Gail Simmons' Favorite Montreal restos

In case you missed it writer and Top Chef Desserts Judge, Gail Simmons, visited our city to plug her new book, Talking with my Mouth Full. Simmons gave talks at her alma mater, McGill University, and at Appetite for Books. McGill posted a few videos of the event including her favorite restaurants. You will find the usual suspects on Simmons list but we were very happy to see that she also included Nouveau Palais.

Speaking of McGill events you might want to take note that The Food Science & Agricultural Chemistry Department at Macdonald Campus is celebrating 25 years with a symposium. On the bill, Maxime Bilet, chef and co-author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. The 5 volume cookbook just won awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) in the design and professional kitchens category. The event is scheduled for April 15, 2012. For more information click here.

Gordon Ramsay Roasted from the Laurier

With the Laurier BBQ and Gordon Ramsay going their separate ways no time has been wasted in eliminating the Chef’s name from the restaurant. Taking a stroll down Laurier Street on Wednesday evening we saw that Ramsay’s name had already been removed from all the outdoor signage and the menu.

Opening night: Ramsay rules the roost



Tonight: Roosters only

New Restauration Record? Restaurant fined over $84,000 for health code violations

Montreal municipal officials take note of a potential new revenue source. A Chinese restaurant in Greenwich England has been fined £54,000 ($84,713 Canadian dollars) for health code violations. 

According to the article: " an unannounced inspection found mouse droppings among packets of food, next to plates and even inside a roll of cling film in the kitchen. There was also a heavy build up of grease on the floor beneath the cooking range, mouldy vegetables on the floor of the walk-in fridge. No paper towels at hand basins meant it was difficult for kitchen staff to maintain good standards of personal hygiene."

You can read the full article here

Rain on Ramsay's Parade: Laurier Gordon Ramsay evacuated

We mentioned the heat at last night's opening of Gordon Ramsay's new Montreal eatery, Laurier Gordon Ramsay. 


The restaurant's first service on Wednesday evening must have been too hot to handle because sprinkler problems lead to an evacuation of the building.

The theme song for Hell's Kitchen is sounding rather ironic at this moment... more like Kitchen Nightmares.

Gordon Ramsay Rocks the Laurier

Top Billing?

With the cult of celebrity Chefs in full-swing a certain rock-star status has been created with these personalities. This phenomenon was evident with Gordon Ramsay's public appearance at the re-launch of the revamped and renamed, Laurier Gordon Ramsay restaurant. Women swarmed and swooned the Chef for photos and bisous as he entered the building. The scrum of media and adoring fans bordered on chaos when the Chef was left too long in public view. This is the first time that we have been witness to a Chef mauling. Even Quebec Finance Minster Raymond Bachand could not resist the Chef’s charms and seized the opportunity for a photo-op. Minister Bachand represents the Outremont riding where the restaurant is located. Having experienced Ramsaymania first hand we have also fallen under the Chef’s spell. All we can say is that he is even more handsome and charismatic in person.


Ready for my closeup

We are not sure if it was the restaurant (you are in the hospitality business...right?) or PR firm Cosette (safe to say the biggest firm in Canada, entrusted with publicity and media for the evening) that was behind the organization of the event but there were some logistical issues. Perhaps there was some conflict between the two organizing factions. With Daniel Boulud opening a resto at the Ritz this fall (Does Boulud get the same groupies as Ramsay?) our city needs to up its game when handling these visits from culinary royalty because these logistical issues only make our city look bad when the world’s culinary eyes are upon us.

Clean Poutine

The decision to have your main attractions, Gordon Ramsay and principal food station (chicken) in the same back corner of the restaurant is just bad planning considering you also have an entire open space on the second floor. The crush of people wanting a glimpse of Ramsay or food resulted in a sweltering heat factor. The most overheard comment from the crowd was about the heat that it felt like a real Hell’s Kitchen. Just in case it was not hot enough in this crush of bodies the famous rotisserie was pounding out the heat in the same corner. Then again, why should this iconic piece of equipment miss the festivities held in its honour?  These comments have nothing to do with the restaurant, staff, food or even your possible dining experience at Laurier Gordon Ramsay because this was not the point of the soirée.

Sliders: Off the Plate Like Hotcakes

The evening featured miniature versions of the main menu dishes. We think that this is a great concept for a cocktail and showcasing the menu during a restaurant opening. As a preview the dishes seem exciting but you can cool your jets a little because the menu items are dishes you can get anywhere in our city, chicken, burgers, fries and poutine. These standard dishes are going to have to be out of the park in order to live up to the hype surrounding the re-opening of this establishment. Not that Laurier BBQ was ever known for good food but isn’t this the point of having a Gordon Ramsay restaurant? Then again, this is a city that supports St-Hubert chicken so who is to say who cares which comes first, the celebrity Chef or the food? As the evening winded down we braved the heat and grabbed a bite of the chicken, the verdict, lots of dry bites that stick to the roof of your mouth. Then again, this event was really only a dress rehearsal and the real test for the kitchen starts today with the restaurant’s first service.

Final Curtain

Top Chef Canada episode 12: Go Home Gallagher

We have reached a milestone in the Top Chef series because this Monday we will crowning Canada’s First Top Chef. 


Episode 12 of Top Chef saw smilin’ Dustin Gallagher go home. The Judges thought his angel hair pasta was a bit clumpy, his fish overcooked nut it was his fruit platter (dessert) that seemed to be the final nail in his coffin. The Judges thought that a plate of fruit was a poor choice at this stage in the competition. 

Gallagher's Fruit Plate

As you may have noticed during any of the Top Chef series there is always a problem with the Chefs and the desserts. Chefs auditioning for the next season take note, practice your desserts. Dustin Gallagher did win an elimination challenge in a previous episode with a dessert when he served up his girlfriend's strawberry shortcake, she is also his pastry Chef.  We wonder if perhaps Gallagher had used up his bag of dessert tricks. On the other hand this was a family style service so the idea of a fruit platter for sharing does have some logic. Perhaps some cheese, jellies and bread would have added to the experience.

Gallagher's winning shortcake is currently a featured item on the menu at Milestones. Unfortunately, or is it fortunately, there are no Milestones in Quebec but as part of our ongoing Top Chef coverage we did sacrifice ourselves with a trip to Ontario where we sampled a few of the dishes featured on the show.

You're about to get warned: do not order the croquettes

The Top Chef Canada menu items at Milestones have been designed for preparation in their kitchen where massed produced food items and profit margins seem to be the key ingredients in determining how a dish is made. When we ordered DeSousa's pork croquettes the waiter inquired if we have ever tried them because they were really “not good.” In describing the dish the waiter said, "freezer burned meat." Despite our killjoy of a waiter we ventured on thinking how bad can it really be and that we did come all this way to not eat the Top Chef dishes. All we can say is that the in general the food is bad at Milestones so you can only imagine what something must taste like if the staff says it is no good. The taste of the croquettes was like eating dried up old meat but they were not the worst item on the plate. Each croquette sits in an onion ring. The batter on the onion rings was dry and hard. I have heard of crispy batter but we do not think that they be crunchy and snap like a twig. Did we mention flavourless? The onion rings also had this quality. We suppose the bacon ninja could use these rings as some sort of throwing weapon in the Top Chef Kitchen. In all seriousness, if this is how Milestones choses to present the Top Chef Canada dishes they might consider featuring the losing dishes as a more authentic experience. We also had the spinach artichoke dip (not a Top Chef menu item) that tasted like paste (glue).

Pork Croquettes: Note the shape of the onion things... er rings

We also tried Dustin Gallagher's strawberry shortcake, our waiter informed us that this was a good dish choice. The dish was more whipped cream than anything else. A bit of strawberry compote, a pastry that was more crunchy than anything like cake and also a tiny bit of lemon curd that is the the twist on this traditional dish. The strawberry shortcake is nothing more than a big mound of whipped cream with a few other bites floating around. With strawberry shortcake you should think strawberries not whipped cream but once-again why trouble yourself with things like costly fresh ingredients that require lengthy preparation?

Not enough strawberries were harmed in the making of this dish

We stayed away from Francois' dish mainly because the main courses seem grossly over priced at Milestones. We noticed a neighbouring table that had ordered the Steak Frites that goes for close to $28 bucks. The dish consisted of a steak about the size of your palm and a massive pile of frozen French fries. Are they for real in charging these rates for Frozen fries? To put things in perspective we looked up the menu at Au Pied de Cochon that also offers a Steak Frites. The dish costs less at Au Pied de Cochon ($23) and instead of beef you have the choice of venison or bison. The French fries are also fresh cut with a larger portion of meat. All this to say we do not mind paying for good quality food but a $30 plate of frozen French fries and small steak is beyond ridiculous. Since they use frozen fries at Milestones the profit margin for this dish must be legendary in the annals of restauration dishes.

Getting back to Top Chef Canada. The final three are Rob Rossi, Connie DeSousa and Dale MacKay. We predicted some time ago that Dale was going to be the winner and we are going to stick with our pick mainly because he recently opened his own restaurant. Watch the judges face, especially the guest Chefs and Mark McEwan, when they taste Dale's food. Last week Chef Rossi announced he was leaving his current post at Mercatto and the Toronto press got excited predicting this was a spoiler that the Chef takes the Top Chef title. We would not be surprised if this is the outcome only because, as we pointed out months ago with the selection of the Chefs, the series is very Toronto-centric.

In terms of other predictions it looks like they are bringing back some of the eliminated challengers to assist the Chefs in the kitchen. Once again we think the Chefs will be from Toronto. It also looks like the final takes place in Niagara wine country and will be somewhere like the Inniskillin vineyard.

Next Week: Meet Canada's Top Chef

Top Chef Canada News: Chef Dale MacKay Blows a Gasket

Dale Mackay's new restaurant Ensemble (Vancouver B.C.) has been forced to close after a hot water heater burst causing damage to his restaurant.

And now the good news, the closure of the restaurant comes on the heels of a 4.5 star review in the Vancouver Sun. You can read the review here.

Dale & the Deluge

Surrealist Cinéaste To Open Le Club Silencio

From Eater.com, David Lynch is set to open the Club Silencio in Paris. The Club, based on his movie Mulholland Drive, will feature, a bar, concert hall, library and movie-theatre.

No word yet if Lynch is planning to open a chain of Double R Diners from Twin Peaks but we can only hope.

David Lynch Cooks Quinoa

Daniel Boulud to open Montreal eatery @ The Ritz

The Montreal Gazette has reported that Chef Daniel Boulud will be opening a restaurant at the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton on Sherbrooke street.

Take note that Boulud's Vancouver project, Lumière, closed in March. Despite rave reviews from critics there was just not enough diners to keep the restaurant afloat. You can watch Lumière's former executive Chef, Dale Mackay, in action on episodes of  Top Chef Canada that airs Mondays on the Food Network.

Our sources have told us that hotel rooms at the Ritz will start at $450 dollars per night. If this is an indication of the price range of the restaurant we we wonder what business will be like. At Lumière you could get a three course meal with petit-fours for $65.

Read the full article here.

First look: TOCA, Canadian bounty at the Ritz-Carlton - Eat - February 2011 - Toronto

First look: TOCA, Canadian bounty at the Ritz-Carlton - Eat - February 2011 - Toronto

The new Ritz is scheduled to open in Montreal this fall so hopefully they will do something similar.

How about MOCA?