There were 12 courses at Au Pied de Cochon’s Harvest Season Sugar Shack in Mirabel, and I can tell you exactly which one I would drive two hours to eat again. It was the squash stuffed pasta with sage and Parmesan. Not the most elaborate dish of the meal. Not the biggest. Not even remotely the sort of thing you would expect to be thinking about weeks later. But here we are.

A friend managed to get us a reservation at the sugar shack of celebrated Quebec chef Martin Picard. Located in Mirabel, about an hour outside Montreal and less than two hours from home, it is a destination for people who take their eating seriously, or at least seriously enough to spend a good chunk of a day doing it.

(more…)