Here in the other Paris, Normand Laprise is a culinary hero. His restaurant, Toqué!, is a landmark. The accolades pour in.
Taped to the private stairwell leading from the restaurant to the kitchen is the page from October's Gourmet magazine declaring Toqué! the top Montreal restaurant, and praising its fare as "the work of a genius." The creative team below is duly inspired.
In a tastefully packaged press kit are clippings from The New York Times (Montreal's "most creative chef"), Food & Wine ("Quebec's most famous chef"), Nuvo magazine ("the leader of a culinary revolution"), and the hometown Montreal Gazette ("a role model and a gastronomic hero").
Around town, Laprise's name spills automatically from the lips of fellow chefs when describing Montreal's food scene. He is the acknowledged creator of what's alternately called new Quebec cuisine or simply market cuisine.
Laprise is so renowned, he becomes the face of Montreal in a two-page travel ad in February's U.S.-based Food & Wine magazine. The ad invites readers on a gourmet getaway to the inaugural Montreal High Lights Festival, which began Feb. 11 and runs through March 4.Laprise was even able to draw culinary hero Charlie Trotter to be guest chef at Toqué! for a day during the festival, a coup given that Trotter rarely strays far from the kitchen of his eponymous culinary shrine in Chicago.
The festival showcases culinary arts, lighting arts and performing arts and museums. On the food front, there are promises of tastings, table d'hote menus (also known as prix fixe, in which the chef chooses the entire meal) and workshops with master chefs.
An artistic shot of Laprise with a plated creation is splashed across one full page under the handwritten message: "People here have a real passion for new experiences. Which means I'm free to be as creative as I like." The attribution mentions only his name and the fact he's a chef; It's assumed people already know, or will quickly discover, the name of this obviously renowned restaurant.
As the cult of Normand grows, fact and fiction intertwine.
Laprise has taken on New York with a second restaurant, I'm told. Or is he simply consulting? Some insist he has backed out on principle because fresh ingredients were scarce. (Actually, Laprise helped two New York restaurateurs open Cena in May, 1998, and was executive chef. But the trio closed it in July over space and money issues.)
Laprise is so provincially devoted, people enthuse, that he only uses Quebec ingredients. While Laprise's devotion to freshness is legendary, and local is always his first choice, he will stray beyond the borders as needed.
One devotée who keeps his Laprise facts straight, however, is Patricio Cruz, concierge of the Queen Elizabeth hotel.
"Normand is kind of a guru here," Cruz offers. "If you go to any auberge around Quebec, they're going to tell you they've found their young chefs through Normand."
On his printed list of recommended restaurants, he calls Toqué!: "The hottest restaurant in town. Innovative Quebecoise cuisine. High end." Cruz follows all the emerging chefs (some Toqué!-trained) and eagerly keeps track of the intricacies of who's where in the city's dining scene.
Toqué! itself, on rue Saint-Denis in trendy Mount Royal, is a sleek, gorgeous space that's usually compared to a jewel box and has expanded twice since 1993.
But Laprise -- humble, wholesome, soft-spoken -- is a reluctant celebrity. Perhaps that's why his menu deflects attention to his ingredients and suppliers.
There is "Ile-Verte salted meadow lamb with seaside plantain, sautéed Quebec girolle mushrooms and gnocchi stuffed with braised neck of lamb, Mr. Daigneault's roasted parsley root." Fish becomes "Roasted Atlantic halibut, red-pepper juice reduction and Mrs. Pisonneault's grilled young summer squash brochettes, sautéed yellow and green beans, cauliflower purée."
So much has been said and written about Laprise, 39, that he's left with precious little to add.
He graciously acknowledges Toqué!'s impact on reviving Montreal's dining scene in the early 1990s, and will gladly trace the evolution of new Quebec cuisine (a term he loathes) since 1994. He'll rhapsodize about root vegetables, lavish praise on his growing stable of farmers and other suppliers, and gladly detail his struggles to secure fresh scallops.
Ultimately, he lets the food, service and ambience of Toqué! speak for him.
During a typical mid-week dinner, 10 professionals enjoy a conversation-fuelled meal at one table. A sporty couple clad in fleece and jeans blends easily with a neighbouring power pair who are exchanging extravagant gifts.
The diverse crowd pleases Laprise, who says it's not in his or co-owner Christine Lamarche's personalities to have a very formal business.
"To make good food, you need the best produce and all the physical material like crystal and silver," he says. "But you must be accessible to all. I'm just trying to find all the people who like good food."
TOQUE!'S POACHED PEARL BAY OYSTERS WITH CLEMENTINES AND TARRAGON
Makes 4 servings 1 clementine 4 Pearl Bay (Sinku) or Malpeque oysters 2 tsp tarragon olive oil 1 tsp chardonnay vinegar 2 French shallots, peeled and sliced into rounds Freshly ground white pep per Chervil leaves Edible flower petals Cut the peel and white pith off the clementine and cut it into sections by slicing between the membranes. Cut each section into fourlittle pieces.
Heat the oysters in a closed bain-marie (water bath) for 30 seconds. Remove the oysters from their shells. Reserve four half shells. Reserve half the oyster liquid in a bowl.
Whisk the olive oil and vinegar into the bowl of reserved liquid. Add the oysters, shallots and clementines. Toss and season with pepper. Spoon the mixture into the reserved half shells. Top each oyster with chervil and flower petals. Serve immediately.