Made in QuebecA Culinary Journey

Canada has a culinary treasure in Quebec, one that is not perhaps as celebrated as it could be, at least outside of that distinct and gloriously food-obsessed region. Julian Armstrong, longtime food writer for The Gazette of Montreal, has spent her career eating, cooking, thinking and writing about Quebecois food.Made in Quebec: A Culinary Journey is the result of those years of delicious effort. Quebec has a cuisine firmly based on French foundations, but blended and enriched over the years by the cooking styles of a variety of immigrant groups, initially British and American, more recently Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern and Asian. More than in any other province or region in Canada, people in Quebec are passionate and knowledgeable about their food. The restaurant scene is robust, not just in Montreal and Quebec City—you can go to just about any small town in la belle province and have a splendid meal. Farmers, purveyors, chefs, casual and dedicated home cooks – all are poised in every season to produce or procure the perfect, seasonal ingredient. Not for them the out-of-season asparagus from Peru. Quebec is where you can truly experience what food tasted like before the industrial food complex. Here unpasteurized milk and cheese is commonplace; indeed there is a herd of cattle descended from cows brought from France by Samuel de Champlain producing milk just for this purpose. Imagine that in the rest of Canada! Of course, Quebec is big news in the global foodie world these days, with Martin Picard (Au Pied de Cochon), David McMillan and Fred Morin (The Art of Living According to Joe Beef), and Chuck Hughes (Garde Manger andChuck’s Day Off) showing off the joys of dining in this great province. But there is much more still to discover about Quebec, from restaurateurs certainly, but also from farmers, foragers, artisanal cheese and bread makers, home cooks, and so many more. These people, their stories and recipes, comprise Made in Quebec. It is high time for a comprehensive celebration of Quebecois cuisine.