“Rabbit three ways” was delightfully inventive. The leg meat had been shredded, wrapped around the bone and then breaded and fried in a crisp panko crust like a pogo. The liver and kidneys were skewered and grilled. The tiny rack was cooked sous vide so that one could draw the soft meat off the toothpick-sized bones merely by sucking. The vegetable component was an unexpected but rather brilliant match – firm little edamame with wasabi mayo and a final sprinkling of shredded nori.

Halibut represented the denizens of the deep, a quivering fillet topped with tomato gratin and sliced chorizo, sitting on a mound of sweet, partially oven-dried tomatoes, baby kale and rapini. The waiter closed the deal by pouring a chorizo broth into the bowl. The dish ended up tasting much more of chorizo than of halibut, but perhaps that was the point.

Fragments of a dessert

Three desserts appeared, each of them consisting of distinct elements lined up on long, elegant plates. The first involved gorgeously moist, fresh apricot financier cake, moments of passionfruit foam and of yuzu curd, smiles of fresh orange injected with vanilla and slender white fins of meringue. The second starred fresh Quebec strawberries, almond sorbet, morsels of lemon cake and dabs of vanilla fromage blanc. The third envoi featured a chocolate mousse tartlet, julienne of fresh pear, pecan sorbet, brown butter cake and large dots of salted caramel cream that almost flirted with the flavour of bacon.

Newtown is at 1476 Crescent Street in Montreal (514-284-6555), a beacon of elegance and sophistication in a street better known for its balconied pubs and serious celebrations whenever the Canadiens play at home.

 
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East & Main, Prince Edward County

27 Mar

The Main event - fillet of cheval with mushrooms, green beans and potato rosti

Twenty-four hours in Prince Edward County is a surprisingly effective getaway – at least it was this weekend, with dazzling blue skies and bright sunshine belying the sub-zero temperatures. The roads and the beaches were empty, the meadows and copses free of the snow that we left behind in Toronto but still poised in winter’s palette of orange and grey. There was ice on the ponds though the ever-present lake glittered temptingly blue, the water as clear as glass. I had driven down to check out two wineries – Sandbanks and Grange of Prince Edward – for an article for Food & Drink magazine. That meant spending the night and that meant having dinner. I’ve been hoping to eat at East & Main in Wellington since it opened two years ago. Here at last was an opportunity.

Wellington is all charm, a village right on the water with enough lovingly restored Victorian houses to satisfy any need for the picturesque. There is one traffic light on Main street and East & Main is close by, a former bulk food store bought, renovated and run by Kimberly Humby and her husband David O’Connor. Kimberly was the gifted sommelier and chef de service at the Fifth in its early days, talents that subsequently took her to YYZ, Fat Cat, Far Niente and Langdon Hall; David is also a sommelier and wine consultant. Moving down to the County and becoming part of the adventure of a nascent wine and food destination has been a long-held dream of them both. The chef is Lili Sullivan who was chef at Peter Oliver’s short-lived Chapeau in the ’90s and then at the Rebel House where she cooked the best pub food in Toronto for seven years before moving down to the County.

So – a talented line-up! And the space is lovely. The old wooden floor has a certain undulation, though not enough to cause the wooden tables to wobble. The bar is right in the middle of the room and one can see into the kitchen at the rear so there is always a visible, lively bustle to energize the ambience. Gourmet treats and local delicacies in jars and bottles are on sale, temptingly arrayed on shelves made of repurposed barn boards; the colour scheme is mostly a mellow grey-green, the consciously rural décor offset by a number of fancy chandeliers. We didn’t know it, but this weekend is Countylicious and the place was packed with locals eager to try the generous $30 prix-fixe menu. The kitchen offered to put together a tasting menu for the two of us, with Kimberly matching the dishes to local wines. The idea was irresistible.

We began with a flute of Hinterland’s 2007 sparkling rosé, a fine bubbly the colour of peach glass and full of the refreshingly lean County acidity and an intriguing minerality on the finish. East & Main’s wine list (David O’Connor’s on-going project) is a thing of beauty with over 100 wines, of which more than half proudly carry the local acronym PEC VQA. The mark-up is notably low, offering a fine opportunity to explore the tastes of the region and hard-to-find vintages such as 2007.

Gnocchi in mushroom consomme await the culinary napalm of flaming brandy

Our first dish needed no wine – would have killed one, in fact. It was a delicate mushroom consommé containing three drowned gnocchi that had first been pan-fried to give their light, fluffy surface a browned suggestion of crispness. The miniature bowls were set down before us then Kimberly poured on flaming brandy from a tiny jug. It was a dramatic coup de service but my gasp of admiration blew out the brandy prematurely which left a lot in the consommé and masked some of its mushroomy nuances.

The next dish was right off the menu, and part of the Countylicious offering for those fortunate bargain-hunters – a jumble of perfectly seared sweetbreads, local mushrooms and crispy parsnip ribbons piled high on a disc of maple-roasted sweet potato. A rich meaty port reduction was the unctuous sauce. Kimberly paired it with an off-dry 2009 Riesling from Sandbanks – a huge contrast to the deep, dark flavours of the dish but a triumph in the end.

Onwards to three impeccably tender ravioli filled with creamy, very flavourful duck confit. The little squares were outlined from beneath by a red wine-mushroom reduction and topped with buttery oyster mushrooms seasoned with pepper and sprinkled with a little chopped parsley. This time the wine match was more conventional – Trumpour’s Mill 2007 Pinot Noir made by the Grange of Prince Edward, a delicious, beautifully knit Pinot with a more intense flavour than the nose would suggest.

Perfect duck confit ravioli outlined by red wine sauce

Juicy pickerel fillets from the Bay of Quinte were the next act on the program, hidden beneath thin “scales” of potato like pommes Anna. Under the fish was a jumble of ribbons cut from multi-coloured carrots that had survived the winter in the field and were as sweet as they were crunchy. With this we drank Casa Dea’s limpid, spicy Pinot Gris.

Our main course was a lean, exceptionally tender fillet of horse meat wrapped in cawl fat that pressed a brunoise of mushroom against the muscle. With this came potato rösti and green beans and another saucy reduction. Fieldstone vineyards 2007 Cabernet Franc was exactly the right wine to bring out the taste of the meat.

Dessert was a raisin butter tart that contained an unexpected surprise – little flecks of maple-smoked bacon. It’s a dish I will have to return to some day when I haven’t eaten quite so much…

I’m delighted to add East & Main to the ever-growing list of County treasures. We walked back to the little inn where we were staying and couldn’t help but notice the breathtaking blaze of stars in the moonless sky. Such a cold night made them sparkle more brightly than I have ever seen in my life, on any of the six continents I have visited. No wonder so many people are drawn to this enchanted almost-island. East & Main is at 270 Main Street, Wellington, Prince Edward County. 613-399-5420. www.eastandmain.ca.

 
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Sparkling Hill

18 Feb

A bath with a view

Sometimes an invitation is too intriguing to cause even a momentary hesitation. That was certainly the case when Sparkling Hill resort in the Okanagan suggested that the judges for the Canadian Culinary Championships – ten of us, all told, might wish to spend 24 hours there before driving into Kelowna for our gruelling weekend of work. The kicker was the opportunity to experience the cold spa in the resort’s extraordinary Kurspa. You may have heard of this – it’s quite the rage in Austria and Germany. One strips down to swimming trunks, socks and shoes, gloves and a surgical mask and spends three minutes standing in a chamber with an ambient temperature of minus 110 degrees Centigrade. There is nowhere on earth that naturally reaches such a low temperature – only in space can such cold be found. Why does anybody do it? There are many reasons given, most to do with wellness, but the gist of it is that a person feels so wonderful when it’s over. To be that cold must be extraordinary, we thought, and so it proved. “When you emerge,” explained Hans-Peter Mayr, President and CEO of the resort, “you will feel as if you want to run outside and pull up a tree with your bare hands, the adrenalin-endorphin rush is so strong.” Okay…

In the end, seven of the ten judges decided to go for it. We made a surreal picture, kitted out for the “plunge” (photos were taken and I am spending a fortune trying to have them suppressed), then in we went, three at a time, accompanied by Hans-Peter, who wore a suit and tie. You enter three rooms, the first chilled to minus 10, the second to minus 60, and then into the third… It’s no bigger than an elevator, panelled with wood, and there’s a window through which a controller peers, making sure we don’t overstay our welcome in this frozen circle of hell. The first thing that happens is that the room fills with fog – the frozen carbon dioxide of each exhalation. The first minute is simply really really cold, though the total absence of moisture mitigates it a little. After one minute and 45 seconds, the brain begins to send frantic signals of alarm and the urge to open the door is almost overwhelming. Fifteen seconds later, the panic passes. By now the cold has entered your bones. Shins and pate, elbows and shoulders feel it first. “Like a million little needles,” said one judge. And yet there is physical exhilaration – that endorphin rush. Hans-Peter counted down the last five seconds and we left the chamber quickly and gratefully.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. It has worked marvels with people suffering from depression, inflammation, rheumatism, fibromyalgia… And now I have experienced the deep cold of space and lived to tell the tale.

Chef Ross Derrick

As spas go, Sparkling Hill is unique in the world. It is owned privately by Mr. Gernot Langes-Swarovski, patriarch of Swarovski crystal company. Built on the peak of a granite mountain with amazing views of Lake Okanagan and the Monashee mountains, it cost $122 million to build and has been decorated with 3.5 million Swarovski crystal pieces – about $10 million worth of scintillating, iridescent glass. The spa itself is vast, with all manner of steam and sauna rooms, water therapy walkways and pools and serenity areas, combining the German idea of a wellness spa with the North American emphasis on pampering. It is, quite simply, breathtaking.

There are several restaurants at Sparkling Hill, including one called Cleanse, where no food is served, just detox concoctions. We had dinner in Gernot’s, the private dining room named for the owner. The chef is a talented young Canadian called Ross Derrick and he started us off by leading us out into the snow and sabreing a bottle of local bubbly, mixing it with local poire Williams, cassis and a dash of vermouth in an Okanagan take on a Kir Royale. Then we went back indoors into the firelit, wood-panelled room and sat down to a splendid dinner. Each course was named for the local artisanal producer who supplied the main ingredients or else, where the first course was concerned, “Farmer’s Market.” It proved to be a most impressive collation of vegetables – beetroot whipped with gelatin to make an ethereal mousse, juicy little cippolini onions, a purée of banana squash, dried leeks and raw radish, carrot pearls and candied parsnip crisps, delectably matched with Township 7 Sauvignon Blanc.

Farmer's Market - a sparkling first course

Veronika Falkner was a rabbit terrine. Ms. Falkner is only 16 years old but raises rabbits for market. Chef Derrick had turned them into a moist, dense terrine, wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with a couple of grains of Murray River salt, garnishing it with dots of yellow cherry purée and sour cherry compote, both coming from a grower called Neil Sproule, who may or may not be my relative.

We went on to a succulent little fillet of the first sable fish of the season, pan-fried for a moment then shown the oven, surrounded by tamarind purée for sourness, eggplant with lemon purée, cauliflower florets turned into tender pakoras with turmeric oil, some brown and crispy, others pickled, tender and white.

The main course was Fraser Valley goose, slivered slices of the breast with a tasty fringe of fat, cooked sous vide then roasted. Chef piled them up with crunchy moist braised endive scented with vanilla and citrus and a jumble of supple oyster mushrooms.

Our goose, cooked to perfection

Then there was cheese – a sort of blue tête de moine made locally and served with honey spun into sponge toffee – and followed by dessert – an extravaganza of local fruits preserved last summer, made by one of the pastry team, Anne Riemerschmid. I remember tonka bean mousse with a damson plum sauce, rosemary panna cotta with poached pear, a peach foam, a blueberry-blackberry sorbet, a whole cherry hidden in a marzipan coat, a tiny apple strudel and more and more. But all so light and easy.

Sparkling Hill is entirely unique. Check it out on the web site, www.sparklinghill.com, and also check out the prices. The owners have not created this place for a wealthy elite. It costs about as much to stay there as it does in an inn in Muskoka. Amazing.

 
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A day in Montreal

13 Feb

Le Gout des Mots

On Friday, I took the train to Montreal to take part in a symposium on food writing at McGill University, a joint – and bilingual – venture of the French and English Departments. The venue was the Faculty Club Dining Room, a delightfully eccentric Victorian salon resplendent with stained glass and mock-Gothic columns. There were to have been five of us on the panel, including master baker and author Marcy Goldman, chef and veteran restaurant critic of the Montreal Gazette Lesley Chesterman, and anthropologist and food writer Robert Beauchemin. Robert is an old friend who is also Senior Judge of Gold Medal Plates’s Montreal jury but, hélas, he was stricken with a cold and forced to make his excuses. Instead, we were joined by Catherine Turgeon-Guin, a rather brilliant graduate student working on historical aspects of food writing, so the academic side of the subject was well represented. Our moderator was Professor Nathalie Cooke, renowned culinarian and also editor in chief of CuiZine, the Journal of Canadian Food Cultures. I believe the proceedings of the day will be fully reported there, so I won’t go on about them. Suffice it to say, I hope the audience had as much fun as the panelists. Time sped by. By way of self-introduction, each of us was invited to name our favourite piece of food writing. To my surprise and delight, Lesley Chesterman nominated the Jeeves stories of P.G.Wodehouse, especially those tales dealing with Anatole, the brilliant French chef employed by Bertie’s Aunt Agatha and coveted by every other household in the brittle but endearingly innocent world of Wooster. Her father read them to her when she was a child, she explained, and she remembers being deeply impressed by the power and influence the great chef exercised over aristocratic society. It was a good start to an afternoon that gave much pleasure and food for thought.

            The organizers of the event, Professors Frédéric Charbonneau and Paul Yachnin, had also invited another panelist who had been unable to join us – Hugo Duchesne, co-owner and sommelier of La Montée de Lait, the excellent little restaurant on St-Laurent. He has been too busy since the recent departure of chef and co-owner Martin Juneau to take part in the discussion. Juneau, if you recall, won the Gold Medal Plates Tour de Montréal in the fall and will be competing in the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna next week. Meanwhile, he has moved to a new kitchen – Newtown, on Crescent Street. Taking over at La Montée is a 25-year-old chef called Jonathan Lapierre. My friends Frédo (the same Professor Charbonneau), his wife, Marie-Pierre and their pal, Andy Paras, and I were eager to taste his work and see if La Montée is still one of Montreal’s finest, so off we went there for dinner.

(right) Professor Charbonneau. (left) me in full academic costume. (behind) splendidly decorated Faculty Club Dining Room

      

      La Montée is a cosy and merrily informal spot with an open kitchen at the back. A tall red banquette runs down the centre of the room creating a partition between the bar area and the dining area. The décor is cheerful – a high ceiling covered in dark blue pressed tin, walls of open brick or white clapboard, black wooden tables set very close together. It’s a little bit scruffy, very serious about wine and food and always full.

            We began with oysters – some from St-Simon in New Brunswick (briney with a fine minerally, metallic finish) and others from Summerside in P.E.I. (creamier, sweeter) served with their mignonette on long, rough-hewn wooden boards. A glass of Cadel Vispo Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2008 was an almost perfect match. The wine list here is mostly French, jewelled with interesting producers from small appellations, but a blackboard of other wines by the glass changes frequently.

            From there, I pursued a nautical theme with a plank of seared mackerel – very intense, salty and densely textured under its crispy skin. Chef Lapierre had cut it into bite-sized pieces and arranged them into three mounds with fresh, crunchy shaved fennel and radish, pungent chives and whole segments of tangerine. There were dots of thick tangerine curd on the board and a puddle of smooth white caillé de vache, which Google translates as “cow quail” but which is really a separated dairy product somewhere between buttermilk, crème fraîche and green cheese. Its cool creaminess was a perfect foil to the mackerel.

For my main course I chose sweetbreads – a single good-sized lobe perfectly cooked, tender and creamy inside its browned and fairly crispy surface. Surrounding it were wands of firm roasted parsnip with their uniquely aromatic, sweet, rooty flavour, and little slices of cooked apple that had been pickled in vinegar with a slightly too heavy hand. Chewy lardons of smoked bacon, a delectable cauliflower purée and a sticky brown reduction of pan juices completed a scrumptious dish. Frédo chose a great wine to sashay down the gastronomic aisle with it – a limpid, elegantly oxidated, altogether seductive 2003 Savagnin from Jacques Puffenay of Arbois in Jura that tasted of walnuts and an autumn walk through the woods. After that, he still had room for a beautifully moist financier cake with fresh orange and citrus sorbet but I declined (for some reason I don’t now remember) and regretted it for the rest of the evening.

            “We must go to La Brasserie T next time,” suggested Marie-Pierre. It’s Normand Laprise’s new casual spot next to the Museum of Modern Art, inexpensive and open for lunch. He gets his beef from Cumbrae Farms in Toronto (only Laprise could get away with that in Montreal) – beef of such quality that he can cook his bavette rare and it’s still tender. So that will be a date, next time in Montreal.

La Montée de Lait can be found at 5171 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal. 514 273 8846. www.lamonteedelait.com.

 
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