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Quebec
restaurants
 Clarissa
Hyman discovers a world of exquisite produce and fabulous
restaurants in Quebec the New France.
In Quebec, the scenic French-speaking province of Canada,
Old World savoir-faire meets New World enthusiasm: narrow,
colonial conservatism and low-rent, frontier mentality (think
Cheese Whizz and poutrine – a soggy mess of
chips, gravy and squeaky cheese) has given way to a mix of
simplicity and sophistication, and made this one of the most
exciting food regions of North America.
Ingredients – from wild blueberries to organic meats,
artisan foie gras, hand-made chocolates, fine cheeses, smoked
sturgeon, superb bread, fabulous fruit and vegetables –
are handled with style and respect by chefs who are pushing
the boundaries, looking outwards for inspiration and partnering
artisan producers to build a new Quebec cuisine. Nearly 400
years after Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City, the first
settlement in New France, in a narrow bend of the Saint Lawrence
River, Quebec cooking has at last come of age. Sacré
bleu. 2008 is going to be one long party.
Mario Chabot was the very picture of a fresh-cheeked, toque-toting
young chef, as he proudly joined our table for dinner at L’Auberge
des Trois Canards. The comfortable, spacious inn is located
by the edge of the Saint Lawrence in La Malbaie, a coastal
resort in the Charlevoix region designated a protected region
by UNESCO, and once favoured by the Prince of Wales and the
elite of New York, at the turn of the last century, for its
pure sea and mountain air, hunting and fishing. You must have
confidence in your team, we joked. “Mais, oui,”
he replied without a soupçon of irony, and
– to our world-weary astonishment – he was quite
right. He ate with us, not to play the role of front-of-house
superstar or show off the tight-as-clockwork brigade, but
to enthusiastically guide us through a tasting dinner that
was polished, precise and a superb showcase for the Quebec
terroir.
 At
Restaurant Panache, a soaring, wood and stone former warehouse
in the luxurious Auberge Saint-Antoine, part hotel, part archeological
site, built on the historic Quebec City waterfront, François
Blais was another young chef who has been at the forefront
of developing the New Quebec cooking. His style was more cutting-edge,
with technically compelling and carefully composed dishes
such as ‘crabe de la Côte-Nord et celery en rémoulade,
salade de pousses de crosnes du Japon au vinaigre de chardonnay’.
Quebec wine, made from cold-weather hybrids, is improving
by the year, but at the Saint-Amour, located within  the
historic city walls of Quebec City, the wine list is mostly
a stunning tour de force of great French classics. For over
30 years, Jean-Luc Boulay, now aided by his son Frédéric,
has run one of the most famous restaurants in Canada. His
chefs regularly take stages with celebrated kitchens world-wide,
yet his brand of updated, top-drawer haute cuisine comes in
a surprisingly informal setting, at least to European eyes;
the original small restaurant has long outgrown its confines
and now inhabits a large atrium-style room decorated in a
vaguely art nouveau style. The restaurant specializes in foie
gras, perfectly paired with local ice cider, one of the province’s
most exciting new products – typical of the highly refined
style is ‘filet mignon de veau de grain du Québec
aux lentins de chêne confits, poêlée de
haricots charnus, bette à carde et purée de
panais, jus corsé au vinaigre de figue’.
The new Québécois pride in artisan produce is
also reflected at bistro and café level. Details are
always telling, and I was constantly impressed with the quality
of the bread, butter, fresh vegetables, salads and fruit.
It was almost as if the earth itself compensated for the dormancy
under the long months of winter snow. At Les Saveurs Oubliées
in Charlevoix, Régis Hervé, a pioneer in agro-tourism,
serves produce from the magnificent organic kitchen gardens
on his doorstep and the sweetest of lamb from the Ferme Eboulmontaise
next door. Fed on local hay and grain, it is likely to be
the first product in Quebec to gain AOC status.
At La Monnaguette on the lovely, pastoral island of Orleans
just north of Quebec City, the menu features locally caught
and smoked sturgeon as well as blackcurrants in every guise
from mustard to sorbet. Owned by the Monna family, originally
from South-West France, the funky little bistro perches above
the bushes from which they make the award-winning L’Isle
Ensorceleuse crème de cassis and a fortified wine that
could well rival Port as a match for Colston Bassett Stilton.
And at L’Angelus in Deschambault, one of the prettiest
villages in all Quebec, the excellent home cooking is given
an El Bulli lift with the use of innovative, organic essential
oils made from indigenous plants grown at Aliksir, a nearby
herbal distillery.
Traditional Quebec cooking also has its fans, even if it’s
affectionately regarded as an occasional, nostalgia-fest blow-out
these days. The atmospheric old Baker Inn, for example, just
outside Quebec City, is the place to sample hearty, chill-defying
dishes such as meat pies, yellow pea soup, meatballs, pork
hocks, black puddings, roast goose and sugar pie.
And, then, there’s maple syrup, Quebec’s most
famous food icon. The appearance of the sap in March marks
the beginning of spring and time for the best treat of all:
la Tire, hot maple syrup toffee poured over a mound of snow,
then wound around a stick. Frappe la tâche!
As they say, Franglais tongue in cheek, that really hits the
spot.
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