This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
The Laurels of Gastronomy rewarded 17 winners last Monday during the grand gala, including the Québec Tanière establishment.3, which received the title of Restaurant of the Year. A handful of them offer their vision of an industry in full swing.
“We don’t work for the prizes, but it feels good to be recognized by the industry, especially when the media attention is generally focused on Montreal,” confides François-Emmanuel Nicol, head of Tanière3, who received the Restaurant of the Year award on the New City Gas stage during the ceremony. “There are things being done everywhere in Quebec! » he exclaims.
For him, Quebec gastronomy is anchored in the terroir and highlights agricultural and wild flavors. “Tanière3 is almost 100% local and, for us, the luxury is finding a small plant that no one knows about,” he explains. According to him, there are around a hundred in the province, “like the fragrant chamomile, which grows in the cracks of the sidewalk and tastes like pineapple and chamomile.” The secret to success would be, for him, to forge his own identity instead of doing what is already done elsewhere.
Fisun Ercan, from Bika Ferme & Cuisine in Montérégie, who has just been named chef of the year by the Lauriers after being a finalist for four years, also defends Quebec products. “I make locavore cuisine inspired by Turkish cuisine, which is a real mosaic between my origins and my roots here,” she says. Rather than considering a recipe or a nationality, she prefers to invent based on what surrounds her. “Since I feed the public, I feel responsible for nature, for the environment,” says the 55-year-old chef, who provides kitchen service every day, without exception. By keeping only the essentials in her dishes, Fisun Ercan is thus an actor of Quebec gastronomy which is becoming more and more diversified. “Everyone takes a step in front and it goes very quickly. The future does not have to be afraid,” she says with great hope despite the challenges and difficulties of the environment.
My Rabbit wins again
“We have the privilege of being in an environment where everything is still possible,” says Vanya Filipovic, of the Mon Lapin restaurant in Montreal, who received the Sommelier of the Year award. This is also the third trophy for the establishment this year, which was recently named best restaurant in Canada, and where Vanya Filipovic and her colleague and partner Alex Landry were named best sommeliers in the country in the Canada’s 100 Best list. . “In Quebec, there are no dusty traditions or old boxes in which we must exist. It’s really an opportunity,” she emphasizes.
According to Vanya Filipovic, it is because the industry is new that it is so interesting. “For example, the SAQ and the UPA are a hundred years old, but it’s very young. It’s great to see all these movements, all these different generations who bring their touch and make Quebec gastronomy booming,” notes the woman who wouldn’t want to practice her profession anywhere else. And continues, with enthusiasm: “In an era where consumers are increasingly connected with what they eat, Quebec, thanks to the richness of its land and its farmers, is an incredible place. »
This daughter of restaurateurs therefore flourishes in an environment which allows her to continue sommeliering with pride and humility and to offer a unique vision. “Mon Lapin is our point of view, the wines we like, our own way of doing things,” says Vanya Filipovic. In his establishment, the menu is in fact designed with vintages in which the team simply believes. “We have wines to open, drink and share now, which will please people. Not an inventory of all our references in the cellar…” For her, Quebec winegrowers are, in fact, an integral part of the equation. “They too are at the very beginning of their adventure with us,” she says.
Love always
Élise Tastet, winner of the Outreach of Culinary Culture award thanks to her Tastet site and its application launched a few days ago, notes for her part the evolution of a very creative Quebec industry, “which does a lot with very little” and which is increasingly multicultural. “By immigrating, people from everywhere bring the richness of their gastronomy,” she observes.
In this way, Quebec has its place on the international scale, she is convinced. For his part, Roxan Bourdelais, director of catering at Tanière3, rejects the preconceived idea of an elitist and staid Quebec gastronomy. “It is more synonymous with amalgam, because we eat it, but it also contains a part of tradition, culture, and a part of humanity,” he says. For him, the contents of a plate are only the vehicle.
Finally, Élise Tastet describes a generous gastronomy, “bon vivant with a hospitality that is only found in Quebec, and that is very precious”. The proof, if any were needed, with Janette Bertrand, who was awarded the Laurier Hommage 2024 by Christian Bégin. And this, in particular for having freed women from their kitchens with her book Janette’s recipes, published in 1968 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. “Cooking is loving,” Janette Bertrand said several times on stage. And no one to contradict her.
2024 laurels list
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.