SubscribeDINNER February 22, 2008
The Montreal Highlights Festival, that amalgam of food, performing arts and sundry activities that marks the end of winter, is upon us again. As usual, local restaurants are serving up a variety of special menus, including many involving chefs from Toronto and Chile, the featured city and country for this year’s event. Choosing what to attend is always problematic as there are a number of meals that only occur on one night. But it was an offer from Montée de Lait that lasts the entire length of the festival that got my attention. Chefs Martin Juneau and Segué Lepage are offering a 10-course tasting menu featuring the most memorable dishes the restaurant has served since it opened four years ago. The many pleasant memories I have of this restaurant made it too much to resist.
Bluefin tuna marinated in pepper and topped with an avocado chantilly and aragula on a cucumber vinaigrette. Small but good. My tuna had a pretty hefty piece of sinew but this was a great combination of textures.
“Fish & chips” tempura fried salmon with celery coleslaw and pickle and sour cream “tartar” sauce. This was the JJ’s favourite dish. Very lightly expertly fried salmon and a well designed plate.
Panfried pied bleu mushrooms on a leek and grana padano fondue tartlet with a red wine vinegar reduction. Beautiful combination of rich flavours nicely offset by the vinegar reduction. This was definitely one of my favorites. A very wintry dish.
Charcuterie plate consisting of a pan fried foie gras on a salad of thinly sliced bacon and parsley, a “jambon persillee” cromesquis with a thick onion reduction and a boudin soup shooter with a crispy jambon beurre sandwich. You just have to admire the work that went into this. You can’t help but wonder how they decided to put something this difficult on the tasting menu when you consider that they are serving the tasting menu and the regular à la carte menu and that the kitchen is the size of my bathroom. The foie gras and bacon salad is sinfully delicious with the thinly sliced bacon melting in your mouth along with the foie. While this looks like it may be too fatty, the abundance of parsley actually cut through the fat quite well and the dish was very enjoyable. I have rarely met a cromesquis I didn’t like and the boudin shooter, which I expected to be somewhat gritty, was smooth and pleasant.
Sweetbread saltimbocca with green beans, sage puree and marsala reduction. One dish I didn’t love so much. The sweetbread wrapped in prosciutto and fried was perfectly crispy and utterly delicious but the pairing with the beans did not work for me and the generously plated thyme purée was herbaceous to the point of medicinal.
Boileau “cerf” venison tartare with corn foam and Yukon Gold chips. Well done gamey tartare with the foam imparting a hint of corn flavour and the chips serving as tasty ustensils. If I could buy a bag of these chips, I would. Another contender for dish of the night.
“Entrecote” on a bearnaise with a red wine and shallot puree sheltering an egg yolk mousse and a tarragon emulsion. Mini portion of rib steak that is slightly overcooked for my liking. Another innovative dish but my main complaint is that everything seemed like a sauce (the bearnaise, the shallot puree, the egg mousse) and there wasn’t anything to eat them with except a tiny piece of meat. So you mix them up a bit and give it a shot. Meh.
The cheese plate at Montée de Lait is not to be missed and this was no exception: sweet and creamy Brie de Meaux and sharp and hard Beaufort d’Alpage served with confit figs and toasted almonds. Excellent as usual.
Frozen lemon parfait topped with sweet confit orange peel and served on an oven toasted meringue with a bitter cocoa shooter. There are so many things to like at Montée de Lait that I often forget how good the desserts are, and this interesting play on temperature and texture does not disappoint. The shooter in particular balances out the sweetness of the dish very nicely.
“Pina colada”: white rum panna cotta topped with toasted coconut and served with sweet poached pineapple. The panna cotta is a little less creamy than I like it but this dish is still divine. Another winning dessert.
We opt not to take the wine pairing with the menu but our waiter guides us to three very nice selections to accompany the meal: a Saint Bris Goison Sauvignon Blanc; a Guy Bretton Beaujolais-Villages; and Les Coulisses Coteaux du Languedoc from Domaine Fontedicto.
The best part of the evening? While the Montreal Highlights guide lists the cost at $100 (without wine and $200 with) it turns out, upon arrival, that the tasting menu is only $70 (or $150 with wine). What a deal! The worst part? Disappointment that the seared scallop with boudin noir is not on the tasting menu. In all seriousness, though. What a meal! Let the Montreal Highlights Festival begin!
La Montée de Lait
371 Villeneuve E.
514.289.9921
