Post’s dinner series celebrates flavors of Montreal

We traveled to Montreal without leaving the island of Palm Beach. Sure, there were palm fronds nearby somewhere as we dined on Québécois flflavors, but our imagination was transported during The Post’s Dinner Series feast at Chez l’Epicier Tuesday night.

Chef Laurent Godbout created a lavish, three-course dinner that kicked offff with a series of passed bites and sips of a decidedly Canadian welcome cocktail: sparkling apple cider laced with blueberry maple syrup. Starters continued with a composition of the chef ’s favorite appetizer bites: a modernized poutine croquette ( fifilled with a puffff of cheese curd and gravy), a rich avocado tartare, a refreshing gazpacho and a boldly flavored baked oyster crowned in

288 S. County Road., Palm Beach; 561-508-7030; ChezlEpicier.com maple-Dijon and cheddar.

For main course, he prepared a traditional Montreal winter dish of fork-tender beef cheek, corn relish and potato foam presented as a Shepherd’s Pie.

The meal’s sweet finale proved downright decadent, a classic apple and maple chomeur or “poor man’s pudding”) served oven-warm with house-made vanilla ice cream.

The chef chose this most authentic note to end the meal, as maple syrup is part of the Québécois DNA. The flavors bring him back to Montreal’s “sugar shacks,” where maple sap is boiled, transformed into treats and celebrated.

In fact, he has plans to bring the sugar-shack theme to the restaurant’s brunch menu closer to spring.)

The restaurant’s chic farmhouse look added a layer of chill to the night, as coowner Veronique Deneault (who is married to Chef Laurent) warmly greeted guests, who departed well-fed and toting goody bags of freshly made vanilla marshmallows.

I t w a s a s we e t n i g h t , indeed. Our journey yielded no frequent- flflier miles, but it did earn us some worthit Canadian calories.

Stay tuned for our next i ns t a l l ment of The Pal m Beach Post’s Dinner Series, coming in early 2017. Follow us on Facebook postonfood for updates on foodie events and dining news.