WILL TRAVEL FOR FOOD

Hello,

I’m so happy to announce that my blog now has a new home! Please check out:

I’ll be waiting for you on the other side!

Last Saturday I discovered the amazing universe of Café Falco. I had heard about this place from David Nathan, a journalist friend of mine and have been wanting to visit but they only serve their Japanese brunch on Saturdays. I finally had the chance to visit this week-end and I absolutely loved it! The food is simple yet good but it was the atmosphere I fell in love with. It reminded me a bit of De farine et d’eau fraîche in the sense that I felt as if I was entering a unique universe.

Café Falco is an industrial looking space filled with unique objects, some new, some recycled. The vintage sewing machine tables, complete with intact vintage sewing machines, make a perfect backdrop under shades with original illustrations. You can take a seat on the leather couch, on a drafting stool along the communal table or you can stand in front of the open counter like I did and watch (with fascination) as your siphon coffee is made. The process is absolutely fascinating and the counter crowded with glass siphons looks like some crazy science lab resulting in a great cup of joe that tastes stronger than a filter coffee but milder than en espresso.

Frederik Froument and Yuko Toda are the owners of this gem and Yuko’s Japanese origins the inspiration behind the menu at Café Falco. The Japanese brunch consists of a bowl of miso soup, a salad and a stir fry with your choice of chicken, pork or tofu. It is accompanied by tea or coffee and orange juice and ends with a mini matcha and chocolate chip cupcake. I also couldn’t resist having one of the pain au chocolat from Boulangerie Guillaume on sale there.

If you’re ever in the area, I strongly suggest you stop by for lunch, brunch or simply one fascinating cup of siphon coffee and just linger…

Café Falco
5605 de Gaspé
514 272 7766

Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 10am-4pm

When I heard that the team from Les 400 coups, one of my favourite restaurants in town was behind the menu of La Cabane this year, I couldn’t contain my excitement! La Cabane is an urban sugar shack set up in Old Montreal for the second year now. I was looking forward to going since I hadn’t had the chance to go last year. I was also looking forward to trying the menu created by Marc-André Jetté and Patrice Demers and seeing how they would reinterpret the traditional sugar shack fare. For those of you who don’t live in Quebec, sugar shacking takes place in the spring during maple harvesting season. Traditional sugar shack serve an all-you-can-eat cornucopia of maple drowned dishes usually involving a lot of fat in a very rustic decor. This “urban” sugar shack however is more like my cup of tea. The decor, a creation by komotion with works from Monde Ruelle artists is absolutely amazing and full of rustic reminders of a “real” cabane à sucre.

I leave you now with a few images of that evening. If you’re planning on going, hurry up because it’s only on until April 15. Don’t forget to book your table, all the info is below. Oh and grab me one of those maple financiers, they were fantastic! :)

La Cabane

From March 10 to April 15 2011

Price per person: $55 (+ taxes and tip)
Kids under 12: $15 (+ taxes and tip)

By reservation only
info@lacabane.ca
514 444 4383

Scena, the Jacques Cartier Pavilion, Old Montreal
Wednesday-Saturday 6pm
Sunday 11:30am

Look mom, I’ve been published! Well not exactly but I do have one recipe published in this great new book coming out on March 14! It’s called Les Carnivores Infidèles (The Unfaithful Carnivores) and contains 60 vegetarian recipes designed for carnivores who would like to lower their meat consumption. The recipes are beautiful, delicious and easy to make. My friend Catherine Lefebvre, who is a nutritionist and a blogger, is the author of this magnificent book. She meticulously tested and adjusted all the recipes in the book and supervised the whole process. The result is a gorgeous volume filled with 60 recipes and nutritional information presented in a fun and humourous way.

I just received my copy of Les Carnivores Infidèles and I absolutely love everything about this book! The photos were taken by Albert Elbilia and they are beautiful, as you can see in this post. I am so proud to be part of this project! The book will be available in bookstores on March 14 and will soon be available on Amazon. Unfortunately, it is only available in French for now so all of you non-french speaking people, you must find a french speaking neighbour/friend/family member asap and ask them to translate!

You will find my recipe for moussaka, a Lebanese eggplant and tomato dish very different from the better known Greek moussaka on page 112. As a special treat though, I am publishing it here today! :)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants, cut in 1/2” slices
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, sliced thin
• 4 garlic cloves,
• 1x540ml can of chickpeas, drained and rinced
• 6 tomatoes, diced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander (freshly ground is better)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C)
2. Place the eggplant slices on a cookie sheet, brush with olive oil and cook for 30 minutes (or until done)
3. In the meantime, sauté the onion and garlic in a pan. Add the spices and mix. Take off the heat and add the tomatoes. Reserve.
4. When the eggplant is done, place the slices in a pan, cover with the rest of the ingredients and place in the oven for another 30 minutes.
5. Serve with whole wheat pita bread. This dish can be eaten at room temperature or cold. Enjoy!

If you do try it, let me know how it turns out! I like making this recipe at the end of summer when tomatoes and eggplants are at their best but you can make it any time of the year.

You can check out the Les Carnivores Infidèles’s website and blog here.
You can also follow the cheating adventures of Les Carnivores Infidèles on Twitter (@lescarnivores) and on Facebook.

“Did you prefer the brain or the testicle?”

“I like the texture of the lung better than that of the liver.”

“The recipe has the word “blood” in it and they just gave us a spoon… I’m scared!”

These are the sorts of conversation overheard at the Chris Cosentino dinner at DNA this past Friday night. I admit that I had been (very) worried about this dinner. I am not a fan of offal but I knew this was not a dinner I wanted to miss. If I were going to taste offal at any point in my life, I was sure Chris Cosentino was the man I wanted cooking my meal. So I showed up ready for the “experience”. I wasn’t the only one since the restaurant was filled with chefs, bloggers and food critics. Anyone who had anything to do with food was at DNA that night..

I come from a culture where we eat offal but the “we” here doesn’t include me. It’s not the sort of thing I’ve ever liked, except for the occasional chicken liver and hearts sandwich drowned in lemon and garlic. The menu that was set on our table seemed pretty inoffensive for the most part: turf n’ surf, lamb pluck fra diavolo, chicken candy bowl, chocolate n’duja cones… but when our plates arrived, it was a completely different story. The dishes became increasingly difficult to swallow, literally.

The first dish was the easiest, even though it was hard to wrap my mind around the fact I was eating raw horse heart. It tasted like a very tender beef tartare. The fries were super crispy and yummy. We made a sandwich out of all the elements, as recommended by our waiter and everything put together tasted much better than all the elements separately.

The smoked eel, egg (cooked slowly for 2 hours) and bread polenta in the second dish were all good. I tried the blood mousse but couldn’t bring myself to eat it. Maybe if I didn’t know it was blood mousse, it would’ve gone down easier. In fact, the whole meal was a mind game, trying to get past the tricks your mind plays on you. You keep asking yourself, if I didn’t know what it was, would I eat it? Thinking back on it now, maybe we should’ve told the waiter to refrain from describing the dish until we were done eating it…

Some morsels in the 3rd dish were more palatable than others (I really don’t like the texture of liver) but I didn’t finish my plate because it all tasted a little gamey to me. A diner who had gone through the whole dinner already passed by our table on his way out of the restaurant and let out an evil laugh while telling us that the “best” was yet to come. Suffice it to say that I was a little worried, especially since the brief description of the dish was “Big brain, little brain”.

You have to hand it to the chefs, they did have a wicked sense of humour. I personally preferred the “big brain” over the “little brain” but most of us only had a bite of each. The salad was delicious though, in case you were wondering ;)

Through the whole dinner I was telling myself that at least the dessert will be offal-free, it had to be right? How can you make dessert with offal? That was until Hugo (aka FoodCzar) stopped by our table and said “bonne chance avec le dessert!” What?? And as you can see from the picture and description above, this was no ordinary dessert. Duck testicle jellybean anyone? Candied cock’s comb? Hard. To. Swallow. But again, if I didn’t know it was a cock’s comb, I probably would’ve thought it was a fruit roll and maybe I would’ve eaten it but I couldn’t get away from the image in my mind of a wobbling, jiggly red cock’s comb.

By the end of dinner I felt like I needed a shot of vodka (or rubbing alcohol as Dustin said) to sterilize my insides. I am very happy I had this experience and I really do believe in the nose to tail philosophy but now I know that eating offal is really not my thing. However, if you would like to have some great offal in town, take heart (pun intended) because DNA’s chef Derek Dammann is the man for you. Enjoy!

DNA Restaurant
355 Marguerite D’Youville
514 287 3362

Restaurant:
Tue - Fri: 11:30am-2:30pm
Tue - Sat: 6pm-10:30pm

Lounge:
Tue - Fri starting at 11:30am
Saturdays starting at 6pm

I have a confession to make: I’ve never been to Club Chasse et Pêche! Yes, I know, it’s one of the best restaurants in the city and I still haven’t been, shame on me! It’s on my list though and I will hopefully get there soon but in the meantime, when I heard that Le Filet - CCP’s little brother - was opening soon, I got there asap, on the 4th day after they opened to be more exact.

Le Filet is discreetly (read: hard to find) situated on a stretch of Mont-Royal Avenue one doesn’t normally think of when searching for good eats. It is across the street from Jeanne Mance Park which will be nice in the summer when their terrasse opens. The decor is contemporary with an open kitchen in the back and a built-in aquarium in one of the walls yet the wood chairs and vermilion coloured table cloths lend a touch of old-world charm to the restaurant. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, which is why we put our fate in the hands of our waiter Alex and let him decide on our meal that night. It would’ve been impossible for me to pick only a few items from the menu because everything sounded absolutely delicious! The menu is divided into a few sections: Small Plates, Oysters, Broths & Shellfishes, Mont-Royal Salads, Raw, Warm Tide, Home Made Pasta, Amphibians and For Two People. With the exception of the “For Two People” section, all plates are made small and can be shared “tapas” style.

The plates started coming and kept coming until we decided we’d had enough. In all, we ended up sharing 11 dishes including 2 desserts. I wanted to share my favourites with you but I found myself listing everything we ate so I will refrain and let you drool over the pictures instead (thanks to Nabil for all the photos!)

This was an absolutely great meal but I do have a point to raise: it is very hard in Montreal to find a restaurant where the desserts are as good as the rest of the meal. Although the desserts at Le Filet were good, they just weren’t at the same level of perfection as all the other dishes. I am a dessert lover and I find myself often disappointed when the end of the meal approaches. With the exception of Les 400 coups and one or two other restaurants I feel like the dessert menu is always an afterthought. Is it because most restaurants don’t have pastry chefs in their kitchens? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Le Filet
216 Mont Royal East
514 360 6060

Tuesday-Saturday 5:30pm-11:30pm

This past Tuesday, I was invited to Restaurant Julien for a dinner that centered around the Perigord truffle. It was a media dinner and I was invited because I am now writing for zurbaines, in case you didn’t know that already :) The dinner was fabulous, a preview to what is to come at the Julien as part of the Montreal Highlights Festival. The invited chef, Gaëlle Benoiste‐Pilloire created a 6-courses dinner using truffles. She will be at Restaurant Julien for 3 sold-out nights during the festival, but the truffle dishes will be available à la carte for the duration of the Festival, February 17th to 27th. If you are a truffle lover, hurry up and make some reservations, some of these dishes are well worth it, especially the quail egg with truffle oil accompanied by a fresh truffle and salted butter bite, so simple yet so decadent!

6-course of chocolate desserts, need I say more? Saturday afternoon I joined a few other chocolate addicts to indulge in a 6-course chocolate dishcrawl at Le Maître Chocolatier. The desserts were prepared by Nada, owner of Le Maître Chocolatier and pastry chef Jami Liverman. I never thought I would see the day when I would say enough to chocolate but that day came this past Saturday when I had to take the last “course” home. Jamie’s pastries – including his amazingly fudgey brownies – will be available at Le Maître Chocolatier. If you didn’t have the chance to attend this dishcrawl, don’t fret, you can join any of the monthly dishcrawls coming up. I now leave you with some pictures that might induce severe chocolate cravings, you’ve been warned!

Restaurant Julien
1191 Union Avenue
514 871 8819

Le Maître Chocolatier
1612 Sherbrooke West
514 544 9475

For more information on Dishcrawl, check out their website here. And for more info on the Montreal Highlights Festival, click here.

It was about a week ago that I discovered the magical universe that is De farine & d’eau fraîche and fell in love with it. I went in to take a look and ended up spending a couple of hours there chatting with the owner while munching on the very tasty pastries.

The first thing you notice when you walk in is the display of amazingly intricate miniature wedding cakes. As the lovely and charming owner Marilu Gunji pointed out though, you don’t have to get married to get one! Marilu is half Japanese and half Guatemalan; she attended culinary school for 3 years in Japan before moving to Toronto at the young age of 18 to learn English. After a spell at the Cordon Bleu in Ottawa led her to focus her energy on pastry making, she moved to Montreal where she worked in some of the city’s top restaurants, including the now defunct Anise on Laurier, before deciding to finally pursue her dream of owning her own pastry shop.

Everything in her shop, from the decor to the furniture details to the pastries, is meticulously thought out and constructed but always with a whimsical touch. Her husband - who is a cabinet-maker - has built all the dark wood tables and branded them with the store’s logo, a heart containing the initials DF + EF (De farine & d’eau fraîche). Marilu “makes” her own cake stands by finding antique candle holders or wine glasses and pairing them with English porcelain plates. All these little touches add so much to the whole atmosphere of the place that it makes you want to linger there for a few hours.

The excellent organic coffee served there is another reason to linger. There is also a great array of organic teas and juices. Marilu uses organic products whenever possible while making her pastries, including the chocolate used to make the chocolate syrup for the mochas and hot chocolates.

I was so enchanted with  with the whole atmosphere that I had to try almost every pastry contained in the display case that day. There were a few savoury ones like the bacon and corn bread and the ham and cheese bread and a few savoury sweet ones like the corn and cheddar muffin. And of course, there were the sweet ones, my favourites, especially the chocolate ball filled with custard that is the house specialty. The display case also contained an array of cookies, home made Pocky, truffles, flavoured caramels and cute little cakes, including a heart-shaped tea and rose one that caught my eye.

There’s a saying in french that the pastry shop’s name is based on and it is that one could live on love and fresh water alone, d’amour et d’eau fraîche. If I lived closer to this fine pastry shop, I wouldn’t need anything but “flour and fresh water”… or those chocolate custard-filled pastries.

Note: De farine & d’eau fraîche just started serving lunch. On the menu this week: soup, organic salad and 3 types of panini (jambon bernois, brie, honey and Asian pear is just one example). Stop by for a delicious bite and say hi to Marilu from me!

De farine & d’eau fraîche
1701 rue Amherst, Montreal
514 522 2777

Monday-Friday 7:30am-6pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Closed on Sundays

All pastries tasted were between $2.75 to $3.25

Last Thursday was the 2nd edition of the Telegraphe Taste Tests. We had done our first taste test back in September where we voted for the best canelés in the city. This time the challenge was to vote for the best financiers. Financiers are small French cakes traditionally made in rectangular molds resembling gold bars and contain (among other things) brown butter, almond flour and egg whites. These days however, financiers can be found in all kinds of shapes and flavours, including different spices, fruit or nuts. I started baking financiers a couple of years ago and I fell in love with them the first time I bit into one. They are crunchy on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside. The brown butter gives them a slightly nutty taste which I absolutely adore. They are also very easy to make and you can get as creative as you’d like with the flavours! So when this taste test came up, I went nuts with so many flavour trials: there were some lavender and pear ones, orange and cardamom, orange blossom water and hazelnuts, etc. but the one recipe that stood out for me and that I absolutely wanted to make was one I had made several times before: Cannelle et Vanille’s candied kumquats and pistachios.

The contestants for this taste test included 3 professional bakers/pastry shops and 6 amateurs.

The contestants: Andrea (who baked 2 flavours), Caroline (with 2 flavours as well), Sarah, Clément, Charlotte, Jérôme Ferrer (on sale at the Boutique Europea), Pâtisserie G&G, Pâtisserie Rhubarbe and me! :)

The mission: Find the best financiers in the city!

The prize: Bragging rights and a few glory tweets from every foodie in Montreal about how good your goods taste!

Everyone at Telegraphe was so excited about this taste test! You see, not only were we going to be tasting some amazing pastries but we were secretly planning on unveiling our the new Telegraphe website to the many food and fashion bloggers invited!

The evening started with some wonderful savoury bites by Chef Nabil El-Khayal who delighted us with his bright fuchsia beet dip (you’ll find the recipe at the end of this post), chorizo-stuffed mushrooms and crunchy falafels. It was then time to start the blind taste testing and voting. The financiers were accompanied by my favourite ice cider Cryo, that provided the perfect accompaniment to the sweet cakes.

It seemed like everyone was taking this part of the event rather seriously, some even methodically tasting and taking notes. After everyone had voted, the votes were counted and…

1st place: Andrea with her orange and cardamom financiers with candied ginger

2nd place: Me!! with my candied kumquats and pistachio financiers

3rd place: Sarah with her savoury take of sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan, dried fig, cumin and anis seed financiers

Andrea, the Grand Prize winner, walked away with a fabulous Bosch Tassimo home brewing system which I hope is being put to good use.

Unfortunately, you won’t find financiers in many Montreal pastry shops. I do hope they will become more trendy and more readily available because they are wonderful. In the meantime, you can always contact one of us to bake you a batch. After all, we were voted the best ;)

These Telegraphe Taste Tests will be happening often so if you have an idea of what you’d like to put to the challenge next or if you’d like to participate to the next taste test, leave me a comment below and I will contact you as soon as we’re ready for the next one!

Beet dip recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized beets (whole and unpeeled)
• 125ml labneh (strained yogurt, found in most supermarkets these days)
• 50ml lemon juice (zest optional)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 15ml olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
2. Clean the beets. Place them on a cookie sheet on bed of coarse salt or wrap them up in aluminum foil. Cook in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes or until they become fork tender. Once cooled, peeled the beets by rubbing them with a linen or paper towel then cut them into  pieces.
3. Place all ingredients in a food mixer and reduce them to a purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper then refrigerate.

Notes from the chef:

1. You can also cook your beets whole and unpeeled in a pot of salted boiling water.
2. If no one is allergic to nuts, you can add 30ml of tahini (sesame paste) to the mix for extra flavour.

I want to thank all bakers for participating, Nabil for his wonderful bites and Jérôme Ferrer, Pâtisserie G&G and Cidrerie Cryo for their amazing generosity.

Pâtisserie G&G
1846 Mont Royal East
514 439 3854

Birks Café
1240 Square Phillips
514 397 2468

Cidrerie Cryo
85 Rang des Étangs
Mont St-Hilaire, Québec
514 831 1258

And of course, do check out the new Telegraphe website! It is awesome, if we do say so ourselves! :)

I’m sure your mom has told you at one point or another in your life that it is not polite to eavesdrop or interrupt a conversation that doesn’t include you. I am here to tell you that it sometimes pays to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. It’s very hard not to eavesdrop when you’re unwillingly following everyone else’s conversation on Twitter. I was witnessing such a conversation between Dustin (aka @FoodGuyMtl) and new executive chef of Koko Restaurant Michele Forgione when I butted in and invited myself (and Marcella!) to a private dinner to try the new menu created by Chef Forgione for Koko. The modern market-style menu was completely redone by Chef Forgione and was just put into place. I am so glad I butted in because that was one of the best meals I’ve had in this city! 

Listed below are the 10 (!) dishes we sampled that night, all of them cooked to perfection and all of them absolutely divine!

Michele Forgione is an amazingly talented chef, sourcing his meats and vegetables as close to home as possible. Him and his team dished out a delicious array of Italian flavours with a contemporary twist. If you ask me to pick my favourite dish of the night, I would have a very hard time choosing just one but I will say that the gnocchi are sure to knock your socks off!

Koko might not be the kind of restaurant one might think of when looking for an outstanding Italian meal but I am here to tell you that it’s definitely worth the visit! Go on a quiet weeknight when the chef can really take care of you. Buon appetito!

Koko Restaurant
8 Sherbrooke West, Montreal
514 657 5656

Open Daily 5pm-3am

You can follow Chef Forgione’s culinary adventures on Twitter at: @MicheleForgione

What is your favourite restaurant in the whole wide world? Let me rephrase that, what’s the best dining experience you’ve ever had? I have a few on that list, among them are Eleven Madison Park and Le Bernardin in New York City and The Paul in beautiful Copenhagen. However, one of my absolute favourite dining experiences in the whole world is this little place on the beach in a small town called Marina di Bibbona in Tuscany. I know, that’s a long way to go for Italian food, especially when you live in the heart of Little Italy like I do! This divine place is called La Pineta and the food there is phenomenal. However, it is not just the food and the impeccable service that makes it one of my favourite restaurants in the world, it’s the story of how I got there, it is the perfectness of that particular day, the mood, the way the sun lit up the water, the way the sand felt under my feet, the feeling as if I was discovering a great big secret…

I visited Italy for the first time about a year and a half ago. On the last day of a week-long drive through Tuscany, we left Elba and started heading back home (close to Rome) but had reservations at La Pineta for lunch. It was an hour in the opposite direction so when we got off the ferry from Elba, we debated whether or not we should just forget about it and start on the 4-hour drive back home. I am so glad we decided to go ahead with our original plan! When we arrived in Marina di Bibbona guided by our trusty GPS (not!) we asked around and were pointed in the direction of a dirt road towards what seemed to be camping grounds. At this point I was very much doubting whatever website had made us believe that this was worth the trip. I was tired, hungry and cranky (those usually go hand in hand for me) and just wanted to eat and go home. I kept driving on this unpaved road knowing that I was driving parallel to the sea but not being able to see it because of the dense pine forest hiding it. I finally made a sharp left turn and halleluiah I could see the water. The only visible restaurant on this stretch of typical Italian beach was a pizza shack! I couldn’t believe we had gone out of our way and driven all this time for a pizza shack! I parked the red Fiat 500 while my friend went to inquire. I was getting really desperate until I saw B. waving his hands at me indicating that we should park and go join him and so we did. To my surprise, through the pizza shack and just behind it was hiding one very classy white-linen, silver cutlery, crystal-clad restaurant. This little hidden gem with its feet in the sand and an amazing view of the sea instantly charmed me. All my frustrations vanished instantly and I couldn’t believe that such a place could exist on this beach. My friends decided to go with the tasting menu while I decided to pick à la carte. One little side note here, La Pineta is a family-run restaurant and the owner is a former fisherman who still gets his daily catch from his family’s fishing boats every dawn. The daily menu is then composed according to the catch. Yes, it was that kind of place…

So I started with a plate of crudo, including two types of raw shrimp, so sweet and tasty, with specific instructions to eat it in a certain order and which ended with bites of smoked mackerel with mascarpone and caramel. Who would’ve thought that I would like something that tasted like smoked fish candy! But all the elements in those little bites worked perfectly together.

My primi piatti was a spaghetti with pulpo (octopus): as you can see, I had eaten half the plate before I remembered to take a picture and that is simply because it was the best pasta in the world! Remember that scene in When Harry Met Sally? That was me eating this dish, people turned around and stared (and ordered the same thing I was having) when I took my first bite, it was just that good. I am not the biggest pasta person, but that pasta I can eat everyday for the rest of my life!

My secundi piatti was fish (I can’t remember the variety) with capers, olives, cherry tomatoes and rosemary that was so very tasty and fresh… but not as impressive looking as my friends’ soup. Yes that’s fish and seafood soup, or more precisely caicciuccohe, a Livornese specialty that he’s famous for. Impressive no?

I always have room for dessert so yes, I had dessert after all that even if the waiter called me a what sounded suspiciously like “pig” in Italian! - and then had a good laugh about it! I ordered the only chocolate thing on the dessert menu (typical), a molten chocolate cake, which was good but obviously not as phenomenal as that pasta dish! My friends had the spiced pear and the mille-feuilles.

Some meals, like some people, form a permanent imprint on your mind and in your heart. I have a terrible memory but I still remember everything about that meal - and that magical day - as if it were yesterday. Needless to say that we ended up spending a couple of hours on that beach that afternoon wanting to prolong this magical day before we had to head back to reality.

If you ever find yourself in Tuscany, I guarantee you that La Pineta is certainly worth going out of your way for…

La Pineta
27 Via dei Cavalleggeri Nord
Marina di Bibbona , Italy
39-0586-600-016 

It seems only fitting that my last post of 2010 should be about my favourite desserts this year. I have had an amazing year of good eats all over the world, from London to Copenhagen and from Beirut to New York and of course my hometown of Montreal, where we are spoiled when it comes to amazing restaurants. In case you didn’t know by now, I have a very sweet tooth and I always leave room for dessert, no matter how full I am. So here is my roundup of 10 of the best desserts I’ve had in 2010, whether made at home or eaten in a restaurant. Please note that it was too hard for me to list them by order of deliciousness so they are listed in no particular order.

Patrice Demers’s “green” dessert:

2010 was the year I discovered the genius of Patrice Demers, first with his chocolate “pot-de-crème” at Newtown and then with this green dessert at Les 400 coups. I have since made it several times, mainly because I had a craving for it. The first picture is of the green dessert at Les 400 coups and the second one is my take on it at my 3rd annual dessert party.

Momofuku’s apple pie cake truffles:

My mistake was buying only one bag of these, I should’ve bought 10 because I should know by now that anything that comes out of Christina Tosi’s (pastry chef at Momofuku) kitchen is genius!

Beignets with a salted-butter caramel dipping sauce at Le St-Urbain:

Fried dough with salted-butter caramel, nothing more to say here…

Thomas Keller’s chocolate bouchons:

Very similar to his chocolate brownies, these are just as luscious and so chocolatey. If you’re a chocolate lover, then these are a must! They are from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon book but you can also find the recipe here.

Christophe Michalak’s chocolate moelleux with cappuccino mousse:

I tasted these at Michalak’s book launch in Montreal this past November. Michalak is one of the best pastry chefs in the world. There was a huge buffet of delicious desserts at his book launch but these stood out as my favourites. Even though I had already had way too much sugar that night, I just had to have seconds of this one. 

Choux pralinés and éclairs from Pâtisserie de la gare:

Definitely the best éclairs I’ve ever had! I’ve tasted the chocolate, espresso and caramel/raspberry versions and they are all out of this world! So good that I decided they would be the ones to make the desserts for the Dishcrawl event I helped organize. The picture of the praline choux à la crème was taken at the Michalak event but was (and is) made by Pâtisserie de la gare, whose pastry chef worked with Michalak in Paris for 5 years.

François Payard’s verrine du japonais:

From their description: “Layers of hazelnut dacquoise, milk chocolate mousse, yuzu citrus crémeux, milk chocolate chantilly and dark chocolate glaze”. I had my first one of these back in April and had to go back and have another one on my recent trip to New York. One of the best desserts I’ve ever had!

My Kugelhopf’s tahini date shortbread:

Voted “best cookies in the world” first by me, then by my dessert party guests. Easy to make and seriously addictive, I have made these a few times since reading Kerrin’s post in October. I am still awed by how good they taste every time I bake a new batch (and almost burn my tongue with that first cookie because I’m too impatient to let it cool)

Cannelle et Vanille candied kumquats and pistachio financiers:

2010 will also be the year when I came to the conclusion that financiers are my favourite things to bake. They are easy to make, the combination of flavours are endless and they are absolutely delicious. My favourite combination so far has been the candied kumquats and pistachio one from Cannelle et Vanille.

Homemade panettone:

This is a once-a-year event only (around the holidays) and I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time: the 19th anniversary dinner of Buonanotte. Every single food blogger in Montreal was talking about this panettone for days after we tasted it. This is a world away from the panettones you can purchase at your local supermarket. My wish for 2011 is that they decide to start selling it!

Bonus number 11: My birthday dessert at Eleven Madison Park:

This dessert concluded an unforgettable birthday lunch at EMP this past November. Chocolate composition with variations (dehydrated chocolate mousse, chocolate honeycomb, etc.) with milk - absolutely delicious!

This year is also the year I started to blog. The response has been great and I have met so many amazing people who are just as passionate about food as I am. I want to thank you all for reading, tweeting, sharing, commenting, etc. Have a very sweet 2011!

This past Sunday was my 3^rd annual dessert party. It all started 3 years ago when I decided to throw a party sometime between my birthday in November and the Christmas holidays. It has since become a tradition… I ended up making so many desserts that first year that everyone took a tupperware home. So the year after, I made a lot on purpose and prepared some nice gift boxes that my guests filled up and took home with a nice card as their Christmas gifts. I did the same this year as well. I love the idea of giving sweet treats as a holiday gift and this for me, is the perfect occasion to do so…

All year long I go through hundreds of food and baking posts and I come across so many recipes I’d love to make but don’t always have time for. I bookmark them all and they come in handy when it’s time to pick a menu. I also often include some of my favourite recipes from that year. To be able to pull off a multi-dessert party, you must be very well organized so here below are some tips I’ve gathered with experience :)

Pick your recipes – I spend weeks doing this, mostly because I can’t decide on what to make and also because this is my favorite thing to do! Look through those cookbooks or favorite blogs and pick the recipes you want to make. When choosing, try and pick various recipes in terms of types of desserts (pies, cakes, mousses, cookies, verrines, etc.) and flavours (chocolate, fruit, spices, etc). Prep time is also crucial when picking recipes, you have to have some recipes that are ok if done a couple of days ahead because you absolutely cannot make everything the same day! You may also want to include some true and tested recipes in there if you are not too confident about baking something for the very first time. In my 11 desserts, I only had 3 that I had made before; the rest were all new recipes. I always try new recipes when throwing a party, which might not always be the wisest choice!

Calculate your quantities – Once your recipes are chosen, print them out. Then go through the ingredients list of each carefully. Add up the most popular ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, butter) to come up with a total needed then list the least common ones (dates, nuts, fruits, etc). Check your list twice, you don’t want to run out of sugar when in the middle of a recipe!

Go shopping – Do this a few days ahead so that you’ll have everything handy when you’re ready to start. I shopped for everything on the Wednesday before the party then came home and got everything organized .

Make a schedule – Decide what dessert you will be making when. Start with a couple of days before the party since you really can’t do a lot much earlier than that (unless you’re making things like ice cream, macarons or truffles, which can be made a few days ahead). Don’t forget to include preparation in your schedule, for example, you can pre-chop all the chocolate needed for your recipes, toast and chop any nuts needed, confit fruit since that can be done a few days ahead, etc. These steps will help you save some valuable time.

Start baking! – I started prepping on Friday night and made 2 desserts that night (the cookies and the chocolate/yogurt cream for the “green”) then made a few more on Saturday and prepared some things for Sunday. On Sunday, I baked the cannelés and financiers dough (which needed to rest in the fridge for 24 hours) and made a few more things, but was done early enough to tidy up and decorate the apartment before everyone showed up. I assembled some desserts at the last minute (assembling the “green” verrines, icing the cupcakes, dusting the cake with cocoa and plating it, etc.) and when everyone got here, everything was on the table and I was ready to party!

Be flexible – If you find yourself short on time (or just plain tired), then eliminate something. You’re probably making too many anyway so one less dessert won’t be missed by anyone (don’t tell anyone, but I decided to eliminate one at the last minute!) You can also supplement your homemade desserts with store bought ones. I bought some chestnut bites from Kreavie because they are absolutely delicious and I wanted to share them with everyone!

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you prepare 11 desserts in 2 days, and have fun doing it!

This was my menu for this year’s party. All the recipes just happened to be from my favourite baking blogs, except for the green, which is from genius Montreal pastry chef Patrice Demers and one of the best desserts I’ve had this year. Click on the titles to get to the recipes.

Tahini date shortbread cookies – Best. Cookies. Ever. Period. (My Kugelhopf)

Tortine alla nutella – Nutella cupcakes, need I say more? (Bell’Alimento)

Key lime squares

Cannelés – I had a little trouble with the baking temperature and time but the last batch was awesome! (Christelle is Flabbergasting)

Orange and olive oil cake  - One of the party’s favourites! (Christelle is Flabbergasting)

Chocolate & chestnut truffle torte – Dense, chocolatey and amazing! (Goodfood)

Honey and pine nut tart – These were a great hit! (Tartelette)

Milk chocolate peanut bars – In his words: “Peanuts, chocolate AND bananas” and you get to brûlé the bananas! (Zen Can Cook)

Sticky toffee pudding – Sticky, sweet, full of butter and so good! (Donna Hay)

Green – One of my favourite desserts these days! (Patrice Demers)

Lavender/apricots financiers – I love financiers and this was my first time baking with lavender, a success! Since it’s not apricot season, I replaced them with pear and it was great! (Tartelette)

Happy holidays everyone! I wish you lots of good foods and sweet treats in the new year. May your plate always be full and your table always be surrounded with loved ones….

Last night I was supposed to spend the evening at Raza, one of Mario Navarrete Jr’s restaurants, to taste and to learn how to make some of his delicate Nuevo Latino dishes. The event was canceled due to the many inches of snow we got for the last couple of days so instead, I decided to share my brunch experience at Madre, one of his other restaurants.

It is no secret that Nuevo Latino cuisine is one I particularly like and that Madre is one of my favourite restaurants in Montreal. I have had some amazing culinary experiences there, especially when it comes to the ceviche and sweet potato bread pudding. I had been wanting to try their brunches and so on a beautiful winter Sunday a few days ago, I drove to the other side of town for a different kind of breakfast. I wasn’t disappointed!

The meal started with some of the warm homemade sweet potato bread that I love so much and that has become a signature at Mario’s restaurants. I then ordered the poached eggs & chorizo bubbles with caramelized onions on toasted bread. I must admit that there were what I thought as too many chorizo “bubbles” on my plate (and how do they stay “bubbly” for so long?). It was hard to see the food underneath but once I dug in, everything was excellent! The eggs were cooked to perfection and the chorizo slices were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. 

My brunch companion went for the corn cakes with pork shoulder, sunny side up egg, patatas bravas and tomato salsa, a beautiful and very generous plate of food that he had a hard time finishing.

After our plates were cleared, there was a little dilemma at our table. We started debating whether or not we should order the sweet potato french toast with caramelized bananas and dark chocolate that had caught my eye on the menu. It was pure gluttony at this point since we were already full but really, was there ever a doubt? It was just too good to pass up! The french toast was soft and sweet and the bananas caramelized and drenched in sweet syrup. The dark chocolate and the fresh fruit added a nice contrast to the sweetness of the dish. Absolutely delicious!

If Madre wasn’t so far away from where I live, I know that I would be there at least once or twice a week. And I know exactly what I would have too: ceviche, homemade corn bread and sweet potato bread pudding. Every time. The brunch was delicious and different from anything else you get in the city but the dish that will definitely keep me going back there is the ceviche, always.

Madre
2931 Masson, Montreal
514 315 7932

Dinner
Tuesday-Saturday: 5:30pm-10pm

Brunch
Sundays: 10am-2pm

Read my review of Mario Navarrete Jr’s À Table restaurant here.

Although I spent my birthday at Le Bernardin, one of the most acclaimed restaurants in New York City (and maybe the world), that wasn’t my favorite dining experience on my trip to NYC. This was. I had been to Eleven Madison Park once before, a couple of years ago and had been wanting to go back ever since. Danny Meyer, the great New York City restaurateur, opened EMP in 1998. In 2006, the restaurant was changed from a French bistro to a fine dining establishment to better fit the grandiose Art Deco space it’s located in. When the first review from the New York Observer stated the restaurant needed “more Miles Davis”, a little research on what that meant concluded with a series of words most often used to describe the great jazz legend that now hang on the entrance to the kitchen and act as words of inspiration to the whole staff:

2006 was also the year Daniel Humm (voted Best Chef New York City, 2010 by the James Beard Foundation) took over the EMP kitchen. Lunch at EMP was the last meal of a 4-day orgy of memorable dining experiences in NYC, and what a meal it was! I love the new “minimalist grid” menu which lets you chose the main ingredient of each one of your courses then lets the kitchen work its magic around that ingredient. We went for the 4 course menu, which - as you will see in the pictures below - ended being more like a 10-course magical meal.

PRE-APPETIZERS

The meal started off with 3 appetizers before we even got to the bread service and our meal. I could have eaten 10 times the amount of each one of these appetizers. In fact, I could have made a whole meal out of each and every one of the dishes served that day.

BREAD SERVICE

The bread service is an absolutely fascinating ritual at Eleven Madison Park. I watched it at our table and then again at a few tables around us and it was just as mesmerizing every time. The goat butter is divine and the home-made bread delicious.

FIRST COURSE

SECOND COURSE

THIRD COURSE

PRE-DESSERT

DESSERTS

POST DESSERT MIGNARDISES

Just in case we haven’t had enough food and were still hungry…

BEHIND THE SCENES

Dining at EMP is not just about the food, it’s about the whole dining experience. Every single member of the staff is lovely, friendly, polite, knowledgeable, attentive and is there to make your dining experience memorable. I’d like to think that they were extra attentive with our table because it was my birthday and also because I was so enthusiastic about being there! The lovely birthday wish on my dessert plate was a great surprise, and so was an invitation to take a tour of the kitchen! We started in the service area, which was built this past fall with the purpose of eliminating the service stations in the restaurant thus reducing the noise level. The service area is where the bread trays and different kinds of coffees are prepared and where all the silverware and Limoges dinnerware are stored.

From there we moved into the kitchen, which was busy with 20 or more people all working their stations in preparation for that night’s dinner service. Chef Daniel Humm was away that day but on the kitchen walls was that Miles Davis poster among other words of wisdom and inspiration.

Another surprise awaited us in the kitchen… Mark (the pastry sous-chef, aka the alchemist) made us a frozen Hemingway daiquiri right before our eyes using liquid nitrogen while we watched the kitchen action. The frozen concoction included some grapefruit foam and pop rocks at the bottom of the glass for an added surprise!

That frozen daiquiri was the cherry on top of the amazing sundae that was that lunch. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a delightful dining experience. Eleven Madison Park now has a permanent place on my New York restaurant list, in fact it probably has the top spot on my list of all-time favorite restaurants. I am already planning my next trip to the big apple because I can’t wait to go back!

Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
212 889 0905

Lunch
Monday–Friday noon – 2:00pm

Dinner
Monday–Saturday 5:30pm – 10:00pm

Women in business suits and running shoes, school kids in uniforms wheeling around heavy school bags, doormen in uniforms opening doors, nannies pushing fancy strollers… this is my New York, the upper east side of Manhattan that was my home for 3 years when I was 17 and the place I go back to every 6 months. I love waking up to the view towards downtown from the 29th floor apartment that I call home here. I may roam in the posh upper east side neighborhood but I love everything about this city. I love its gritty subways, the smell of food everywhere, the sense of urgency in the air as if everyone has somewhere important they need to be and how small one feels among the over-sized architecture. My feet get an extra spring in them when I walk down the streets there, and my face automatically lights up into a smile. New York fills my heart with excitement and my mind with inspiration; the possibilities are endless there and the opportunities infinite.

That is true of the food opportunities as well. It is torture for a foodie to only have 4 days in the city and have to decide on where to eat! So many restaurants, so little time, even if you fill out every hour of every day with a food-related rendez-vous, which I did! It is even more impossible to decide on where to go when you have something to celebrate. I had a birthday to celebrate last Friday and it took me weeks to finally decide on Le Bernardin following Eve’s suggestion on twitter (thank you Eve!). I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before really. I met executive chef Eric Ripert when I was at the Food & Wine Festival in South Beach last year and thought he was the nicest, most generous man. I had told myself that I should try and visit Le Bernardin next time I was in New York and I had completely forgotten! So glad Eve reminded me. It is not often that I eat at a restaurant that’s been awarded 3-stars by the Michelin Guide and 4 by the New York Times. The experience now ranks in the top 10 dining experiences I’ve ever had.

We started with a cocktail and an amuse bouche of poached shrimp on a bed of sweet potato purée with a sambal emulsion. If this was any indication of how the rest of the meal was going to go, I couldn’t wait to dig in because this first dish was just delicious! We opted for the Chef’s tasting menu ($185 per person, $325 with wine pairing) and the food started coming. I’m sorry to say that in my haste to start eating, I forgot to take a picture of the first dish, which was a smoked yellowfin tuna “prosciutto” with Japanese pickled vegetables and crispy kombu. I apologize about that! Now, let the food parade commence!

And the desserts:

Coming from Montreal, what always impresses me the most about these high-end Michelin-star restaurants is the level of service you get. We have amazing food in Montreal but none of the restaurants in the city have that level of service. While at Le Bernardin, I looked up from my plate at one point and all I saw was what seemed like a perfectly choreographed ballet of waiters, weaving in and out between tables without ever letting their presence be felt. Plates are changed, glasses refilled, cutlery replaced constantly and it never gets in the way of a conversation or the intimacy you share with your dining companions. The waiters are courteous, knowledgeable, polite, and the restaurant is elegant without being stuffy. By the time we asked, chef Ripert had already left the restaurant. I would’ve loved to have him autograph the complimentary menu and Zagat guide book we got on our way out and to tell him how I truly enjoyed spending my birthday there.

“Fish is the star of the plate, not the chef” - states the last page of the menu in big letters. I tend to agree with that statement because the fish (all sustainable) on the plate is absolutely phenomenal, but then again, where would that fish be without the talent of the chef and his whole team?

Le Bernardin
155 West 51^st Street
New York City
212 554 1515

Lunch
Monday–Friday noon – 2:30pm

Dinner
Monday–Thursday, 5:15pm – 10:30pm
Friday & Saturday 5:15pm - 11pm

I had been anticipating the opening of Les 400 coups for a few weeks now. I was especially anticipating tasting some of pastry chef Patrice Demers’s desserts. I couldn’t get there soon enough so I made reservations for their second day of opening this past Tuesday night.

The restaurant is located on Notre-Dame street in Old Montreal where the old Resident used to be. The space is airy with very high ceiling, a bar on one side and an open kitchen in the back. A huge painting of Nicolas Ruel covers one whole wall of the restaurant. We were greeted by sommelière Marie-Josée Beaudoin - who is one of the 3 owners - seated by the window and of course offered a nice glass of Sauternes. Chef/owner Marc-André Jetté’s menu seemed very interesting and creative but I couldn’t make up my mind and asked the waiter for an omakase-style (up to the chef) appetizer and main meal. A tasting menu is available but we weren’t hungry enough for a 5-course meal.

The first course we got was a Jerusalem artichoke soup with buttermilk mousse and bottarga shavings delivered by Demers himself. This meal was boding well because the soup was absolutely spectacular! 

It was followed by our 2 appetizers: a yellow beetroot salad with crispy beef marrow, radish, yogurt and yuzu and a beef tartare with mustard ice cream. The beetroot salad was so fresh and who knew I would enjoy deep fried beef marrow so much? The tartare could very well be the best beef tartare I’ve ever had! And the mustard ice cream? Absolute genius!

Not knowing what to expect adds so much to the dining experience. The element of surprise is like receiving a gift from the kitchen. From where I was sitting I could see Jetté and Demers hard at work in the kitchen and I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to be sending our way. We got the mackerel with Peking duck raviolis, parsnip purée and brussels sprouts and the black cod with dashi, rock shrimp, oyster mushrooms and a green apple/wasabi condiment. Both fishes were cooked to perfection, tender and moist and absolutely scrumptious.

The time had come for my very favourite course of any meal but especially this one, since I was so looking forward to Demers’s desserts. We picked the desserts ourselves and I went for the chef’s signature Green dessert, a mix of apple, pistachio, olive oil, coriander and creamy white chocolate yogurt, absolutely divine! We also tried the Araguani chocolate mousse with pear sorbet, caramelized nuts and sapote which was amazing as well.

One would think that for a chocoholic like me, the choice would be obvious - and it usually is - but I walked out of Les 400 coups seeing the world though green-tinted glasses! I wanted to take a green home but was told it wouldn’t make it. I guess that just means I’m going to have to go back soon.

Les 400 coups
400 Notre Dame East
514 985 0400

Does having breakfast in a jewelry store that sells jewels in little blue boxes ring any bells? Well, let’s just say that I’m no Audrey Hepburn but the ambiance at Birks does make you feel like a princess, if only for a few hours… And for me, it was all about the ambiance and the attention to detail because honestly, even though the food was good, it was not mind-blowing.

When you arrive at Birks for brunch, the table is already set with beautiful cutlery and china, a basketful of mini croissants and pains au chocolat, a home-made brioche and some home-made jam. The brunch menu is a fixed $39.50 menu which includes everything that’s on the table plus a “teaser” (amuse-bouche), 2 courses, a dessert and as many coffees, teas and/or mimosas as you can handle. I ordered a latté which arrived in a tiny little cup (think big espresso cup). I did notice later on that the “regular”coffee that’s included in the brunch menu is actually a french press one so will be ordering that if I do go back since I really didn’t get nearly enough caffeine with my tiny cup of latte.

The “teaser” that day was a bacon-wrapped prune. In my opinion, it could’ve definitely benefited from a bit more cooking so that the bacon crisps up a bit… However, without dwelling too much on that little detail, we moved on to the next course which was my favourite of the savory ones: a ricotta-shiitake ravioli with a porcini emulsion, topped with a poached egg, pine nuts, black truffle shaving and truffle oil, outstanding! A beautiful dish where every component was cooked to perfection. I would gladly give up on the other courses just to have more of this one!

The third course was a smoked salmon tartare, topped with Abitibi caviar and surrounded by a zucchini “lasagne”. I thought that the zucchini was not seasoned enough and even though the tartare was very fresh and good, I personally did not find it to be amazing.

I could see all the chocolates, macarons and financiers lining up the front of the restaurants in their jewelery cases… The pistachio financiers had left an impression on me during the opening night of the Café and I was looking forward to the sweet part of the meal. The desserts did not disappoint at all. I had a verrine of praline mousse with a tiny little meringue filled with chestnut bits and topped with an almond brittle and Marcella had a verrine of vanilla and coffee panna cotta with a white chocolate shell filled with salted butter caramel. All the dessert verrines sounded outstanding and we had a hard time picking just one.

I hear that Birks Café has a really good tea service and I look forward to trying it out. I saw some of the tea platters pass by and I am intrigued. I mean, what girl wouldn’t want to spend the afternoon in a jewelery store sipping on a Mariage Frères tea and munching on cute miniature food?

Birks Café by Europea
1240 du Square Phillips
514 397 2468

This past Sunday evening, after a long day of eating my way through downtown Montreal with Marcella, we ended up at Kazu’s door at around 5pm for some more eating! I had been wanting to try out this tiny Japanese izakaya retaurant for a while now and had been disappointed to find it closed the last two times I tried to go… This time around, we were the first ones in an increasingly long line-up and ended up getting the prized window table when the doors finally opened after a half hour wait!

The restaurant is shockingly tiny, with 3 tables down one side of the space and 8 seats at the bar. The small kitchen behind the bar is where you’ll find chef (and owner) Kazuo Akutsu whipping up his magical dishes. There is a rudimentary menu consisting of a few torn pages bound together by a ring on each table with red dots next to the items that aren’t available that night but the real menu is made up of all the daily specials written on coloured paper and taped up to the wall of the restaurant. The papers come off the wall when they run out of a dish, which seemed to happen a couple of times while we were there.

We were lucky to be there on a Sunday, the only day Kazu makes fresh home-made tofu. I’m not a big fan of tofu, unless it’s fried which doesn’t really count, but this tofu was silky and smooth, and was marinating in an outstanding light soy sauce and spice mix. Absolutely heavenly!

The dishes are perfectly timed by the very efficient waitresses at Kazu. It takes the organizational skills of an army general to run the place efficiently since the line-up outside the door never lets up. The next dish to arrive at our table was the “48 hour pork” rice bowl. The pork is marinated for 48 hours and the dish is the perfect balance of flavours with little tangy and salty surprises every time you bite into a bright pink piece of pickled ginger: perfection!

Both fishes in the bowl of tuna and salmon to arrive soon after were incredibly fresh but we were eying the bowls full of meat that were on the other tables. These people seemed to be regulars and knew what to order so of course, we had to get an order of that! The barbecue pork necks turned out to be an incredibly good but very messy choice. There’s really no way to eat these gracefully, you just have to roll up your sleeves and go at it, even if people stare at you through the window! And yes, licking the sauce off your fingers is perfectly acceptable behaviour at Kazu :)

Dessert consisted of a bowl of vanilla ice-cream topped with matcha powder. Let’s just say that next time- and there will definitely be a next time- I’ll be skipping the dessert to leave room for more savoury dishes. There are so many to try!

There must be hundreds of sushi places in Montreal but Japanese izakayas are still a rarity. I fell in love with Bistro Izakaya on Parc not long ago and couldn’t wait to dig into what Kazu had to offer. Turns out, despite the line-up, claustrophobic space and smoke-filled room (or maybe because of those things), I am eager to go back as soon as possible to sample all the other delights whipped up by the extremely talented chef. Who’s with me?

Kazu
1862 Ste-Catherine West
514 937 2333

Wednesday night was the 3rd Alsace au menu evening. I hadn’t been to any of them yet and it was time to fix that, especially that this evening was going to be a Latino one, and I absolutely love Spanish and Latino food! The evening took place at Pica Pica, a fusion Spanish and Latino tapas restaurant, and started off with a glass of Crémant: we were off to a good start! The place was buzzing with food bloggers, some members of the press and a lot of people who were just there for the good wine and food.

I was warned by some “experienced” Alsace attendees to go easy on the wine and I’m so happy I listened! I am a red wine kind of girl usually but I must say that some of these wines can probably easily convert me to white, especially the Pinot blanc thatwas served with the main meal… but I’m getting ahead of myself!

The first appetizer, a very nice scallop ceviche, was prepared by presenter Philippe Fehmiu himself and accompanied by 2 different wines: Riesling, Willm 2009 et Riesling, Léon Berger 2008. My personal favourite among those was the Léon Berger which accompanied the ceviche beautifully.

The second appetizer was a Caribbean-style pulled pork “taco” mille-feuilles which was accompanied by a Pinot gris, Léon Beyer 2008. The pulled pork was delicious and made even more scrumptious by the accompanying wine. I would’ve easily had another plate of this!

Before the main meal arrived, sommelier Aurélia Filion from Bu sur le web, presented one of her favourite Allsace wines, a Cépage d’Alsace, Marcel Deiss 2008. Have you been counting? That makes it 5 different wines so far, so yes, pacing yourself is a very good idea!

The main dish was a beautiful plate which included chicken sofrito in a mole sauce, caramelized cod and chipotle lobster, among other things. It was accompanied by my favourite wine of the evening, a white wine that could convert me to a white wine drinker in a heartbeat, the gorgeous Pinot blanc, Arthur Metz 2009. Just a whiff of this wine will have you converted. It smelled (and tasted!) of roses and litchi. It was crisp and just sweet enough, I don’t know much about wines but I do know that I liked this wine!

I was looking forward to dessert, especially since the description sounded so good: Alfajores with dulce de leche! However, I must admit that I was disappointed by it, which is very unusual for me! The alfajores was very dry and the dulce de leche parfait was not to my liking, with a hint of sourness that I did not find appealing. The wine that accompanied the dessert course was actually better than the dessert and my second favourite wine of the evening, a Gewurtztraminer, Arthur Metz 2009.

The final count of wine glasses was 7, including the Crémant (which I don’t have on the picture above)! All in all a very enjoyable evening that was made even more fun by the good food, the abundance of wine glasses and the company of like-minded foodies.The night was also punctuated by some interesting speeches and anecdotes about Latin America by hosts Philippe Fehmiu and Maria Sanz.

The next Alsace au menu evening is sometime towards the end of November and will be a Mediterranean edition. Maybe we’ll see each other there, I’ll be the one holding the glass of white wine ;)

Alsace au menu
Follow them on Twitter: @alsaceaumenu
Like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlsaceAuMenu

Bu sur le web
Follow Aurélia on Twitter: @busurleweb

Restaurant Pica Pica
1310 De Maisonneuve Blvd East
514 658 2884

Tonight was the opening of Birks Café - the lovely new venture by Europea chef Jérôme Ferrer - on the top floor of the Birks jewelery store. It is a gorgeous place to have lunch or a traditional afternoon tea. In keeping with the theme, the sweet treats are displayed like jewels around the beautiful space. Here are a few pictures of the evening. I will certainly be going back for lunch or afternoon tea.

Crudités garden and the chocolate lion sculpture by Christophe Morel

Pistachio financiers, mini-macarons, meringues, marshmallows and other sweet treats

Birks Café by Europea
1240 du Square Phillips
514 397 2468

The second edition of dishcrawl in Montreal happened on September 28. If you don’t know what a dishcrawl is yet, you may want my post on  the first Montreal dishcrawl here. This second one was a downtown crawl involving 3 restaurants this time: m:brgr, Troïka and Plaisirs Coupables. Here’s a quick account of it in pictures. Enjoy!

3 different kinds of sliders at m:brgr

Poutine with shredded barbecued chicken and mac & cheese with pulled pork at m:brgr

Tomato carpaccio and 2-salmon tartare at Troîka

Lobster raviolis at Troïka

Desserts at Plaisirs Coupables

Sorry for the lack of pictures but the lighting was really low so the pictures are really bad. But I can certainly describe what we had: caramel brownies, a banana split, a Bailey’s Crispy Crunch cheese cake and an apple pie fritter.

The next dishcrawl is a croissants one happening on the morning of October 23, 2010, sign up, it should be fun!

m:brgr
2025 Drummond
514 906 2747

Troïka
2171 Crescent
514 849 9333 

Plaisirs Coupables
1410 Peel
514 507 5689

It all started with one innocent tweet from yours truly stating that Mamie Clafoutis’s canelés were the best in the city. That got a response from Christelle stating that hers were the best and that a post on her canelés was coming soon (she has since then published it). I sensed a certain defiance in her tweet-tone :) so I challenged her to a canelés taste test at the Telegraphe offices. It was supposed to be a small affair, her canelés vs Mamie’s and all of us at Telegraphe as taste testers. But, as we all know by now, there is no such thing as a small affair when it comes to foodie activities and twitter and we soon found ourselves organizing a canelés party! Andrea joined the challenged and a few pastry shops were kind enough to sponsor us with versions of their canelés (all but one which shall remain nameless). All in all, 6 different canelés were put to the test, 2 “amateurs” and 4 “professionals”.

The contestants: Christelle, Andrea, Mamie Clafoutis, Au Pain Doré, Pâtisserie De Gascogne and Boutique Point G

The mission: Find the best canelés in the city!

The prize: Bragging rights and a few glory tweets from every foodie in Montreal about how good your goods taste!

The first edition of a Telegraphe Taste Test took place on Thursday September 9, 2010! We were off to a good start with some amazing savoury goodies from Ian Perreault, including cold avocado soup with pistachios and sultanas, a variety of sandwiches, a lentil salad and smoked salmon tartare. The awesome foie gras that was there that night was the work of Tagada Bistro. The canelés were all aligned and waiting patiently for their turn. Did I mention that this was a blind tasting, so none of the guests actually knew which canelés were which, which is the only way to have a fair ruling really. After everyone was full, the taste test commenced. Everyone had to try a piece of every canelés then use their voting slips to vote for the best one. It was a close call, I myself hesitated between two that seemed like the perfect canelés to me: crunchy and caramelized on the outside and soft and custardy on the inside. The votes were then tallied and the verdict was finally out:

1st place: Mamie Clafoutis

2nd place: Christelle

3rd place: Andrea (and a special mention to her for the matcha-flavoured canelés!)

Next time you’re looking for the best canelés in town, and by the way, we predict that canelés will be the next big thing and that macarons and cupcakes are now out, you know where to go. Or you can bake your own by following Christelle’s recipe here.

We at Telegraphe loved this first edition of the Telegraphe Taste Test and are looking forward to the next one. So I ask you, what would you like to be put to the test at the next Telegraphe Taste Test?

Mamie Clafoutis
1291 Van Horne
514 750 7245

Boutique Point G
1266 Mont-Royal East
514 750 7515

Pâtisserie De Gascogne
237 Laurier West
514 490 0235

Au Pain Doré
1145 Laurier West
514 276 0947

Ian Perreault, prêt-à-manger
1248 Bernard Avenue
514 948 1248

Bistro Tagada
1199 Van Horne
438 380 5858

I had been hearing about Bistro Bienville for a few months now. It’s one of my friend Line’s favourite restaurants and to tell you the truth, I had been feeling a little bit out of the loop for not having been there yet! After all, it has been open for almost 4 years now! That was remedied to a couple of weeks ago when I finally made it out to the heart of the Plateau, to a quiet residential street where the restaurant is unassumingly taking up a corner spot with a lovely herb garden in front. Upon walking in, I was immediately struck by how tiny the place is; only a few tables and some bar stools, about 25 seats in all.

The rather small menu (4 appetizer choices, 4 mains, a cheese course and 2 desserts) is however packed with very interesting items. These are meant to be shared by 2 people and if there just happens to be 3 of you at the table – as was the case with us – then you can trust your very knowledgeable waiter to direct you in your choices. We decided on 2 appetizers and 2 main courses to be shared by all 3 of us. It was more than enough.

If you do go - and I strongly recommend that you do - I urge you to please order the tomato tart. It is a simple tart but oh so flavourful, with the sweetness of the caramelized onions, the acidity of the tomatoes and the sharpness of the Manchego all making beautiful music together. Absolutely divine. The pork and clams appetizer, although very well executed, played second fiddle to the tart that I absolutely adored.

The main dishes we ordered were the Angus beef with Béarnaise sauce and the Cornish hen. The hen was tender, juicy, the vegetables tasty and the jus very flavourful but my heart went to the melt-in-your-mouth Angus beef! I am not a big meat eater and I usually tend to pick the fish dish when at a restaurant but I couldn’t do that on Friday night because of a fish allergy at our table. So we ended up with the beef. The juicy, tender, tasty beef and the perfect Béarnaise sauce that accompanied it. Let’s just say I was very grateful for my friend’s fish allergy, although I must note that I saw the daily catch served at the next table and it looked beautiful!

The two dessert choices ended up at our table. One was chocolate and the other… wasn’t, guess which one was my favourite? :) OK, so I’m biased but this was made with Valhorna! and it included some home made Rice Krispies treats for dipping! Delicious! But to be absolutely honest, the restaurant’s strength lies in the savory dishes. I will be going back to taste that fish!

I love the atmosphere that takes over a restaurant once all the patrons have left. The adrenaline rush is gone, the stress levels have dropped and there’s a camaraderie among the staff that only restaurant workers share. We were privy to that camaraderie on that night since we were the last table there. But what struck me most is how truly “convivial” Bistro Bienville is. The 3 synonyms I found for “convivial” in the dictionary are:

1. friendly; agreeable: a convivial atmosphere.
2. fond of feasting, drinking, and merry company; jovial.
3. of or befitting a feast; festive.

All 3 are perfect fits for this lovely little place…

Bistro Bienville
4650 de Mentana, Plateau Mont-Royal
514 509 1249

Tuesday to Saturday: 5:30pm to 10pm

I first found out about Dishcrawl on twitter. I had recently started following Marcella (@EatalianGirl) when she tweeted something about a first ever dishcrawl in Montreal soon. I spontaneously bought a ticket to what seemed to me like a very fun evening. The idea is similar to bar hopping only with restaurants: one evening, 4 different restaurants, 4 services (one at each restaurant). I am a picker, meaning I would rather pick from different plates tapas-style than eat one big meal. Be warned, if you’re ever out to dinner with me, I will pick from your plate! It’s because I want to taste everything and usually find it very hard to limit myself to only one dish. So, as you can tell, this was the perfect kind of evening for me! Not only was it different plates but different restaurants as well!

The names of the different restaurants were kept secret until the very last minute. We got an email the day preceding the event divulging the meeting place and thus the first restaurant. At 7pm on Wednesday September 1, about 30 foodies descended upon Restaurant Salute, an Italian restaurant on Laurier West. There we sat meeting for the first time and having our first dish (which ended up being my favourite). Porcini risotto that the chef finished cooking inside a $950 cheese wheel, but not just any cheese, a wine-aged, saffron-scented one! The Bagoss cheese comes from a small town in Brescia called Bagolino and Salute is the first restaurant in Montreal to serve it. The risotto gets its last few tosses inside the wheel while the chef scrapes the sides of the cheese to mix into the rice… Incredible!

About an hour after we had all arrived at Salute, it was time to move on towards Parc Avenue where Bistro Lustucru was our next destination. I hadn’t tried this new restaurant yet and was very excited when I found out it was part of the crawl. Lustucru is a raw bar that has recently opened so of course, we had a plate of salmon tartare and swordfish carpaccio topped with strawberries and cilantro followed by one of beef tartare and duck carpaccio with a nut and raisin yogourt. I loved the swordfish carpaccio but the duck one was hard to chew and not a favourite at our table.

The third restaurant was L’Atelier, a a few blocks away on St-Laurent. I like the concept of walking in between dishes, it helps you digest and you get to chat with the other participants who, by the way, were from all walks of life. There were a couple of bloggers but quite a few non-blogging, non-tweeting foodies that had heard about this through… actually, I don’t know how they had heard about it since I get all my news from twitter but they were there! All walks of life and all ages, a very eclectic and interesting group with one common love of food…

At L’Atelier, we were served a crispy square of braised lamb with a thin slice of brioche topped with foie gras. Lamb and foie gras are not on the top of my food list normally but I did taste them and the lamb was good.I had been to L’Atelier before a couple of years ago and I guess there was a reason why I hadn’t gone back since: good but didn’t leave enough of an impression for me to want to go back.

I won’t lie to you, I was hoping for dessert for the fourth course. I always have room for a little sweet something at the end of a meal and I was surprised (disappointed?) that our fourth course was the famous gnocchi poutine at Macaroni Bar. Maybe it was because I had had it before and was looking forward to trying something new… It was a beautiful night and I enjoyed the walk down to Macaroni while getting to know some of the other participants. I think I was one of the few people who had tried the gnocchi poutine before. Still, I must admit, the gnocchi poutine was as good as I remember it, tiny deep-fried potato gnocchi covered in a gravy and gooey cheese: what’s not to like? I was so happily surprised when chef Sergio Mattoscio sent over some of his famous braised pork belly lollipops as a bonus! I have a very vivid memory of ordering these the first time I went to Macaroni only to get them stolen from right under my nose by my dining companions! I had to get myself a second order and even that one wasn’t safe from some of the kleptomaniacs sitting next to me then… I was so happy to be biting into one of these absolute gems once again!

Later that night and the next morning brought on a twitter-frenzy of hashtags and praises for that first and very successful Dishcrawl. This is supposed to be a monthly event in Montreal so keep your radar on because I am willing to bet that the next one will sell out pretty quickly.

If you’re on twitter, follow @dishcrawl and @EatalianGirl for more Montreal dishcrawling news.

Restaurant Salute
234 Laurier West
514 273 9378

Bistro Lustucru
5159, Avenue du Parc
514 439 6701

Restaurant L’Atelier
5308, boul Saint-Laurent
514 273 7442

Macaroni Bar
4448, boul Saint-Laurent
514 287 0287

I am feeling very lucky today because I have had an excellent few days of eating. In the past four days I have eaten at Bistro Bienville (post coming soon!), had dinner at Bistro Isakaya (and fell in love with the food there!) and today I had the pleasure of lunching in the sun at Tagada Bistro. It’s a new little place that just opened not far from where I work, with a cute and sunny little terrace. I have been intrigued by the construction that’s been going on in there for a few weeks now and was looking forward to the opening. Patricio, the charming owner of this little gem, is no stranger to the restaurant business since his family owns La Hacienda, my favourite Mexican restaurant in town and located about a block away from this new place. For those of you who don’t know, Tagada is a very widely sold candy in France, invented by the same company that invented the gummi bears. It’s made to look like a strawberry, has a very specific scent and is covered in hot pink sugar. It is not hard to see that the Tagada candy was the direct inspiration for the decor, which is white, clean and airy with bright bursts of hot pink. Very charming but is the food good?

Tagada has a lunch menu consisting of 2 appetizers and 4 main courses. We ordered both appetizers, a lentil salad with arugula and Parmesan cheese and a gazpacho. Both were perfect. The lentils in the salad had a nice bite, was mixed with finely minced french shallots and perfectly seasoned. As for the gazpacho, it was just what I was craving on this sunny day, refreshing and well seasoned, served with a dollop of sour cream.

For our mains, we ordered the beef tartare and the salmon tartare but then quickly changed our minds when we saw the burger plate go by! There was no way we were going to let such a beauty go by so the burger it was then for my dining companion while I held on to my order of salmon tartare. It arrived with a side of perfectly seasoned croutons and some sour cream. I could taste the freshness and fattiness of the fish mixed with some dill and chives, tangy but not overly seasoned, just the way I like it.

However, what I have written so far in this post were the preliminaries to this burger I am about to describe. I think the search for the best burger in Montreal can now stop because this, my friends, is it! It starts with 200 grams of Tagada’s secret mix of best quality minced meat topped with a generous portion of 6-hour braised short ribs meat, sautéed oyster mushrooms, tomatoes, home-made spicy ketchup and Parmesan cheese, served in a slightly sweet bun with a side of red cabbage and lardons coleslaw as well as new potatoes fried in duck fat. Are you salivating yet? Have you fallen off your chair? It was absolutely scrumptious! The only thing I kept thinking of is how close to the office this place is and how dangerous for my health that could be!

But that didn’t deter me from asking about the desserts, which included basmati rice pudding with caramelized peaches and, of course! a strawberry-flavoured pot de crème topped with Tagada jello and served with slightly roasted Tagada candy! It all tasted very… electric pink and made me feel like a kid in a candy store!

So, do you see now why I am feeling very lucky today? And as if all that wasn’t enough, Tagada is offering free foie gras sampling upon request, so request away! 

In addition to their regular menu, the bistro offers daily Tagada menu surprises for lunch and dinner. The young team is extremely charming and talented and I can’t wait to go back soon to check out some of the surprises and maybe get another burger? How much is the daily recommendation of a burger topped with short ribs anyway? :)

Bistro Tagada
1199 Van Horne, Outremont
438 380 5858 (don’t be afraid, it’s just the new Montreal area code!)

Tuesday to Saturday: dinner
Thursday & Friday: lunch and dinner

When I heard that Chef Mario Navarrete Jr. had opened a third restaurant, I was giddy with anticipation. You see chef Navarrete is one of my favourites in Montreal. I have had some of the best meals at his 2 other restaurants Raza and Madre. I have said again and again that I could probably survive for the rest of my days on his ceviche and sweet potato bread pudding alone. All that being said, I finally managed to make it to his third restaurant, À Table, last Friday night. It is located in Ahuntsic, about a half a block away from another famous Ahuntsic spot, Le St-Urbain.

I must say that being greeted by an unsightly air conditioning machine hanging (and dripping!) over the door was a bit disconcerting… but I quickly dismissed it and started checking out the small, 28-seat restaurant. The decor is very similar to Navarrete’s two other restaurants in that it is very simple. However this one has a much more casual look to it with its dark brown chairs and blond wood table tops. The wallpaper on the right hand side of the restaurant is beautiful and adds depth to the small space. The menu is written on a blackboard hovering over the open kitchen. It is a menu inspired by seasonal and local fares and one that will be changing every couple of weeks (according to our waiter). The kitchen is held by Chef Rodrigo, who was the chef at Madre and who has been working with Navarrete for the past few years.

Pisco sour

After we were seated, we were offered a Pisco sour, which I have been offered (and have tasted) at all of Navarrete’s restaurants. I have to say that I have never had a pisco sour anywhere else, only at these restaurants and they have always been good. The one topped with a very foamy and airy lime mousse at À Table on friday night was no exception. The evening was shaping up to be a good one.

When it came time to order, it was decided (yes, I might have had something to do with that decision) that I would order à la carte and my companion would order the 5-service tasting menu which will give us the opportunity to taste more things. I was taken aback when we were given a small dish filled with ordinary baguette! In case you’ve never been to a Navarrete restaurant, one of the things to look forward to is the amazing freshly baked bread! We later found out that since they haven’t received their oven yet, fresh bread is not on the menu for now but will be as soon as possible. So keep in mind that this whole meal that I’m about to describe was cooked on the stove top!

We started off with two different ceviches, the one à la carte was a tuna ceviche with a mango purée and the one on the tasting menu was a scallop ceviche with a parsnip purée. The scallop ceviche had a much milder taste and texture than the tuna ceviche which was spicier. I was afraid the mango purée would overwhelm the taste of the fish and make this dish too sweet but it was perfectly balanced. Both ceviches were very good but it made me realize that I am a classical ceviche kinda girl: I want that very sour lime note in my ceviche and anything else will not satisfy that craving.

The second dish of the tasting menu was a chilled corn soup topped with a warm crab and potato salad: simply divine! I stole a few spoonfuls and the warm crab-potato salad could’ve stood on its own but was a perfect accompaniment to the rich and creamy corn soup. Nicely done!

For our main meals, my dinner companion had the filet mignon with wild mushrooms on a bed of squash purée and I had the poached shrimps with bacon and lime, garlic and butter sauce with pea purée. I had a tough time chosing my main meal and picking between this shrimp dish, the arctic char one and the scallops. I was very happy with my choice because the shrimp were just perfectly cooked and the crispy bacon pieces added a texture and taste contrast to the sweet pea purée and buttery shrimps. The only thing I was not sure of on my plate was the bacon powder.

The 5-service menu included a “trou normand” at that point of the meal with a mango sorbet with caramelized almonds topped with a lemon mousse. It was like having a first dessert before the desserts. The menu only had two desserts on it, the chocolate custard cake with dulce de leche ice cream, which was included in the tasting menu, and the caramelized peaches with orange-fennel mousse and caramelized almonds, which I ordered. We then quickly switched desserts because, well, because I am a chocoholic and my friends know better than to stand between me and my chocolate :) But since I am nice, I did share :) The chocolate cake was dense and the dulce de leche ice cream delicious. I did try the caramelized peaches and even though I don’t believe anything containing fruit can be considerate dessert :) it was very refreshing. Overall, a very enjoyable evening in a very young restaurant that has a little bit of growing up to do.

The service was not what I had been used to at Madre and Raza where the waiters have always been spot on. I have always had the impression that they had been working there for years and were part of the MNJr family. I must say that I did not get that impression this time around. The service was a bit slow and the only waiter there that night was not as knowledgeable or quick, even though the restaurant was only half full. However, it has only been open for two weeks and perhaps that particular machine hasn’t been oiled well enough yet. I will definitely be going back if only to have the home made bread and to try a new menu. If I am not mistaken, it is the most affordable of all of Navarrete’s restaurants and will be a winner I’m sure.

À Table
124 Fleury West, Montreal
514 439 1966 
atable@groupemnjr.com

Sunday brunch: 10am-3pm
Tuesday to Friday lunch: 11:30am-3pm
Tuesday to Saturday dinner: 5:30pm-10pm

I got the call when I was in Copenhagen a few weeks ago that I had “won” a seat to participate in the next Bironnerie at Restaurant Biron. I didn’t think much about it until I got back to Montreal and then panic struck! I thought of backing out, canceling, what was I thinking when I answered the call to participate? I mean this was serious, every food blogger in town was going to attend this event and eat my food! I was a nervous wreck! But Charlotte wouldn’t let me back out of it and encouraged me to go ahead with it… and I am so glad I listened to her!

For those of you who don’t know how a Bironnerie works yet: every month, the restaurant invites 3 amateurs chefs to play chef for one night. My partners in crime that night were 2 amazing foodies and food bloggers, Nathalie from Foodies Emporium and Dominique from 2Capricieux. The dinner is a 5-course meal of which we each pick and cook one. The chef and his team cook the other two services. Needless to say that it took me a long time to decide on my course and recipe (dessert would’ve been my first choice but Nathalie had already picked it :) ). I finally gave up trying to pick and sent in a few recipes and let Chef Biron choose one.

Amuse-bouche

I arrived at the restaurant at 2pm on July 6th to start prepping. The kitchen staff at Biron is exceptionally nice and helpful. They immediately put me at ease the minute I stepped into that kitchen. Ryan was particularly helpful in playing sous-chef to little old me. I was told again and again that I was the chef and I had to tell them how to do things, which is a concept that takes a certain getting used to. I was done with the prepping early and spent the afternoon relaxing with a chilled glass of white wine trying to stay cool. Have I mentioned that it was 40 degrees outside that day? And that there was no air conditioning in the restaurant? And that it was probably 50 degrees or more in the kitchen? Yes, it really wasn’t the best day to be in the kitchen but it gave me a whole new appreciation for the job and every one who has to do it day in day out, no matter what.

Tomato tempura on a bed of raw asparagus salad with an injection of truffled soy sauce by David Biron (Bottom photo: Jérôme Paradis)

People started arriving at around 7pm and by people, I mean food bloggers, friends and my family. I knew nearly everybody in the restaurant! I started getting a little bit nervous then but more about the speaking that I had to do then the actual cooking. A few amuse-bouche were served first while we got ready to start cooking the menu. We all helped plate the first dish, a tomato tempura on a bed of raw asparagus salad with an injection of truffled soy sauce.

Fresh pea pancake topped with smoked salmon a yuzu-flavoured crème fraîche, shiso and salmon roe by me :) (Photo: Jérôme Paradis)

Everyone having a laugh while plating my dish

Once that was out on the tables, it was time to start my dish, a fresh pea pancake topped with smoked salmon a yuzu-flavoured crème fraîche, shiso and salmon roe. It’s great to have all that help in the kitchen. Making 200 mini fresh pea pancakes à la minute and plating 25 plates doesn’t feel so stressful when you have so many people helping you out. It was actually more stressful to speak and explain my dish to the room, which I did in about 10 very fast seconds! I realize now that I am so much more comfortable behind the stove than I am in the spotlight of the dining room. The rest of the evening went off without a hitch. We all danced around each other in the smallish kitchen, like a well choreographed dance troupe, getting all the dishes plated and out on the tables one after the other.

Cod fritters with spicy mayo by Dominique Bérubé (Photo: Jérôme Paradis)

Chicken supreme cooked in olive juice and Moroccan lemons on a bed of Dupuy lentils with a reduction of balsamic vinegar by David Biron (Photo: Jérôme Paradis)

Dominique’s cod fritters with spicy orange and chive mayonnaise were next and they looked absolutely gorgeous on the plate. Then the restaurant’s chicken supreme cooked in olive juice and Moroccan lemons on a bed of Dupuy lentils with a reduction of balsamic vinegar got plated and served behind my back while I was too busy manning the stove so I only saw that dish in pictures! Finally, Nathalie’s cardamom Krumkake with the most amazing strawberry ice cream was a welcoming refreshing ending to an amazing meal!

Cardamom Krumkake with strawberry ice cream by Nathalie Rivard (Photo: Jérôme Paradis)

I encourage everyone who is passionate about cooking to try this at least once. It was an amazing experience that I would do again in a heartbeat! I was exhausted and had a killer headache at the end of the night but I was ready to do it all over again immediately! That rush of adrenaline is addictive! Who knows, you might find me in the Biron kitchen again sometime soon just for the fun of it!

On the menu that night:

• Fried tempura tomato with an injection of truffled soy sauce by David Biron
• Fresh pea pancakes topped with smoked salmon a yuzu-flavoured crème fraîche, shiso and salmon roe by yours truly
• Cod fritters with a spicy mayo and lime by Dominique Bérubé
• Chicken supreme cooked in olive juice and Moroccan lemons on a bed of Dupuy lentils with a reduction of balsamic vinegar by David Biron
• Cardamom Krumkake with strawberry ice cream on a strawberry and tarragon coulis by Nathalie Rivard

Thanks to David Biron and Stéphanie Quintal and to the whole Biron team.

Thanks to Charlotte for organizing this amazing event and for pushing me to do it!

Thanks to Jérôme Paradis for all the pictures.

Thanks also to Stéphane from zencancook for the inspiration behind my dish. You can find the recipe for the fresh pea pancakes on his website.

Restaurant Biron
1429, rue Amherst
514 528 1429
www.restaurantbiron.com

I just got back from Restaurant Biron’s 5 à 7 to introduce their new summer menu. It was a great evening filled with a lot of food bloggers and delicious bites. I’ll let you savor the pictures below.

Tomato, parmesan and truffle brochettes

Refreshing iceberg and panko salads

Kobe beef tongue and calamari (yes, I ate tongue!)

Gorgeous mackerel and cucumber maki rolls

Mini Kobe burgers - my favourite bite!

Veal sweetbreads with ginger and homemade kimchi - my 2nd favourite bite!

Chef David Biron

Tea and coconut macarons and chocolate truffles

I will be a guest chef at the 3rd BIRONnerie on July 6. Two other amateur-chefs and I will be in the kitchen with Chef Biron and his team to prepare a 5-course meal for all the guests! Make sure to come by to taste what we will be coming up with, I am certain it will be a memorable meal!

Restaurant Biron
1429, rue Amherst
514 528 1429
www.restaurantbiron.com

If you’re a foodie who loves design or if you’re a designer who loves food then Copenhagen is the city for you. It is immediately obvious the minute you land and are welcomed by the teak floor throughout the airport that this is the country where design comes to thrive. Everywhere you look, the architecture of every building, whether old or new, is there to remind you that nothing here is overlooked. Every single detail of the city is thought of in terms of design. For an ex-designer like me, this is a dream city. For an ex-designer who is absolutely in love with mid-century Scandinavian design, I couldn’t have picked a better vacation spot. For a foodie ex-designer who is now in the food business, I’ve hit the jackpot! Copenhagen has 13 Michelin stars, including the two earned by the number one restaurant in the world Noma. I am not planning on eating at all of them, but hey, I’m off to a good start so you never know :)

I spent my first day roaming the city alone today. I got off the train, crossed the street, walked around the oldest amusement park in the world, the Tivoli for about half an hour before spotting the gorgeous, 1-Michelin star restaurant, The Paul where I spend the next 3 hours eating lunch! Now I don’t normally spend 3 hours eating lunch but one thing led to another…

It started out with a wonderful glass of Sauternes in the lounge area, where one can really start getting a sense of the surroundings and how wonderful and airy the space is, even on this rainy day. Then I was moved into the dining area where I was surprised to notice the piles of cookbooks and magazines waiting for me at my table courtesy of my waiter because I was dining along… And then the food started coming. I had chosen the 3-course lunch menu instead of the 7-course Ma Cuisine menu because I had the whole afternoon ahead of me and didn’t want to be too full to walk around (little did I know!)

The first course was an appetizer of salted scallops with rhubarb pickles, wild asparagus, capers and a purée of sultana raisins with a dash of sesame oil. Pure heaven in every bite! Those scallops were like little sweet, sour and salty explosions in my mouth. I wanted to order another one of these immediately, there just wasn’t enough on the plate! but I help my tongue and waited.

The second thing to arrive at my table was the butter. Now that wouldn’t be an eventful thing in any other restaurant but this was no ordinary butter, this was butter made specifically for the restaurant by Nimb dairy, located about 200 feet from where the restaurant is. Look at that butter’s colour! It was amazingly rich and went so well with the tiny warm bouchons of molasses and Manitoba (!) breads they brought me.

My waiter brought out my next dish and informed me that the chef had a “problem” with butter, in the sense that he added copious amounts of it to just about everything together. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a quality to me! In front of me sat a butter roasted lemon sole with brown butter, garden peas, asparagus, butter-sautéed bread crumbs & mussel foam. Butter with butter, butter and then some brown butter, it tasted… buttery! But oh so good! Perfectly seasoned, I could taste every separate element in the dish and the butter was the glue that bound everything. Heaven!

The main dish was a filet mignon topped with foie gras with confied then roasted sweetbreads, asparagus, mushrooms and wild watercress (from the forests around Copenhagen) in a Bordelaise sauce. There are a couple of things on that plate I wouldn’t normally eat (foie gras and sweetbreads) but I was in a Michelin-star restaurant and I wasn’t about to start telling the chef what to do! And this was good, like amazingly rich and heavy, food-coma inducing good! I couldn’t bear the thought of one more bite but I finished the whole plate for fear of regretting it later! My waiter assured me the dessert would be light and refreshing and would help me digest.

And he wasn’t lying… about the first dessert at least! It was a milk sorbet flavoured with basil, woodruff and mint with shards of meringue, some where the dough was mixed with chopped herbs, others (the green ones) where the dough was mixed with mashed up herbs. Even though the herbs are essentially the same, the two meringues tasted completely different. I am not a sorbet/ice cream person so this is not a dish I would’ve normally ordered but my waiter was right, it was light and refreshing and I finished it all. However, I was still thinking about the one thing on the menu that made me go into The Paul in the first place and that was the financiers! They unfortunately weren’t part of the menu I had chosen so I thought it was a lost cause until I saw the chef approaching my table carrying a plate of financiers!

Yuzu financiers with gingered chocolate caramel and a grilled blood orange & grapefruit pâte de fruits that is. And this is when the fun began (as if I wasn’t having enough fun before then!) :) Chef Paul Cunningham (a British expat) sat at my table and we chatted like old friends for about an hour. I got his advice on where to eat in Copenhagen and he told me about some of his future projects. I appreciated him taking the time to sit and have coffee with me and I appreciate even more the signed menu (hello art!) that I got as a surprise on my way out of the restaurant!

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city with a (very) full belly and a huge smile on my face. I couldn’t have hoped for a better first date with Copenhagen. Now you tell me, if this was your first meal in a city, wouldn’t you be in love too?

PS: That menu is now framed and hanging on the wall in my apartment. Thank you Chef Cunningham!

Day 2 of FBC10 just ended for me. I am dead tired so this will be a short post but I will leave you with lots of pics. There were so many great talks by famous and well experienced bloggers. Everything was live tweeted so just search for #FBC10 in Twitter and you will certainly pick up some very useful information from the live tweets. I will be live tweeting again tomorrow so stay tuned. I now leave you with some images of day 2.

The morning talks were followed by lunch in the gardens of the Hotel. After lunch was a great talk on how to take pictures of food by Mowie and Meeta. That was followed by afternoon tea and a practical photo shooting session in the gardens which was followed by Pimms hour! A lot of eating and a lot of learning and we will do it again tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

Amazing start to FBC10 this evening! It is all happening at the gorgeous Hempel Hotel. It started with a meet & greet; so nice to meet so many people who are passionate about the same thing as me! Lots of talk about food in that room and on that terrace. And did I mention the weather? It was gorgeous! The gods must be happy with food bloggers because it rarely ever gets this nice in London and it was niiice.

The meet & greet was followed by a very interesting blind wine tasting, where we learned how to actually taste wine. All that wine helped loosen up any leftover shyness I’m sure, I know I was a bit happier after it :)

Then there was the skype conference with Jaden from Steamy Kitchen about how to monetize your blog. We learned some very interesting things from one of the most famous food bloggers out there. Jaden was very generous in answering all our questions.

What do food bloggers do when they get together? Eat of course! So the conference was followed by a dinner in the gardens of the hotel: salad, fish & chips, lamb over mashed potatoes, a most divine and very rich crème brûlée AND a chocolate tasting! Going to bed a happy girl tonight. Good night :)

Just a short post today as I am exhausted from the jet lag and my overnight flight. I wanted to post a few pics of beautiful Brighton. This is where Beth (from Dirty Kitchen Secrets) and her husband Chris live. I love this little beach side town! And today was such a gorgeous day so it makes all even nicer.

FBC starts tomorrow night with a meet and greet and I for one, am looking forward to meeting and greeting all these amazingly talented food bloggers!

… (yes, yes it’s in the works!) but for now, I will be using this platform to share this trip (and maybe some more) with whoever wants to read about it. I am leaving tomorrow for London where I will be attending Food Blogger Connect! Can you feel my excitement?? I am very much looking forward to it and to meeting all the wonderful bloggers I have come to know through Twitter! So expect lots of pics of food, pics of some of your favourite food bloggers, pics of food bloggers taking pictures of food, well, you get the idea. FBC will be happening this weekend, Friday night to Sunday so stay tuned!

I will also be going to Copenhagen after London. Did you know that the latest Michelin guide has awarded 13 stars to Copenhagen?? More than Rome, Milan, Amsterdam and Vienna and just about as many as Madrid and Berlin. Copenhagen also has the number one restaurant in the world Noma. I doubt I will be able to get in since they got over 100,000 reservation requests the day after they were voted number one but that won’t stop me from trying! Very looking forward to Copenhagen! And to seeing a high-school friend of mine that I haven’t seen in 20 years!! Who just happens to be a foodie AND a coffee snob just like me! How lucky can I get?

So if you want to follow me on this food-centric adventure, stay tuned, lots of pics of food to be posted here for sure :)

-m