LONGUEUIL, QC, – Food Now – There is nothing more Canadian than maple syrup. Now, while many people only reach for the bottle of syrup to pour over pancakes or waffles, the reality is there are many dishes that can benefit from this truly Canadian treat.
Learning all the potential of maple syrup is a task of the Maple Masters. This year, across Quebec, chefs gathered to learn the secrets of the Maple Masters.
Les Produits d’érable du Québec welcomes 11 new talented artisans and chefs to their prestigious group of 100 Maple Masters in 2014. The Maple Masters, who come from all corners of Quebec, demonstrate the thousands of culinary and gastronomic possibilities that maple products offer throughout the year.
The new Maple Masters for 2014 are:
- Le Fumoir d’Antan (smokehouse, Magdalen Islands)
- Hudson Terroir Ice Cream (Montérégie) (the ice creams are sweetened entirely from maple syrup)
- Oui! Desserts (Montérégie) (“raw” desserts using local organic maple syrup)
- Le Petit Tsukiji (Japanese restaurant, Montérégie)
- Tandem (French restaurant, Montréal)
- Les Givrés (ice creams and pastries, Montréal)
- Arhoma (bakery and patisserie, Montréal)
- La Confiserie Wakefield (confectioners, Outaouais)
- L’Orée du bois (restaurant, Outaouais)
- Espace MC Chef (restaurant / cooking school / caterer / fine foods boutique, Quebec City)
- La Fudgerie (confectioners, Quebec City)
Since 2008, the 100 Maple Masters across Quebec have been flexing their imaginative and creative muscles to showcase a wide variety of ingredients, dishes and meals derived from maple products. The various restaurants, cafes and bistros, patisseries and bakeries, ice cream parlours, chocolatiers and confectioners, delicatessens, hotels and inns, caterers and fine food boutiques that have been selected to represent the best local artisans and professionals can be identified by the Maple Master’s logo: an amber drop that draws its inspiration from the little decorative touch that culinary artists add when plating their dishes.
Christophe Bacquié, Maple Ambassador
This year, the Maple Masters have once again teamed up with a renowned chef whose mission is to act as an ambassador for maple and promote it internationally. Christophe Bacquié, chef at the MonteCristo restaurant at Hôtel du Castellet, in the Var in Provence, is the new Maple Ambassador for 2014.
He was awarded his first Michelin star in 2002, then a second in 2007. After being named “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” in 2004, and then “Grand Chef” Relais & Châteaux in 2008, Christophe Bacquié was again awarded his second Michelin star after only two months at the MonteCristo at Hotel du Castellet, in 2009. He subsequently propelled the restaurant to one of the “Grandes Tables du monde” in 2011.
Mr. Bacquié joins the list of names that includes Roland Del Monte (2008), pastry chef, chocolatier and ice cream maker from the Cote d’Azur, now based in Quebec City; Joseph Viola (2009), chef from Lyon; Phillipe Bernachon (2010), chocolatier from Lyon; Stéphan Bernhard, chef of Le Jardin de France in Baden-Baden, Germany (2011);Armand Arnal, chef of La Chassagnette in the Carmargue, France (2012); and Pierre Résimont, chef of L’Eau Vive, a two-starred restaurant near Namur, Belgium (2013).
A contest is launched every year for the 100 Maple Masters. To enter this year, they must create a dish using a maple alcohol from Quebec. The grand prize will be one week of all-expenses-paid training in Christophe Bacquié’s kitchens at the MonteCristo at Hôtel du Castellet.
Creatifsdelerable.ca, an invaluable source of information
To get to know all of the Maple Masters, the site creatifsdelerable.ca profiles each of them, region by region, with an individual fact file including tips, advice and anecdotes about maple. There are also interviews, recipes and videos exposing the creative process used by these expert chefs. The first video features Alexandre Loiseau, chef of Bistro Cocagne. There are also videos with Marcel Bouchard (Auberge des 21), Densi Peyrat (Le Valois), FrédériqueLaplante (La Tanière), Martine Sartre (Le Temps des Cerises), Jason Kacprzak (Bistro Kapzak) and Thierry Burat (Le Prieuré).
The Maple Masters’ culinary creations are also presented in the new magazine I Love Maple, available for free at Maple Masters member establishments, as well as at tourist information centres in Quebec City and Montreal. It is available free of charge by calling the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers at 450 679-7021.
About the FPAQ and Les Produits d’érable du Québec
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers defends and promotes the economic, social and moral interests of Quebec maple syrup businesses and develops initiatives to collectively market their products. The quality work of the FPAQ and its 7,300 members has made Quebec the proud source of 80% of the world’s maple syrup. Les Produitsd’érable du Québec is the brand the FPAQ has developed to promote authentic maple products from Quebec.
SOURCE Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers
