Six of Seattle’s top chefs showcased Pacific Northwest cuisine at Montréal’s 13th annual Lumière festival, a two-week citywide celebration of arts and gastronomy held this past February 2012. After they dazzled diners, the chefs explored the city’s rich gastronomy scene. More than 5,000 restaurants and a food culture famous for bagels, smoked meat sandwiches, foie gras, maple sugar, and poutine provided just the kind of French-focused comfort foods chefs love to eat when someone else is doing the cooking.

Matthew Dillon Sitka & Spruce The Corson Building, Bar Ferd’nand

“Seattle, in terms of cuisine, is really unknown to most people,” said Véronique Dalle, sommelière at Pullman, a sleek wine and small plates restaurant in downtown Montréal. But Dalle knew Dillon from a previous visit to the Pacific Northwest, which made them a natural pairing for their Lumière dinner. The two also got along due to a shared gastronomic sensibility: Dalle favors organic and biodynamic wines, while Dillon tends a farm on Vashon Island in addition to his three restaurants in the city limits. His dishes are deceptively simple: roasted-to-perfection meats and vegetables with just the right amount of sauce, yet profound flavors thanks to his fondness for Middle Eastern spices. After service, Dillon sampled two of Montréal’s must-try staples—shish taouk (Montreal-style chicken shawarma) and poutine, the Québecois classic combination of French fries, cheese curds, and gravy. He also took in the belly-filling fare at Joe Beef, Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwiches, and Au Pied du Cochon. “It’s super-rich. Everything is foie gras and pork, and huge portions.”

Jason Franey Canlis

Franey teamed up with the staff of Les 400 Coups for two sold-out, seven-course dinners, a feat which made a strong impression. “We were able to work together so seamlessly, executing a menu of such intricacy without ever having worked with one another. They really got what we were doing. Two months before I sent them photos and recipes. It’s all about organization. I wrote prep lists, days, times, who did the prep, when the prep needed to be done. We only had two days to prep, so we immediately got off the plane and went to the restaurant. We cleaned foie for two hours, and then we went out and had a late dinner of steak frites, woke up late the next morning and made torchons. We pushed really hard.” Franey then had two days to recuperate—if you call hiking up Mont Royale, the massive hill that commands the city’s skyline, and hitting a list of wine bars taking it easy. Two of his favorites: Le Comptoir and Dominion Tavern—“great charcuterie, beer, wine, and even some unfermented fresh wines.”

Ethan Stowell Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Tavolàta, How to Cook a Wolf, Anchovies & Olives

Stowell specializes in Italian fare, so it’s no surprise he felt at home in Montréal’s Little Italy—home to the city’s largest farmers market, Marché Jean-Talon. It’s “European-style, with eggs and cheeses just sitting out at air temperature, not on ice. They understand that it’s okay for cheeses to sit out for three to four hours, so they’re ready to eat right away.” He also appreciated the city’s extended dining hours. “Just like in Italy, [diners] are eating at 9, 10pm, or later. At Buona Notte [the restaurant that hosted his dinner], most of their business is done between 10pm and 3am. We had what for us is a late-night dinner at Joe Beef, and the place was still packed at 12:30am when we left. That almost never happens in Seattle.”

Thierry Rautureau Rover’s, Luc

Rautureau, a native French-speaker, also felt right at home during his visit to Montréal. “It’s a very fun city. The people are nice, the dining scene is very good, and the fact you can speak French and English is very cool.” He singled out stops at La Fabrique (“delicious”), Bar Philemon (“very cool, in Old Montréal’), Pullman (“cool wine bar”), and Les Cons Servent (“The owner is a wine guy. His wine pairing is astonishing, incredible.”), and called Les 400 Coups “the highlight of my trip. The food and ambiance were outstanding. It’s not very classic French, more contemporary.”  Comparing food scenes, he said “I felt culturally the food was more like what we try to do here—very locally focused, yet also updated. There seemed to be a global energy like we do in Seattle, where we use a classic cuisine as a base and bring it up to date.” Rautureau brought back maple syrup (“How can you not?”) and some spices he found in a shop (Épices de Cru) at Marché Jean-Talon. “Go to the bakery (Boulangerie Première Moisson) in the back of the market,” he added. “Their breads, the baguettes—they’re amazing.”

Jason Stratton Spinasse, Artusi

What struck Stratton about Montréal was its diversity and debonair spirit. “Aside from Canlis, there’s no place where you feel like you have to get dressed up in Seattle. Each night I ate out in Montréal felt like a special occasion. Diners there wore their best duds, did their hair. It felt more formal—in a good way. People were having fun.” L’Express was “fantastic!” and reminded him of Seattle’s Le Pichet: “A perfect recreation of a French bistro, well-loved by the city.” At places like Au Pied du Cochon and Garde Manger, he found the food to verge on “excess for the sake of excess—foie gras with cheese, bacon, maple syrup … Halfway through the dish you feel like you’re sticking to your chair. It’s tasty, but a little palate-fatiguing. By the third day, all I wanted was a big green salad.”

Jason Wilson Crush

Wilson crushed it at Joe Beef his first night on the town. “It’s decadent,” Wilson admits. “The next day you can really feel it, but in winter it’s good.” Last winter was mild by Montréal standards, with temps in the range of 40-50?F by day, and 20-30?F at night, with nary a snowdrift in sight during most of the chefs’ time there. Still, Montréal is frigidly cold, so an extra layer—be it of clothing, padding around the tummy, or both—comes in handy for staving off the chill and explains the richness of the local cuisine. But “Montréal is a walking city—20 minutes this way or that way,” Wilson notes. “So even though the food is rich, you can walk it off.” Wilson trekked to Old Montréal’s Point G to sample some of their 24 different flavors of macarons, and then to the Quartier des Spectacles, Montréal’s living room plaza and home to F Bar. “The chef (Gilles Herzog) worked for Ducasse in Monaco. Our meal lasted 3½, 4 hours. It was fantastic.” Wilson was also impressed by the Hôtel de L’Institut, the culinary and hospitality educational complex where he collaborated with the Hôtel’s executive chef on two dinners. “The facility is remarkable: they have a thousand students in all levels of hospitality, well-rounded culinary, bakery, pastry, and wine programs.” Service is a hallmark of dining in Montréal, a fact that wasn’t lost on Wilson. “Even at Joe Beef, which is casual, there’s execution, finesse, pride. They [Montréalites] take dining seriously.”

By Peter Szymczak

Where to Eat—Montréal

Au Pied du Cochon
536 Avenue Duluth Est
514-281-1114
www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca

Buona Notte
3518 Blvd. Saint-Laurent
514-848-0644
www.buonanotte.com

Le Comptoir
4807 Blvd.
Saint-Laurent
514-844-8467
www.comptoircharcuteriesetvins.ca

Les Cons Servent
5064 Papineau
514-523-8999
www.lesconsservent.com

L’Express
3927 Rue Saint-Denis
514-845-5333
www.restaurantlexpress.ca

Les 400 Coups
400 Notre-Dame Est
514-985-0400
www.les400coups.ca

F Bar
1485 Rue Jeanne-Mance
514-289-4558
www.fbar.ca

La Fabrique
3609 Rue Saint-Denis
514-544-5038
www.bistrotlafabrique.com

Garde Manger
408 Saint-Francois-Xavier
514-678-5044
www.crownsalts.com/gardemanger

Hôtel de L’Institut
3535 Rue Saint-Denis
514-282-5108
www.ithq.qc.ca

Joe Beef
2491 Notre Dame West
514-935-6504
www.joebeef.ca

Marché Jean-Talon
7070 Henri Julien
514-277-1588
www.marchespublics-mtl.com/Jean-Talon/

Philemon Bar
111 Rue Saint Paul Ouest
514-289-3777

Point G 1266 Ave. du Mont-Royal Est
514-750-7515
www.boutiquepointg.com

Pullman
3424 Avenue du Parc
514-288-7779
www.pullman-mtl.com

Schwartz’s
3895 Blvd. Saint-Laurent
514-842-4813
www.schwartzsdeli.com

From the May/June issue of Northwest Palate magazine.

Photo credits:

Matthew Dillon © by Curt Dougherty

Jason Franey, Hotel de L’Institut and Buona Notte ©  by Frédérique Ménard-Aubin