Martin Picard’s television sugaring season, which was to last only one season, will finally end with spring, at the end of its 11e season ofA chef at the cabin.
• Read also: A 11e and last season for A chef at the cabin
It is with a clear conscience that the renowned chef of Le Pied de Cochon, in Montreal, and of the sugar shack Au Pied de Cochon, in Mirabel, bows out from the airwaves of Télé-Québec. “We went around the garden and I think we had stopped this show,” he said in an interview with the QMI Agency at the end of February.
“We had a great impact on maple syrup, between day 1 and the last episode. I have the impression that we gave a lot of people the taste for sugaring and that we brought pride [au milieu]. Maple syrup is a huge industry and we were a small cog in it that helped others come a long way,” said the chef, cantankerous, and above all very grateful. .
PHOTO COURTESY Télé-Québec
This season, which will be dedicated to maple syrup, Martin and his entire team have traveled to France, where the chef was a cook at the start of his career, and to Germany, the second largest importer of maple syrup. maple in the world.
Only the last episode will be devoted to nostalgia and the path traveled by the people of the Cabane over all its years. “It was a great adventure. It is a period of life which was significant and which will follow me until the end of my days”, expressed at the end of the line, Martin Picard.
“Never in my life would I have hoped to do 11 years with the same show and with a team that remained practically the same from start to finish. […] It’s a beautiful end to this story that I never thought I would live, ”he continued, his voice imbued with emotion.
Authenticity above all
When the show A chef at the cabin went on the air, in 2013, the cabin was already doing quite well and Martin came to win first prize in the Best cookbook of the year category with his book Sugar Shack Au Pied de Cochonat the prestigious annual Gala of the Paris Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, in France.
The show obviously contributed to boosting the enthusiasm for maple products and maple syrup production, but for Martin Picard, it was essential that the show reflect first and foremost the reality of the environment, with the right and the less good years, but also to show the underside of his cooking, from the design of a plate to the final product.
PHOTO COURTESY Télé-Québec
“It was a condition from the start. I don’t have the qualities or the talent of animators. I could just be myself. To start building or hiding things… no, I wanted it to be the way we are. And I think that’s what made people want to try [à l’acériculture] and make their first cuts,” he said.
Today, after 11 years, when the film crew comes to the hut they know exactly what to do and are part of the environment, underlined the chef owner. “It was, frankly, a privilege for me to be able to do a show like that.”
- The very last season of A chef at the cabin will air on Télé-Québec this Friday, starting at 8 p.m. The show can also be watched on the Web, simultaneously, or in catch-up on video.telequebec.tv and on the Télé-Québec app.