Food With A Point

Sometimes it’s good to get a little wild. This was a recent experience of mine, one that I could discuss in my newsletter, but wouldn’t do justice to in the few lines available. And so, as an exception, I have decided to highlight my dinner at La Table des Jardins Sauvages as a complement to my newsletter.

For a few months it had been my desire to snag a seat at the Jardins Sauvages and taste the fine cuisine of Nancy Hinton, incorporating the foraged ingredients from her partner Francois Brouillard. Here is the premise: he disappears in the woods, gathers items that regular folk wouldn’t even dream were comestible, brings them back to their charming locale in St-Roch de L’Achigan (45 minutes from Montreal) and she finds exquisite ways to present them on the plate.

The style of cooking is mostly French and the kitchen’s philosophy is not so much to make the meals extreme and borderline scary but rather to substitute some wild ingredients for more traditional ones. For example, the menu I sampled had a seafood and corn chowder with cattails. The cattails acted as the starch, in lieu of the potato, which is the more typical choice.

While the chef concocts and assembles, the forager serves and explains, detailing the dishes and answering questions about special ingredients, often offering samples of them in their pure state. This is where it really becomes an experience and not just a meal.

At $55 for a five-course feast, it’s worth every penny, including the gas money. It’s bring your own wine but the menu is posted a week ahead of time, allowing the diner to bring the most appropriate wine to accompany their meal. Please note that reservations are essential.

Here is the menu I sampled (I have tried to translate it into English but apologize for any mistakes in advance)

• Rillettes de dinde sauvage et canard, magret de canard fumé, capucines, moutarde et gelée de légumes au gingembre sauvage. - Wild turkey and duck rillettes, smoked duck breast, nasturtium buds, wild ginger mustard and vegetable jelly.
• Vélouté de fruits de mer au quenouille, maïs et persil de mer. - Seafood, corn and cattail chowder with sea parsley
• Salade de tomates, bocconcini et salicorne à l’huile d’herbes sauvages et au carcajou, sel fumé, mesclun d’orpin et chou gras avec amandes, balsamique de raisins sauvages. - Tomato, bocconcini and marsh samphire salad with wild herb oil, smoked salt, wild lettuces with almonds and wild raisin balsamic.
• Rôti de bison avec sauce à la moutarde de bolets et genièvre, purée de pommes de terre et topinambours à l’huile de bolets, carottes de couleur. - Roast bison with boletus and juniper berry mustard, puree of potato and Jerusalem artichoke with botelus oil, multi-coloured carrots. 
• Panna cotta au sureau et au thé du labrador, petits fruits, sablé aux fleurs de mélilot. - Elderberry and labrador tea panna cotta, berries, sweet clover flower shortbread cookie.

La Table des Jardins Sauvages

17 chemin Martin
Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan
450 588-5125

http://www.jardinssauvages.com/