This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Ah, the happy sugaring season! Every year, for a few weeks, we celebrate the end of winter and the collection of maple sap around generous and festive meals. Whether rural or urban, commercial or artisanal, traditional or gastronomic, our sugar shacks are always popular and eagerly awaited. But when they are also synonymous with ephemeral experiences, our wonder is at its peak. So, epicureans, mark your calendars!
Traveler cabin
In 2012, in the third season of the show The Chiefs !, the young thirty-year-old Hakim Chajar admitted that one day, he would like to have a restaurant in Estrie. This is the region in which his family of Moroccan origin settled when he was 12 years old and to which he became very attached. Well, that’s it! After having visited the great cuisines of Europe and Quebec, and having treated us to Miel, now closed, the chef returns to his old loves. In 2023, in Cowansville, he launched Jane, a café with Mediterranean accents, and he has just installed his collection of knives in the premises of Vignoble du Ruisseau, in Dunham, to create Ôma.
“I fell in love with this place for several reasons,” he explains. For its magical decor, first of all. But also for its direct access, in addition to wines and spirits, to cattle and pig breeding, as well as immense gardens. I will therefore be able to cook my meats and vegetables, in addition to obtaining supplies throughout the seasons from the many producers and artisans in the area. I think I’m there, living in the present moment. »
The Ôma only officially opens its doors in two months, but Hakim Chajar has decided to precede it with a formula for the sugar season. It is open from Thursday to Sunday : the Ôsugar shack. However, faithful to his sought-after and traveling cuisine, the chef interprets this classic menu in his own way.
“I like to mix culinary traditions,” he confirms. Moreover, several of them overlap. For example, bines are also cooked in Morocco, but with calf’s trotter, quince or raisins. So I gave a nod to this tradition by adding poached pears and shish taouk spices to the beans that accompany my pork cheek dish braised for 24 hours. »
There is no shortage of surprises of this kind in the chef’s sugar menu, where oysters gratinated with miso and maple sabayon sit alongside a Passion Flakie-style dessert revisited with mascarpone cream, maple caramel and haskap berries. Something to have fun while waiting for the Ôma, which will combine festive meals with guest chefs, exotic picnics, DJ entertainment under the stars and receptions of all kinds. It promises !
“Buddy” cabin
Let’s change scenery and go towards Mirabel, more precisely towards Sucres St-Joachim, a cabin which has just 1000 notches… and 24 places! It is in this family chalet – residential stove included – that chef Clément Boivin, at the head of the concept of pop-ups Gourmet Free cooking! (after having managed, among others, the Cabane d’à vite), the pastry chef Rémy Couture (the magician behind the late CRémy) and the hostess Samia Houle present the Spring of Sugars until the end of the month ‘april.
The two chefs are friends, which is immediately apparent when you talk to them and the way they thought about this ephemeral experience. “We love sugar all the time, except the cabins! » says Rémy Couture. The two men therefore decided to combine their expertise to create a four-handed menu combining savory, sweet and a beautiful creative madness in a more intimate space than commercial huts. “We are not shy and are both greedy,” admits Clément Boivin. Our menu is therefore in our image, that is to say local, seasonal, evolving, a little offbeat. It reflects the pleasure we both have in cooking together. »
The dishes concocted by the two chefs are eclectic and surprising: aspic of white ham and pickles, duck tart, cherries and foie gras, Breton pancakes… Each title makes you salivate and has its own little story. “The Kenauk smoked trout starter was originally supposed to be in the form of sushi,” says Clément Boivin. But we ultimately paid homage to the sugar breakfast by serving it with a donut reminiscent of a tractor wheel, as well as a creamy sheep’s cheese to evoke cream cheese. »
In the glasses, Samia Houle juggles with wines (including an exclusive one from the Vignoble de la Bauge), beers and cocktails with maple reduction, offered in flasks for two or in sake glass format. As for the atmosphere, it is intended to be as friendly and intimate as the 24 places in the place. Moreover, all participants are encouraged to put on Phentex slippers when arriving. “We perfectly embrace this little kitsch side. It will be as if you were invited to our home,” concludes Rémy Couture, who invites us to get places (groups of four or eight only)… while there are enough left!
Experiential cabin
It is no longer rare to see sugar shacks offering, in addition to meals in the dining room, small savory or sweet items prepared on demand at stations. On the other hand, none of them, to our knowledge, has pushed this concept to the point of making it the heart of the experience. It is therefore with a certain curiosity that we learned that chef Ian Perreault (ex Chez Lionel, among others) was going to lead a pop-up immersive at the Aquino farm, near Saint-Hyacinthe.
On the theme “Sweet and savory weekend”, in a country setting, gourmets are invited to a menu made up of six different stations. There is a station there food truck offering poutine like crisse ears; a cabin station with Highland beef chili and pea soup 2.0; a pork and chicken grill station. We also have access to a sweet station, another bar type with non-alcoholic drinks (customers can however bring their own alcoholic drinks), and a last one with unlimited maple taffy. Note that many of the products, including meats, come from the Aquino farm, and that special activities for children are organized on site. A concept to test, why not?
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.