Continued from Part I... The softly lit room is relaxing even with the dozens of waiters running around, busy with their activity. One comes over and I’m asked if there are any preferences or allergies. While I don’t eat wheat or dairy, I say nothing. One of my biggest concerns in restaurant eating today is peoples expectation to opt out of ingredients in a chefs dish, “could I have the cassoulet without duck please?” Aughhh. If we restrict a chef, any good chef, from creating something really delicious then why are we eating out? If not to taste a […]

Toronto Life Magazine ranked it the best restaurant in Canada, but that’s not why I wanted to go. I first read of Toqué (pronounced to-cue) and Grand Chef Normand Laprise in the book, The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski. The book is about the height of Haute Cuisine in France, the greatest chefs Bernard Loiseau, Paul Boucous, the Troisgros Brothers, Normand Laprise and Claude Perraudin to name a few and the conception of the Michelin Star ranking system. It’s a story of the chefs struggles to reach the top in an impossible world and the affect it has on a […]

It was my first taste of Montreal poutine. Yes poutine has been around for a while and so have I, so why haven’t our paths crossed before? Well, I just can’t get past the concept of mushy fries. Yes some people put gravy on their fries but, I don’t. I like my fries crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, hot and neat. But I was seduced by the creative poutine dishes I was reading on each posted menu down Rue St Denis, I couldn’t help but be swept away by the poutine wave. I tucked into a […]

A butcher by trade, Pascal Miche was bit by the tomato bug at an early age. It was his great grandfather Omer Miche, that made tomato wine from an overabundance of tomatoes in his garden. When he was a very young boy Pascal helped his great grandfather make wine until one day he decided to study winemaking.   On the farm in Baie-Saint-Paul in Charlevoix, Quebec Pascal and his wife grow over 6,000 heirloom tomato plants. The older varieties have more flavour, they’re sweeter and acclimatized to our area so they grow better in Charlevoix. The name Omerto is […]

Every morning Jean-Sebastien Sauvageau and his father are out in the pastures feeding thousands of animals that include rabbits, guinea fowl, quail and ring-neck pheasants. And yes, you can even hunt pheasant on the farm. The pastures cascade along the top of a hillside with a stunning view of the St. Lawrence River just over the next hillside. Is it any wonder he loves his job? “If I wanted to be a rich man, I wouldn’t have picked agriculture,” laughs Jean-Sebastien. From where I’m standing surrounded by rolling green hills, the beautiful blue water of the river that looks […]