For my birthday, I got to meet the creator of my inspiration.
In the Acknowledgements section of my novel, The Forager Chefs Club, I share that the idea for the book came from a dinner my husband, Tim, and I shared during a 2019 trip to Quebec City and the restaurant Légende. The ethos of Légende is "A tribute to our ancestors. A return to our roots. A thought on culinary history, from the first nations to today." This takes forest-to-fork, farm-to-fork, and foraging to a completely elevated level. It was during that 2019 dinner that, upon learning there was nothing in the kitchen that could not be sourced within 50 miles of it, Tim and I talked about what a unique cooking competition it would be to have it limited to only what was seasonal and locally sourced. A true foraging adventure. And the idea for The Forager Chefs Club was born.
Tim and I visited Quebec City for my Winter Solstice birthday this past month and were delighted to learn that Légende not only survived Covid, but is thriving and still "highlighting the richness of Quebec's regions, offering a creative and original tasting approach that celebrates our terroir." We booked a table for my birthday, and I brought two copies of my novel, hoping I might have the opportunity to meet the creative genius behind Légende, Chef Elliot Beaudoin.
Our five-course dinner was inventive, beyond delicious, and with surprising details – coal-seared halibut, for instance! The bison hanger steak with a honey and smoked tomato glaze, fermented sunchokes, and a boreal spices broth was one of the best main courses I've ever had the pleasure to eat. One of the most inventive courses was dessert, which featured boreal "chocolate": a charcoal tomato and cranberry concoction that I swear to you tastes like a fruity chocolate mousse. "Boreal" features strongly in the Légende cuisine – forest-to-fork ingredients specific to the temperate forested region south of the Arctic circle.
Chef Elliot's cuisine is minimalism with finesse. It looks like art and tastes heavenly. I got to meet Chef near the end of our meal when he was able to spare a few minutes from his very busy kitchen. It was definitely the highlight of my birthday! He was gracious and engaging and seemed truly interested in the copy of The Forager Chefs Club that I brought him. (The second copy I brought went to our server, Max, who had asked to read a few pages.)
My first meal at Légende inspired me to write The Forager Chefs Club. My second meal there, and meeting its amazing chef in person, has inspired me to share my novel's core message of foraging, cooking, and eating seasonally and locally with as many people as I can. If you share that ethos or want to explore it, I hope you'll consider spending some time with The Forager Chefs Club.
And I heartily recommend a visit to Quebec City and Légende! I know that Tim and I will be back.
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