CHEF AT WORK
Bistro Rosie offers a look behind the scenes
When analyzing a restaurant meal, we take many elements of the experience into consideration. We are timing the service, scrutinizing the wine list, admiring the decor — so much so that the food sometimes gets short shrift.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing: the restaurant experience should be judged not on one factor, but on the way everything melds together. And since the cooking usually takes place far from the diner, it really only comes to life the minute the plate hits the table. Then comes that “ta-da!” moment, pictures destined for Instagram are snapped, and everyone digs in. The chef is left out of the experience. He or she is already assembling the next plate, and the waiter is the one who sees the reaction of the customers.
However, the growing number of open kitchens is changing the restaurant dynamic. Some customers don’t like them, and when the kitchen is a mess or the overhead ventilation system is on the fritz, that’s understandable. But it can be thrilling when a skilled chef is cooking right in front of you. Restaurants like Park, Au Pied de Cochon, Moleskine, Café Bazin, Impasto and Foxy are great places to watch chefs shaping quenelles, piping pastry, sautéing pasta or grilling steak. Just grab a place at the bar and watch your meal come to life.
On a recent Friday I did just that, admiring the mad skills of chef Jérémy Daniel-Six at the new Bistro Rosie. Welcoming us at the door was his partner (in life and at work) Sophie Duchastel de Montrouge, who manages the service and wine program of their 30-seat bistro, which opened in August in Rosemont– La Petite-Patrie. This couple are no doubt familiar to Montreal gourmets: they were also behind the restaurant Ma’tine (in 2014) and the tiny Micro Resto La Famille (in 2013), where DanielSix worked alongside his pastry-chef brother Maxime. (Alas, Maxime recently returned to their homeland of France.)
Their former restaurants focused on breakfast, brunch and lunch — the couple have young children, and the day shift was more compatible with family life. At Bistro Rosie, though, dinner is the thing, aside from a Saturday brunch. As much as I enjoyed Daniel-Six’s food in morning and midday mode, what fun it is to see his take on dinner. Having worked at famous Parisian restaurants like Le Chateaubriand and Ze Kitchen Galerie, he has the cooking chops. But now he’s concocting more elaborate dishes than the sandwiches, quiches and egg-topped salads that were popular at La Famille and Ma’tine. The menu changes weekly, which is terrific, even though I can’t guarantee the dishes I tasted will still be available when you get there. But no matter — the cooking at Bistro Rosie is so skilled that chances are your experience will be as positive as mine.
The menu is divided between hot and cold appetizers, as well as slightly larger plates made with meat and fish. Prices range from $40 to $60 for two to four plates. Vegetables get serious play, which is sure to please anyone eager to cut back on the proteins.
We began with a “friselis” salad made of frisée lettuce, apple bâtonnets, goat-cheese cream and a prune vinaigrette. What a great example of Daniel-Six’s play of textures and flavours. That prune dressing was so good that I ordered bread (from Automne Boulangerie and $3 extra) to soak up every last drop.
Following the frisée, we enjoyed the white turnip “carpaccio,” in which thin slices of turnip were placed in a circle and topped with orange segments, watercress, a nori chiffonade, peanuts and chunks of slightly seared salmon, all served with a wasabi vinaigrette. It was an odd dish, with the warm salmon and raw vegetables a bit at odds with each other. I’m not sure the nori played much of a role either, but I enjoyed the peppery hit of the cress.
After admiring many bowls of it going by at the counter, I couldn’t resist the yellow carrot soup, a hearty potage flavoured with galangal and lemongrass, and topped with roasted root vegetables and cilantro. I enjoyed the soup, wishing only that those Thai flavours had been played stronger. Another soup — more of a broth, really — was filled with clams and mussels, and flavoured with tomatoes and sliced fennel. Again, it was a fine dish, but the flavours lacked pizzazz.
I was getting a bit discouraged
until a plate of sautéed rice pilaf was placed in front of me. Made with a Parmesan broth, the rich rice was zuzzed up with mushrooms and pecans, making for a umami blitz of woodsy, nutty, salty tastes. It’s the kind of dish I’d like to wolf down after a long day of cross-country skiing.
Desserts included an intense dark chocolate ganache topped with a buttery crumble and end-of-season, mint-spiked strawberries. Perfection! Then came a hazelnut financier cake served with slices of pear and honey-scented cream, which was good, but no match for that killer chocolate dish.
Watching Daniel-Six work all night, plating and cooking, slicing and stirring, was a major highlight of my night at Bistro Rosie. If I had been away from all that, at one of the tables behind where I was sitting, I wonder if I would have had as much fun. I admire Daniel-Six’s food very much, but his cooking right now seems more subdued than I remember.
Timid flavours aside, there is much to love about this neighbourhood bistro, starting with the smooth and friendly service, as well as an exemplary wine list made up of organic and biodynamic bottles sold at incredibly fair prices. I also commend management’s decision not to accept tips, which means prices are a bit higher on the blackboard but not when the bill arrives. The idea is to offer equal pay to floor and kitchen staff — an initiative, like so much about this cool and unpretentious new restaurant, that I applaud wholeheartedly.