It’s been a few months now since I took on the job of food feature writer at the Montreal Gazette. Since then, I’ve covered everything from the bizarre trend that is sushi fusion in the West Island to whether high-end restaurants like Toque! and Lawrence actually make more money by opening more casual restaurant off-shoots.
Below are my latest articles, plus a bit extra about each that didn’t make it into the published versions.
West Island Sushi
The Nobu sushi trend for heavily sauced rolls of mostly salmon, tuna and crabstick, with lots of cooked fish, mango and foie gras thrown in to make it seem fancy died in most of North America within the last decade. You can still find these places, but they’re not as hot as they used to be. Except in the West Island of Montreal, where a couple popular places set the golden standard and copycats sprung up. Because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, feel most residents who grew up thinking fusion is the only kind of sushi. What I don’t get into in the article is that fish importation in Montreal is much worse in terms of variety and quality than Toronto and Vancouver. People who disagree with me need only go to Tachi in the Chef’s Assembly Hall. Then we can talk about it. If you’ve never been to Toronto, we’re not going to get into a discussion about which is better.
High-End Offshoots
I loved writing this article because I could integrate interviews that I did with Lawrence chefs Sefi Amir and Marc Cohen and Toqué! chef Normand Laprise from more than five years ago into the article. I also loved meeting Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione for the first time. Boy, Stefano Faita is really used to talking loudly for television! I was also really disappointed to find that one place still isn’t making much money years later, while the others veered from the plans they imagined for their futures.
The Economics of Canning, Re-Examined
Is it Really Worth Canning and Fermenting in an Age where food is available fresh year round? I have no problem with people wanting to make a batch of jam, but saying you’re lowering your carbon footprint or saving money isn’t necessarily true. I speak with a bunch of preservers about why they make the things they do and the changing reasons for doing so. I also got to quote my girl Irma Rombauer from the Joy of Cooking, so obviously that was fun.
Are Traditional Italian Desserts on Their Way Out in Montreal?
From cartellate to oreo cannoli, regional Italian desserts are either disappearing or being infused (or injected) with international flavours. This article sets off on the hunt for the reasons why. I speak with everyone from new gen bakers to old-school traditionalists. What I didn’t get to write, though, was that the dessert contest I mention was actually supposed to feature a lesser known dessert called pesche dolci, but they swapped it out last minute for a better known bombolone (Italian donut) that could be filled with anything except nutella or chocolate. And the bakery I tout as super traditional decided to add a less traditional filling to their cannoli a week before publication, destroying my argument that some places stick to their laurels and can still make a living by marketing themselves as pure traditionalists.
Chinatown Revamp
The big reveal in this article is that Montreal celebrity-ish chef Antonio Park has bought a couple properties in Chinatown and more will be announced this fall about what that will mean for the restaurant future of the area. The rest of the article is about how sons Eric and Edmund Ku of Dobe & Andy are trying to turn the old-school Hong Kong diner started by their parents into a new-school hipster place without ostracizing the longtime customers and Chinese tourists looking for traditional eats, like the restaurants air-compressed and roasted Hong Kong duck and pork.
Next up, how local baker and chef Marc-André Cyr is planning to build a 302-brick wood-fired mobile oven for YUL EAT and what he’s planning to cook in it. That’ll be online and in print Sept. 7, 2019.
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