SHINING A LIGHT ON FINE DINING
Montréal en lumière toasts Swiss
Chefs, wine producers and gourmet products from Switzerland, Washington, D. C., and Quebec’s Lanaudière region are t aking over Montreal’s best restaurants for this year’s Montréal en lumière festival.
From Feb. 19 to March 1, 50 restaurants will serve special prixfixe dinners, lunches, brunches and happy- hour menus that range from family- style raclette to Michelin- star fare as part of the win- ter fest’s fine- dining program, for which Switzerland is the featured country. Festival veterans Europea and Laurie Raphaël will be among restaurants opening their doors to guest chefs and sommeliers — including the world’s official best sommelier, Switzerland’s Paolo Basso. Others promise collaborative dinners with Quebec celebrities and musicians, from boxer Jean Pascal to actress Debbie Lynch- White of Unité 9 and Montreal hiphop crew Alaclair Ensemble.
“We’re the only city in the world to invite so many chefs for so many days, where the chefs actually go into our restaurants,” says Germaine Salois, the festival’s director of gastronomy. “Most chefs who go to other places do cooking demonstrations in big convention centres or do one big meal. But nowhere else ( does a festival have) specific themes and lets the public discover how these chefs cook at their own restaurants — but at a Montreal price.”
The $ 120 meal that chef Stéphane Décotterd will cook at Laurie Raphaël here in Montreal, for example, would cost a lot more at his two- Michelin- star- rated restaurant Pont de Brent, in Switzerland. Décotterd said he will recreate some of his signature dishes by combining specialty ingredients he’ll bring from Switzerland with local produce that chef Daniel Vézina of Laurie Raphaël will help him source. “We’re going to offer whitefish, deer, sweetbreads, foie gras, but also dishes made from Swiss cheeses,” Décotterd said. And for dessert? “Chocolate, of course!”
A $ 120 meal isn’t for everyone, so the festival also offers less expensive events. A good way to decide which to attend, Salois suggested, is by budget. There are 5 à 7 events, “Chef ’s Table” experiences, free cheese tastings, cookbook signings, multi- course chocolate dinners and, yes, fondue.
Some of t he f estival’s most unique programming includes the vegetarian four- and seven- course dinners at restaurant H4C, the art history dinners at XO restaurant where each course will represent an art movement ( impressionism, surrealism, pop art) and the “White House lunches” at Le Balmoral inspired by the favourite dishes of famous U. S. presidents. Chef Laurent Godbout of Chez l’Épicier will cook a dinner in homage of the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition in France, at which he recently represented Canada. Festival diners can try his trout in beurre blanc and ballotine of guinea hen, paired with appropriately patriotic foie gras, ice cider, maple syrup and morel mushrooms.
We’re the only city in the world to invite so many chefs for so many days, where the chefs actually go into our restaurants.
On Feb. 24, forager extraordinaire François Brouillard and Nancy Hinton, who run Les Jardins Sauvages in St-Roch- de- l’Achigan and a stall at the Jean- Talon Market, will moonlight at Les 400 Coups. For Montrealers who have yet to dine at the couple’s highly regarded restaurant, the dinner will be a unique opportunity to explore a treasure trove of wild edibles like lobster mushrooms, juniper berries, wild ginger and local sumac.
The wine- t asting workshop with Paolo Basso, widely regarded as one of the world’s best sommeliers, will be “like learning to hold a tennis racket with Roger Federer,” Salois said. That event is already sold out, but Basso will also be doing the all- Swiss wine pairings for the Honorary President dinners on Feb. 21 and 22 at Europea restaurant with Michelin- starred chef Pierre- André Ayer.
Europea’s chef Jérôme Ferrer said his restaurant has participated in the festival for 13 years. He sees the event as an opportunity for cultural exchange both for customers — who get to hop an ocean with a single bite — and for the cooks working in participating restaurants.
“My team is as excited as I am to share, to exchange techniques,” Ferrer said. “Swiss food is above all a comfort food that brings people together and warms both the heart and stomach.”
He and Ayer will turn that sentiment into a $ 300, six- course meal on Feb. 20 and 21.
Le Quartier Général has participated in the festival in the past, but it wasn’t until last year that the festival paired the restaurant with a guest chef. This year, it will welcome Lanaudière chef Yan Waters, who’ll bring beef and poultry he raised himself as well as his personal stock of maple syrup.
The festival lunches at Le Quartier Général will be guest- chef- less. Instead, chefs Vincent Chatelais and Nicolas Ficuciello have come up with a $ 25 Swiss- inspired, three- course menu that will feature cured meats, wild game, cheeses and chocolate.
Salois said she admires the creativity of participating chefs in coming up with themes and menus. “They’re basically free to do what they want,” she said. “They make an effort to have a Swiss touch by doing research on trends — not just fondue and raclette — and they adapt. They do what represents them, but they do it differently from the rest of the year.”
For chef Jérémie Conan of festival newcomer État- Major, that means working with Chatelais to dream up a $ 59 six- course discovery menu. Neither chef has ever worked in Switzerland or for a Swiss chef, so they’re instead planning a meal inspired by Switzerland’s Italian, German and French roots. “When it’s time to create new plates or special menus, Jérémie is really in his element and excels incredibly,” said Dominic Laflamme, co- owner of Le Quartier Général and baby brother bistro État- Major. “Don’t tell him I told you that. He’ll ask me for a raise.”
Salois said that forcing restaurants to be creative shows what the chefs can really do. “If you already like État- Major and you’ve gone a couple times, it’s interesting to see where the kitchen is able to go with the meal,” she said. “People who like to go back to their neighbourhood places appreciate that the chefs are getting off the beaten path. There’s something for everybody in this festival. It’s really a question of tastes.”
This year’s Montréal en lumière festival runs from Feb. 19 to March 1. For details on the fine dining events, visit montrealenlumiere. com/ gastronomy.