Ail, Ail, Ma'am!

 fig. a:  petit aïoli monstre

Tomorrow, Thursday, August 14, 2014, le grand aïoli is back, and this time it's even grander than before.  In fact, it's going to be so huge, so extraordinary, that this time around they're billing it as un aïoli monstre (!).

Once again, this grand aïoli pools together the prodigious talents of the Foodlab, Oenopole, and the Birri Bros.

And once again, this aïoli monstre is inspired by and dedicated to our patron saints of Provençal cuisine:  Lulu Peyraud and Richard Olney.

If you're not exactly clear on the concept, the good folks at Oenopole have summarized it this way:  mange tes légumes et bois du rosé ("eat your vegetables and drink some rosé!").  In other words, all of Birri's most beautiful August vegetables, lovingly prepared by Michelle and Seth and served with generous amounts of Lulu's legendary aïoli, plus all of Oenopole's most delicious rosés.  But I have it on good authority that there will also be Provençal-style shrimp and Atlantic lobster on offer to sweeten the deal even further.

Aïoli Monstre
SAT Foodlab / Labo Culinaire
1201 boulevard St-Laurent
Montreal, QC
Thursday, August 14, 2014
5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
rain or shine! (but it's always sunny when a grand aïoli is being served)

Michelle's so excited about this grand aïoli that I heard her say, "You'd be a fool to miss it."  I'm not sure if she meant me personally, or whether she meant "you" more generally.  Either way, I'm not taking any chances.  I know where I'm going to be tomorrow night.

aj

Kitchn Tour: Foodlab

TheKitchn's in-depth profile of Michelle continues with a tour of the Foodlab.

 fig. a:  Foodlab Kitchn

The thing is, TheKitchn doesn't typically cover restaurants.  They're very much focused on home kitchens and home cooking.  But they were interested in how the Foodlab works with homestyle cuisine, and they were especially interested in how Michelle's philosophy and her practice extends from home to the workplace, and from the workplace back into the home.

The photographs are lovely, and they were taken last fall, so you can see Seth & Michelle and rest of the gang working busily on their Provence menu.  All I could think of was warmth, and al fresco dining, and rosé, and it felt pretty good.

Thank you, TheKitchn!

aj

Kitchn Tour: AEB HQ, rev. ed.

We've provided you with plenty of glimpses before, of course.

 fig. a:  AEB Kitchn 1

But have you ever wondered what an outsider's perspective on our beloved AEB headquarters would look like?  Well, here's your chance, because the good people at TheKitchn have posted an extensive tour + an interview with Michelle in this week's editions, as part of their ongoing Cook's Kitchen series.

Michelle dishes on a wide variety of topics--minimalist tastes, maximalist collecting, baking, home cooking, epic dinner parties, etc.--and TheKitchn's camera-eye examines our kitchen and dining room to see what secrets they may hold.  You can find the whole she-bang right here.

 fig. b:  AEB Kitchn 2

And if you find yourself with lingering questions about our collection of cast-iron, well, those get answered here.

aj

Greens Revolution

Labo Culinaire (a.k.a. Foodlab) made it into the pages of Bon Appétit last month!

They appeared in the RSVP section of the magazine, where readers write in asking Bon Appétit to lobby on their behalf and get a restaurant's heretofore secret recipe, because Elizabeth Munsell, of Boston, MA, did just that--she was curious about a dish she'd had at Foodlab last summer.

She wrote:

Dear Bon Appétit, 

The sautéed greens at Labo Culinaire in Montreal were the highlight of our vacation.

E.M. 

These were the greens she had in mind,

 fig. a:  sautéed greens with labneh

they appeared as part of Foodlab's Jerusalem menu last summer, and I fully understand Ms. Munsell's interest.  They were seriously delicious--a key part of Foodlab's Greens Revolution Summer--and a total crowd-pleaser, and I, too, have been curious about the recipe ever since.  So, thank you, Elizabeth Munsell, and thank you, Bon Appétit!  You made Seth and Michelle very happy, and you made me happy, too.  You'd be surprised how difficult it can be to get a recipe from a chef, even when you live with one.

If you're having a hard time figuring out what's going on in the photograph above.  The greens are wilted with garlic.  There's a dollop of labneh on top, which has been drizzled with olive oil.  And the ensemble has been topped with toasted pine nuts, fried shallots, and lemon zest.  Sounds good, right?

The brilliant thing about this dish is that it's great year-round:  it's just as good with winter greens as it is with summer greens.  It would be great right now as a Lenten dish; but it would also be delicious with an Easter lamb.  Serve it alongside grilled meats and seafood all summer long, or as part of a meze-style meal.  You get the idea...

And it's not difficult to make.  It's really all about the balance of flavours, and, for me, it's the fried shallots that really make it (although the pine nuts and the lemon zest are killer touches, too).

Sautéed Greens with Labneh and Pine Nuts 

2 tbsp pine nuts
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced into rings and separated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
kosher salt
3 tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lb hardy greens, ribs and stems removed if necessary, leaves torn
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup labneh 

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Toast nuts on a baking sheet, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 6-8 minutes.  Let cool. 

Combine shallots and vegetable oil in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until shallots are golden, 8-10 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shallots to a paper towel-line plate and season with salt. 

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat; cook garlic, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add greens in batches, tossing to wilt slightly before adding more, about 2 minutes.  Add lemon juice and toss; season assertively with salt and pepper. 

Serve greens with a dollop of labneh; top with lemon zest, shallots, nuts, and a drizzle of olive oil. 

Serves 4.

Bring on the Greens Revolution!

aj

Divinyles

 fig. a:  VVV

Will "Vin Vignerons Vinyles" be the blowout of the year (possibly even the decade), as some are predicting?

What happens when you bottle a talent pool that includes Catherine Breton, The Four Horseman of the Oenocalypse, Foodlab, Joe Beef, Joshua Applestone, Café Myriade, and Walshy Fire & Jillionaire in the confines of the Sociéte des Arts Technologiques and agitate vigorously?

Will the bottle explode?

There's only one way to find out.

Tonight!
Monday, November 4
SAT
1201, boul. St-Laurent
from 7pm until...
$45 ("admission et bouffe")

Brought to you by the good, good people at Vinnovation.

aj

Plum Assignment

 fig. a:  fall plums

Michelle is back in the pages of Urban Expressions discussing one of her absolute favourite topics:  plums.  She's of Czech heritage, after all.  And there's a reason she named our line of preserves Švestka.

 fig. b:  Czech plum

Anyway, it's definitely the season for them, those beautiful Italian and Mont-Royal plums are the last of the year's stone fruits, and they're so versatile:  you can prepare them so many different ways across the sweet to savoury spectrum, from compote, jam, jelly, and butter, to cake, torte, tart, and pudding, to chutneys and pickles.

The featured recipe is for Michelle's beautiful plum and walnut torte.

 fig. c:  Czech plum torte

It's described as being for a "more adventurous baker," and, yes, it is a little involved, but it's absolutely worth the effort.  And if you decide the torte's too much trouble, you could always just make a batch of plum compote--the recipe is included.

Once again, you can find the article and the accompanying recipe here.

Now all you have to do is get out to one of our friendly neighbourhood farmers' markets to pick up a bunch of those plum dandies.

aj

Omnivores among us

 fig. a:  aaah! they're back!!

They're back!  That wacky band of Parisian bon vivants has returned to our fair city to put on another food festival, Omnivore Montreal 2013, and, once again, they've not only tapped many of Montreal's best chefs, they've brought along a whole bunch of talented friends as well.

 fig. b:  maudit barbu!

Participants in their tag-team-style Maudits Soupers include such vedettes culinaires as Jeremiah Langhorne of Charleston's legendary McCrady's (tonight! with Derek Dammann!! at Maison Publique!!!).

And, once again, the Société des arts technologiques' Foodlab is right at the centre of the action.  The SAT is where all of Omnivore's cooking demos will be taking place (in the tripped-out confines of the SATosphere, their multimedia dome).  The SAT is where Saturday night's Omnivorious bash will be held.  And the Foodlab will be the site of the festival's closing night Maudit Souper on Monday:  a collaboration between Michelle & Seth, and Nicolas Darnauguilhelm of Brussels' highly acclaimed Neptune.

 fig. c:  buchty, mmm...., buchty!

Both Michelle and Seth will be giving demos this weekend, with Michelle's covering the use of cheese in desserts (including her remarkable farmer's cheese- and fruit-filled buchty,* which you can see pictured above, fresh out of the oven).  You can catch Michelle's demo on Saturday, at 3:40 p.m.,** while Seth's will take place on Sunday at 12:20.  Demos run from 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Omnivores of Montreal, unite!

aj

* If you haven't had the pleasure, buchty are traditional Czech yeasted buns that are stuffed with fruit or cheese, and sometimes (as in this case) both.

** BTW, she's making enough buchty for everyone who attends!

St-Jean Strawberry/BBQ Social Wrap-up

 fig. a:  street-level view

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Yes, thank you so much for making our St-Jean event such a success!

It was a beautiful summer day (a real one!) and everything proceeded swimmingly.  We sold out of smoky NC-style chopped pork barbecue (two big shoulders' worth!) by about 3:00 PM.  We sold out of Savouré's delicious strawberry soda by about 4:00 PM.  And we sold our very last portion of strawberry shortcake at about 4:45 PM, just minutes before closing time.

Even better:  the wonderful folks at Mile End Community Mission were thrilled to get a sizeable (and completely unexpected) donation on Tuesday morning.  Happy St-Jean, indeed!

We saw a lot of old friends, and met a lot of new ones.  People ate inside, out on the steps, or took their portions to go.  One patron set a new Strawberry Social record:  one BBQ sandwich and four portions of strawberry shortcake!  We painted the fire hydrant strawberry red for the occasion.  We hired a little girl to ride back and forth on her scooter in a strawberry-red top.*  Even the CBC showed up to interview Michelle for the afternoon show.  It was perfect.  We couldn't have been happier with the results.

God bless Strawberry Shortcake and ole-time BBQ!

aj

* Michelle had demoed an awesome strawberry-themed outfit for herself a few days earlier,

 fig. b:  red on red on red...

but it ended up being a little too steamy for this particular get-up.  Too bad.

Get Thee to the Greek

 fig. a:  Greek spring!

Team Foodlab & Team Oenopole are teaming up again to bring you another Greek extravaganza, featuring not one, not two, not three, but FOUR honest-to-goodness Greek wine producers

Thymiopoulos
Argyros
Tselepos
&
Papagiannakos

Opa!

 fig. b:  Opa!

and a wide range of Greek delicacies, including

grilled lambchops
stuffed eggplant
octopus salad
grilled Izmir-style kebab
fresh grilled flatbreads
&
honey-walnut cake

 fig. c:  Foodlab + Oenopole

And, get this:  you don't have to wait, because the festivities take place TONIGHT!

Wednesday, May 15
5pm till close
Foodlab
1201 boul. St-Laurent
3rd floor
Montreal, QC

It's official--Greek Spring has arrived!

aj

Czech 'er out!

 fig. a:  torte?  Czech!

Michelle's new Czech Easter menu premieres tonight at the Foodlab.

It features this gorgeous new torte (walnut-plum) that Michelle invented.

They're also serving Czech-style bar snacks, and a tantalizing selection of Michelle's favourite Czech delicacies, including her Prague Spring salad, Poached Trout with caraway seeds, leeks, and butter-lemon sauce, and Beef Tenderloin with svickova sauce, dumplings, and lingonberry jam.

 fig. b:  Czech beer & sausages

Michelle will be making some Czech Easter treats in a couple of weeks, too, closer to the Big Day.

 fig. c:  Czech pastries

And they've got a selection of Czech beers on offer.

Just saying.

aj

Olney Love Can Break Your Heart

2012 was also Foodlab's first year of existence, and, oh, what a year it was.  Sure, it was wild & wooly at times, but mostly it was a year of lovely, often adventurous menus, stellar events, a truly incredible summer that seemed to want to live up to Foodlab's seasonal theme ("Club Med"), loads of positive feedback, some well-deserved acclaim, and lots and lots of ping pong.

Like I said, Foodlab was the site of a number of fantastic events over the course of the year (a Greek kebab night, on a hot August night, that was amply lubricated with ouzo comes to mind), but my favourite was definitely Michelle & Seth's hommage à Richard Olney.  From the thoughtful Provençal menu, to the fine Bandol wines (courtesy of Theo Diamantis and the Oenopole crew), to the convivial ambiance, and the lively and appreciative crowd, this was a truly memorable night, a heartbreakingly beautiful night, one that Montreal desperately needed, and one that, I'm sure, made dear Richard very proud indeed.



Michelle & Seth put the finishing touches on the chalkboard.



Theo's pride & joy.



The night's menu.



Ratatouille.



Game terrine with red-wine-soaked prunes.



Stuffed and braised squid.



Marinated & grilled mushrooms.  Stuffed lamb shoulder with jus and white purée.



Michelle's Salade Olney.



Red-wine-poached pear.



Honey & apple tartlet.



Here's to many more amazing Foodlab events, and let's hope the hommage à Richard Olney becomes an annual event!

aj

Baby's Turning One

 fig. a:  déja un an!

Foodlab/Labo Culinaire turns one this weekend [!].  With this in mind AEB conducted an exclusive interview with its chefs, Seth Gabrielse and Michelle Marek, at Foodlab, on the third floor of Montreal's Société des arts technologiques.

"A Brief History of Foodlab"

AEB:  First off, is it “Foodlab” or “the Foodlab”?  You know, like “Mile End” or “the Mile End.”

S:  Foodlab.

M:  Definitely just “Foodlab.”

 fig. b:  Michelle & Seth

AEB:  What was the first thing that ran through your minds when you were approached with this project?

S:  “You’re out to lunch.”  

Seriously.  I thought they were flat-out crazy.

The idea seemed to go against everything I knew about the business.

M:  Plus, there was a very specific notion about how this place would function.

S:  Yeah, they had this concept that involved doing a 5 à 7 every night, then stopping service for the show in the dome, then starting up again to serve food from 9:30 pm to 1:00 am.

AEB:  [laughter]

M:  And it all seemed very pie in the sky.

AEB:  But obviously both of you are here, so there must have been things that enticed you.

S:  More than anything, we were intrigued.

And there was the prospect of complete control over the menu.  It sounded like a rare opportunity.

Plus, there was the vast amounts of travel we’d be doing.

M:  And the massive staff we’d have.

S:  And the research budget.

M:  And the cleaning team.

[laughter]

We didn’t know at the time that we wouldn’t actually get a pizza oven.

S:  At one point we had the idea that we’d be baking bread and that the aroma would be vented out onto the street to entice any passersby.

People would be lured into the lobby and then they’d be overwhelmed by Michelle’s display case of desserts.  [This display case of desserts doesn't exist as of yet.]  When they saw those they’d be totally powerless.  They’d come up the 3 flights of stairs without any hesitation and they'd be ours.

AEB:  How did you settle on the rotating theme approach?

S:  We did one week that was all over the place.  No theme to it at all.  The only constant was that everything was small.

M:  And everything came with a $6 price tag.

S:  Including tax

M:  We knew we needed a direction, but we weren’t ready to decide, we weren’t ready to settle on a fixed menu.  And there’s something about this building, this space, that demands flux.

S:  Plus, the constant change allows us to keep our sanity.

We have something really special here.  There are no restrictions on which direction we take the menu.  We can change the entire menu in a way other restaurants just can’t.

We do these tributes to all these different regions, all these different cuisines, and we’re interested in doing them justice and being true to them, but, at the same time, everything is always our interpretation of these dishes.

Because, you know, Michelle and I aren’t Japanese.  [They ran an izakaya/manga menu last February, around the time of Nuit Blanche.]

AEB:  Really?  Because there’s a rumour going around town...

[dead silence]

 fig. c:  Foodlab by night

AEB:  Okay...  Moving right along.  What were some of the crazier themes that you came up with, but ultimately passed on?

S:  Well, when we did our Fou de cochon menu, the idea that was presented to us was that it should have a mud theme.  It should be a mud menu.  Everything should either be brown or have mud involved in the dish.

AEB:  Or both?

S:  Yeah, or both.

M:  One plate was supposed to involve five different shades of brown, including something baked in mud...

We ended up kind of using that idea--we just went the opposite direction with it.  I thought, it’s spring in Montreal, we’re sick of brown.  We’re craving colour.  And that’s what we did for our Homage to Fou de cochon menu--we added colour--and everyone was really happy with it.

AEB:  How about some of the crazier themes you guys came up with?

[Michelle consults her notebook]

M:  Wedding menu theme.  It would be like attending someone else’s wedding.  Someone you didn’t know at all.  There’d be a fixed menu and you’d have to stay the duration, and there’d be a big, elaborate cake.  And a cake ceremony.  And dancing.

“Wartime Europe Under Rations.”  

AEB:  Ooh, that's a catchy one.  Who wouldn't want to relive the pleasures of Turnip Winter?

M:  “Real Cocktail Hour.”  Where the emphasis would be on mixed drinks and the food would only consist of snacks and they wouldn’t be sufficient to soak up all the alcohol.

S:  Is that the week that we take off?

M:  Yeah.

“Sommeliers’ Ball.”  This would be about the dancing.  We’d turn the dome into a ballroom and get some dancing instructors to teach everyone some moves.  It would be on a Monday night and all the sommeliers in town would come and learn to dance while they drink.

S:  “Expo 67.”  

We ended up turning that one into a TV episode.  [For the Les Touilleurs show.]

M:  “Dinner at sea.”

S:  Oh, yeah.  And we talked to Fred [Morin, of Joe Beef fame] about doing a train menu.  We’re still hoping that one actually happens one day.

AEB:  What was the kitchen like when you first started?

 S:  There was no kitchen--there was a folding table.

M:  No, there wasn't even a folding table.  There was a riser that the SAT used for their [music] shows.

S:  There was no running water on the third floor [where Foodlab is located].  You had to go to the first floor to do the dishes, and if you wanted to wash your hands you had to go to the second floor.

We cooked at my house and biked everything in.  And all our equipment came from home.  Most of it is still here.

AEB:  Believe me, I know...

M:  There were no plates and no utensils.

We had two induction burners and during our first week one of our staff broke one of them.  So within a week we’d lost 50% of our cooking power.

S:  We had actual stoves for our first menu, but not for the first couple of events we did.

M:  We pitched the idea of just buying two electric home stoves--$450 for both.  We still have them.  They’re the only stoves we have, and one of them is still going strong

S:  Of course, we can only use four burners at a time between the two of them, otherwise the breaker jumps.  So it makes the logistics of cooking here pretty interesting.

AEB:  Did this situation pose any problems when you hosted Omnivore?

S:  Oh, my god.  Did it ever.

Actually, our ovens were doing great until then.  They really took a beating that weekend.

That Saturday we had thirty people in our kitchen area for most of the day, many of whom weren't necessarily chefs.  It was bedlam.

And the fact that our walk-in fridge is down in the basement caused a lot of headaches.

AEB:  What’s still on the wish list?

M:  A sous-vide machine.  A Hobart mixer.

S:  A blender.  A telephone?

M:  A gas range.  They’re on order right now.  They should arrive tomorrow [!].

AEB:  And what was your staffing situation when you guys got started?

S:  For the first few months, till January, Michelle and I did all the prep, the cooking, the cleaning, and the serving.  Michelle was also responsible for ordering the wine.  In mid-January, Heidi [Gindl, Michelle and Seth's trusted assistant] came on board.

Maude [Rochette, Foodlab's sommelier] got hired just before the summer started and she took over the wine list, the service, and the hiring.  Things have been much smoother since then.

M:  Originally, we inherited a bunch of bar servers who didn’t know anything about serving food.

S:  They were used to running kegs up and down the stairs.  And suddenly they actually had to wear [button-down] shirts, and they had to serve food, and learn a menu.

 fig. d:  Foodlab + Oenopole

AEB:  What has been your proudest moment?

M:  During our summer boom, when we were suddenly handling way more customers with exactly the same amount of staff.

Especially that special night we did with Theo [Diamantis, of Oenopole fame]--the kebab night.  That was really crazy-busy, and really magical.

I’ve done stuffy events my whole career, but here we’ve had the opportunity to do these special events that are totally different.  There's a freedom and ease to them that I really love.  And we've gotten to work with some of our favourite people.

And people have responded.

S:  With the help of Theo, we got them to come to an Izmir-style kebab night.  No one had any idea what an Izmir-style kebab was, but people loved it.

 fig. e:  Theo brings it!

M:  And the Richard Olney night.  There were probably some people who had only the vaguest idea who Olney was, but they turned out, they stayed late, and everybody had a great time.

S:  I've worked in a couple of places that were well-known, well-stocked,  and well-managed and that made it into The New York Times.

But we got a mention in The New York Times in our first year, and that made me pretty proud.

AEB:  What can we expect from you over the course of Year Two?

S:  Gas stoves!  Of course, we have no budget for pans, but that's another story.

AEB:  You'll just have to raid your home kitchens again.

S:  More stuff from home!

M:  A Chinatown menu.  My Chinatown menu.  I can't wait.  All the things that I want to eat when I go to Chinatown.

And more events.  We had this other great idea:  a Masters Dinner.

We'd invite all the old-school chefs in town.  All the chefs that have been working the line for decades.

They all know each other, so it would be a reunion.  It would also be a beautiful night of beautiful technique.

AEB:  Anything else?

S:  The release of our first cookbook.  And the launch of our Food Network show.

M:  And our line of cookware.

[laughter]

AEB:  Thanks, guys.  And congratulations!


Foodlab's First Anniversary Party takes place this Saturday, November 3.

On the menu:  

Oysters:  Thrumpbacks and Sea Angels 

Consommé with bone marrow dumpling 

Seafood terrine 

Beef carpaccio with lemon and watercress 

Carrot, cumin, currant, and cilantro salad 

bar snacks 

& 

cake for all!

Festivities begin at 5pm.  (Makes for a great stop after RASPIPAV 2012.)

Foodlab, 1201 rue St-Laurent, Montreal, QC

aj

Kindred spirits

 fig. a:  June garlic

Ah, sweet memories of a summer's night in Provence...

AEB's coverage of Michelle, Natasha, and Theo's Le Grand Aïoli/A Provençal Summer Feast at Alexandraplatz made it into Kinfolk Magazine's online journal.  The post comes complete with lots of lovely new photographs (new to me, at least), too, including a really nice one of Michelle.

It's hard to believe it's already been two months since that feast.  The photographs make it feel like it was just the other day.  They also make me wish there was another grand aïoli on the horizon.

 fig. b:  August garlic

Good thing the late-summer garlic harvest is already upon us.

Good thing Michelle and Seth's Provence menu is just around the corner (!).

Stay tuned...

In the meantime, you might want to read this 2010 Guardian article on paying a pilgrimage to Richard Olney's former home in Provence to get yourself in the mood.  And/or you can take a look at this post from the AEB archives about Olney, Lulu, and Domaine Tempier.

aj

Omnivore 'r' us

 fig. a:  welcome to the pleasuredome

It all looks so calm, so peaceful, so reassuring, but over the last few days there was a veritable hive of activity under the Société des arts technologiques' mysterious dome.

You'll remember that when we last interacted Omnivore was just on the verge of getting underway.  You'll also remember that while Omnivore's series of "maudits soupers" was intended to create a ripple effect of culinary collaboration and experimentation across the city of Montreal, the Société des arts technologiques, and its Foodlab in particular, was slated to be Omnivore Montreal's ground zero.

Three days of workshops took place there, a great deal of the prep work for both the workshops and the dinners was conducted there, and the Foodlab was the site of a closing night dinner, pairing the talents of Les Grès' Jérome Bigot and the Foodlab's Seth and Michelle, as well as an after-hours bash for all those who participated in putting together the Montreal leg of Omnivore's World Tour 2012.  That's a significant amount of hustle and bustle for a kitchen that features virtually no modern conveniences (convection oven? sous-vide machine? Pacojet?), uses home-use electric ranges exclusively (natural gas?), and consists of a staff of three.

It was quite a wild ride, but one that was by turns illuminating, sometimes even breathtaking, and frequently inspiring, and it succeeded in forging what will surely turn out to be important links between chefs and gastronomes in Montreal, Europe, and beyond, as well as exposing Montreal's food-obsessed to a new, more interactive kind of food festival, one that looks likely to be a recurring proposition.

There are certainly more extensive reports on Omnivore Montreal 2012 to be found elsewhere, but here are just a few personal impressions focused on Michelle's involvement with the festival:

On Sunday Michelle gave her workshop on the topic of memory, fantasy, strawberries, and the nature of dessert.

 fig. b:  black pepper, strawberries

She created two strawberry desserts for the event, both of them "simple," both of them designed to end a meal on a suitably light and refreshing note.  The first was a sour cream panna cotta with candied celery, a mixed herb granité (parsley, mint, basil, verbena), and strawberries.

The second was her dreamy Bohemian Rhapsody, a dessert that she created when she was still at Laloux and that was featured in the Gazette's "Strawberry Smackdown" last summer, and whose conception I described in some detail in a post at around the same time.  In case you've forgotten, it went something like this:

If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing Michelle describe the dessert herself, it all started with stories her mother used to tell her about summertime in Czechoslovakia. It seems that instead of summer camp, Czech kids used to be carted off to these summer work camps where they'd spend a couple of weeks picking hops as part of the national beer-making effort. 

Summer work camps? Nationalized industries? Doesn't sound like a lot of fun, does it? Except that apparently it was.

The kids were out of the city and in the countryside, they were camping, and they were relatively unsupervised. There was music every night, there were songs and dancing, and there was no shortage of summer intrigue, and a fair bit of summer romance, too. There were also strawberries--lots and lots of wild strawberries--and flowers.

Michelle loved hearing these stories (she still does!), especially because her mother would get so animated when she told them (she still does!). They were/are clearly among her mother's fondest memories.

Anyway, earlier this year, before strawberry season even began, Michelle came up with the idea of creating a dessert that would capture elements of these remembrances of Czech summers past. There would definitely be hops, of course--the most floral she could find. There would also be strawberries and flowers--an homage to the wild strawberries and the wildflowers that grew alongside the hops in the Czech countryside. There would be malt--another nod to the art of making beer. And there would by rye--Michelle imagined rye crumbs mingling with the hops and the strawberries and the wildflowers after the Czech youngsters had had their lunches in the fields.

 fig. c:  celery, hops

This was exactly the story that Michelle described to the audience at her workshop, but she used it to talk about her creative process, and to reflect upon dessert's nature, on the dichotomy between desserts that are based in fantasy and those that are based in memory (whether personal or collective), and how on occasion desserts can find their inspiration in both.

 fig. c:  Michelle 360º

She also decided that additional visuals were in order, so we drew up a leaflet to provide audience members with some important primary texts.  The four texts in question looked like this:

  fig. 1:  strawberry picking in Czechoslovakia

It was late in the evening when Philip arrived at Ferne. It was Mrs. Athelny’s native village, and she had been accustomed from her childhood to pick in the hopfield to which with her husband and her children she still went every year. Like many Kentish folk her family had gone out regularly, glad to earn a little money, but especially regarding the annual outing, looked forward to for months, as the best of holidays. The work was not hard, it was done in common, in the open air, and for the children it was a long, delightful picnic; here the young men met the maidens; in the long evenings when work was over they wandered about the lanes, making love; and the hopping season was generally followed by weddings.  --Of Human Bondage, CXVIII (pg. 543), W. Somerset Maugham

fig. 2:  a fortuitous quote

  fig. 3:  a page from Michelle's journal

 fig. 4:  Michelle & co.

I was hardly the most objective of observers, but her presentation--her reminiscences and commentary, her demo, her leaflet--appeared to have really struck a chord with the audience, and the fact that she served individual portions of her Bohemian Rhapsody to each and every attendee didn't hurt either.  In fact, it helped to create a mob scene after her talk.

 fig. e:  after the demo

Later that night, on our way to a "maudit souper" at Sardine, we had a chance run-in with a long-lost friend who was visiting from Toronto.  We did the standard 5-minute check-up, catching up on the highlights of the last few years, including Michelle's move to the Foodlab, and, completely unprompted, our long-lost friend brought up our post about the Bohemian Rhapsody and how its tale of childhood romance in the hop fields of Communist Czechoslovakia had nearly brought him to tears (!).  "Wow, funny you should mention that," I said, "because Michelle just finished giving a public talk on just that very topic."  Afterwards, I made a joke that I'd only had to pay him $50 for him to stage this unexpected encounter, but, really, his timing was impeccable, and Michelle marched onwards towards Sardine with a new spring in her step.

A day later, Ève Dumas singled out Michelle's talk as one of the highlights of the festival in the pages of La Presse (!!).  Commenting on the strength of the Montreal contingent's demos over the weekend, Dumas wrote:

La palme revient à Mme Marek, qui a donné un sens nouveau a l'expression galvaudée qu'est "cuisine d'émotion."  "Un travail sur la mémoire et le fantasme, avec des fraises," était la description que las chef du Foodlab avait faite de sa présentation la semaine dernière.  Et hier, c'était exactement ça.

Partant d'un souvenir d'enfance sublimé, Michelle Marek a préparé en direct un dessert aux fraises, avec granité de houblon, crème fouettée et crumble de pain de seigle qui évoquait l'enfance de sa mère en Tchéchoslovaquie communiste.  À la fin de la démonstration, une cinquantaine de spectateurs émus voulaient connaître le goût des fantasmes de Michelle Marek qui, par chance, avait prévu une petite portion pour tout le monde.

Michelle had even more spring in her step after she discovered that write-up.  It gave her the boost she needed to face up to a huge day.

And, finally, last night, Omnivore Montreal 2012 came to its inevitable conclusion with two more seriously hot tickets:  les Frères Folmer of Couvert Couvert (Heverlee, BE) with Marc-André Jetté and Patrice Demers at Les 400 Coups and Bigot/Gabrielse/Marek (organ, drums, guitars) + Oenopole's Theo Diamantis (wines and vocals) at the Foodlab.  Unfortunately, we missed out on the festivities on rue Notre-Dame, for obvious reasons, but the collaboration between Team Les Grès, Team Foodlab, and Team Oenopole resulted in a lovely menu with real moments of magic, the highlight of which was probably the main course:  a marinated and grilled pork échine with onions served four ways (scallion purée, charred scallion oil, grilled scallions, and an onion cream) and a pork jus.

 fig. f:  pork plates

It was as striking as it was tasty, and it was one of those dishes that you wanted to just keep reappearing each time you cleaned your plate.  I could have easily had one for dessert, too.

 fig. g:  pork & onions

All things must come to an end, though, right?*

A few hours later, the guests had departed, the chefs had returned, and there was nothing left to do but drink, dance, play ping pong, and reminisce about the weekend.

aj

* with the exception of AEB.

Omnivore! Live at Montreal!!

 fig. a:  Hello, Montreal!

Remember when we told you about Omnivore way back in July, and how Omnivore's World Tour 2012 was going to be blowing through town in mid-August, bringing their "join the young cuisine" movement and their appetite for creation-destruction with them?  Well, guess what?  It's mid-August, people, and that time is nearly upon us.  The Omnivore crew, and their entire cast of European chefs and other gastro-provocateurs, is just about to descend upon Montreal.

Still haven't acted?  Need some additional convincing?  Well, not surprisingly, there's been a rash of local press about this imminent invasion.  So if you don't trust AEB (?!), may I direct you toward the following two authorities:

--Ève Dumas, "Festival Omnivore:  Montréal à croquer," in this past weekend's La Presse [en français]

--Natasha Pickowicz, "Omnivore food festival goes global with stop in Montreal this weekend," in today's Montreal Gazette [en anglais]

Ms. Dumas' article is particularly extensive and includes all kinds of helpful tips, but my favorite quote shows up at the end of Ms. Pickowicz's article, and it comes courtesy of Michelle:

Unlike the Festival en Lumière, which takes place in the dead of winter, the Omnivore Food Festival makes its debut in Montreal right at the peak of the lush harvest season. “Festival en Lumière is such a well-respected and well-funded festival, but when the visiting chefs come and you have to show them your local products, you’re like, ‘I’m sorry,’” Marek laughs. ”This time, we can really show them what this region is all about.”

Indeed.  Any initiative that encourages visitors to come and visit our fair and frosty city during the winter, as well as Montrealers to stay put, is a good one in our books.  But it's one thing for local chefs to embrace our Nordic culture, it's a whole other thing to force visiting chefs to deal with it.

See you this weekend!

aj

Mark your calendars..., rev. ed.

Hot on the heels of a glowing review of Foodlab in this weekend's New York Times (!), it's another eventful week in the wonderful world of Foodlab/Michelle/AEB.  Check it!

 fig. a:  Zorba the sommelier

Wednesday, July 25:  Theo Diamantis and Team Oenopole will be descending upon Foodlab for a special Greek Grill Extravaganza, featuring grilled Greek sausages (loukaniko), Izmir-style kebabs, grilled sardines, and a whole mess of Greek wines, in addition to all the Greek delicacies already on offer.  The fun starts at 5pm and lasts till 10pm.  Bring an appetite, and a thirst!

 fig. b:  red menace

Sunday, July 29:  Michelle and "...an endless banquet" will be running yet another fruit social (the first one of 2012) at Parc Jeanne-Mance from 1pm until supplies last.  This one's a Strawberry Social, and, once again, it will feature beautiful Quebec strawberries, Michelle's famous shortcake, and lightly whipped cream.  Portions will be generous.  Payment is by donation only, with a suggested donation of $7.  And all the proceeds will be going to support Head and Hands.  Location is by the beach volleyball courts, as Michelle's stand will be there to augment Serve, Head and Hands' annual bars & restaurants beach volleyball tournament.  Come one, come all!

And don't forget about Omnivore, which gets underway on August 16...

aj

p.s.  kebabapalooza follow-up:

 fig. c:  foodlab + oenopole

What a night!  Such great wines, such awesome food, such a good vibe...