Lesley C

Actually, the caribou sold in Montreal restaurants is wild. It's the only legal wild meat on the market. I had excellent caribou at Les Infideles and the Casino (Nuances). I had some terrible caribou at A L'Os a few weeks ago. It was overwhelmingly fusty and bloody. Major yuck.

What! Jesus, when did that happen? As for Au Bon Saint-Pourcain, the address is: 10 bis, rue Servandoni, 6ème arrdt. - Métro : Saint-Sulpice ou Mabillon - Tel : + 33 (0)1 43 54 93 63 Beware, the owner can be scary. I went there with a regualr customer and the owner spent the night telling us how many people he turned away because he was sure they weren't from the 6th. Bring a dog, and you might just get a table. It's worth the trouble. The ambiance and setting are straight out of a movie -- and you might end up sitting next to some local vedette.

Oh God, LUX. I loved LUX. I can't even look at the locale when I drive past. Now I'm totally depressed. I ate a lot of french fries and read a lot of magazines in that place. I also liked Baci on McGill and a restaurant previously owned by Baci's owner called La Locanda Florentine (sp?) a terrific Italian restaurant that now houses Le Taj. And I miss Outremon't L'Oleandro. That was such a civilized little restaurant. Chopper I'm with you on the old bistro Quartier Latin. Great place, and good fun. I also miss La Brioche Lyonnaise-- the pastry shop-- in its heyday in 1989-1990. It was such a great little patisserie. Apparently Guy Lafond sold the place last year.

I never liked Jongluex Cafe. I certainly thought Nicolas was brilliant -- I had the best meal of my life at Les Caprices when he was there -- but the Cafe never did it for me. I knew he could do the high-end stuff, so I never really bought into his casual side. It seemed like a waste of his talent. And what a talent it was. Boy, I miss that chef more than anything on the Mtl restaurant scene.

Toman is closed!? I had no idea. Hey, Chez Pauze closed ages ago. And it wasn't too glamourous at the end. Carswell I agree with you 100% about Christophe. But it was next to impossible to get a reservation there. I finally nabbed one a few months before it closed. The food was much fancier than what he does now.

Good pick Maggie! No, sadly it's long gone. I miss many many Montreal restaurants. Le Bouchon was great when it first opened. I was too young to dine at El Gaucho but always heard it was amazing. I never had the chance to dine at Les Mignardises or Chez Bardet. I heard Bardet was really something. Or Ruby Foo's in its heyday. Big regret.

The coolest bistro in Paris is a tiny place called Au Bon Saint Pourcain in the 6th. The owner is a pretty nasty guy who hates tourists and turns away most everybody but locals. The kitchen is the size of a closet and the food isn't that hot, but Binoche hangs out there. Need I say more. I also like Aux Fins Gourmets on the Blvd. St. Germain. The owner's not wild about tourits either. The food is quite good and the desserts are from Peltier. I love it.

Steve is so right about glazing just for the sake of glazing, and glazing done in the best way possible. And about assembling tarts a la minute if you aren't glazing. Glazed fruit like strawberries, pineapple slices and kiwi (I dip them individually in hot nappage with a chocolate fork) are much prettier on a mignardises-size tartlet. Besides keeping the fruit from drying out, it gives everything a lovely shine and brings out the colour. Another nice way to glaze small berries is to quickly toss them in a bowl with a spoonful of hot glaze and quickly place them on the tartlet base, which has also preferably been glazed at the bottom is cream is being used. Also, I'm always shocked to see how many pastry chefs use glaze straight from the bucket. It must must must be diluted. Otherwise it's just too hot and gloopy and it's sure to soften the fruit or make it mushy. The colour is also more orangy. Not good -- the true mark of an amateur. IMO, glazing done correctly (be it nappage, fondant or a cake) is the mark of a real pro.

Hey, ace, ever heard of France and Spain?

General rule, For a pastry shop tart, glaze -- it's almost a must to keep it fresh for a plated dessert, no glaze A glazed restaurant dessert looks store bought, and ...tacky. Then again, there is glaze and there is glaze. I worked at a patisserie in France where me made our own glaze out of the juice from canned fruit and pectin. It was thin, transparent and shiny. Just gorgeous. It looked quite pretty lightly dabbed on raspeberry tarts becuase they didn't pick up that ugly yellow hue of the apricot glaze. Sorry, I don't have the recipe.

Glaze with a zig zag of hot red currant jelly piped out quickly side to side with a cornet just to make it sparkle. Unglazed berries look unfinished. You could do icing sugar, but it would probably melt. Avoid the thick apricot jelly number.

I'm noticing that the people who have dined at UP are the ones supporting the two stars. But for someone who has never set foot in the place, it reads like a one-star review. Burros said the service was slow, plates arrived at different times, only three of eleven desserts were any good, the steak was fine, decent or inedible, the crab cake was uncooked, the rabbit was cold, and the soups were disappointing. Hmm...and this is awarded a "Very Good" rating? Even "Good" sounds like a stretch.

No you're right. Hesser did, something like three weeks ago. And it was positive. Steven I agree with you about the stars. But I think she really slammed the place. I don't think I would ever dine at UP after reading that review. Not only was the food uneven, the service was slow. The bad service read like the icing on the one-star-review cake.

If that's the case, then maybe the temp reviewer shouldn't have tackled such a high profile establishment.

That reads like a one-star review... or even a no-star review.

Sorry davidkemp, but I think that is complete bullshit. I have been to over 250 restaurants in this city and I wouldn't call any of them reproductions of great American restaurants. We are a major gourmet type town with our own homegrown chefs and our own style of cuisine. Quebec boasts over 300 varieties of cheese and countless other excellent ingredients. Ever heard of Dennis Ferrer? Or Mr. Daignault? Where do you think Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud go to buy their friggin' foie gras. HERE! Also I know many terrific chefs who have chosen to locate here. I happen to live with one of them who decided to stay in this city precisely because he wasn't limited here. You want to talk limited, check out France. Posts like yours set us back further than you can imagine. If you don't think this city has a good enough gourmet scene for you, maybe you should relocate. I, for one maybe, am enormously proud of the food scene in this city. I write about it every week, and I never, ever run out of topics.

And boy, that terrace is wonderful!

I don't think Rosalie is a world-class restaurant either, but I don't think that was ever the chef's (David McMillan) intention. He considers it more of a bistro. But next time you're here, try Les Chevres, try Toque! and then get back to me. I've been to several "world-class" restaurants that weren't as original or exciting as these establishments. But, you know, someone has got to cough up a definition of world-class restaurant for me some day. To me an excellent restaurant must reflect its city. And I have to say the diners in Montreal are some of these most sophisticated -- not necessarily wealthy but sophisticated -- in North America. And to defend Toronto, have you ever dined at Susur, Bymark or Canoe?

Oreganought, where are you from? You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but comparing Rosalie to a cafeteria or the Keg, IMO, is ridiculous. Also, your claim is a bit strong considering you haven't eaten at Toque!, Les Chevres, or I guess La Chronique, Les Caprices de Nicolas, or Milos. Get to know our upscale dining scene a little better, then we'll talk.

I had a horrible dinner at the Beaver Club this fall and it cost a mint. The room isn't dusty anymore, but the food sure is.

Is it really a time saver? You'll have to bake them later anyway. If you have a "surgelateur" like a Koma, they don't get freezer burn. Also, I try to use them within a week. Anyway, wouldn't the raw choux get freezer burn as easily as the cooked ones? I worked in one huge pastry shop where all the choux pastry was frozen raw. I think freezer storage was an issue there. It never really worked as well for me though.

I've tried both and have always had better results freezing baked puff pastry, flat on sheet pans, then, once frozen, storing them in bins. The frozen choux pastry never seemed to get the same lift in the oven -- especially carolines, little eclairs. As for re-crisping in the oven. Never bothered. They never seemed soggy when defrosted -- unless they were old.

It's not ideal. I have kept it overnight, in the fridge, with the plastic against the dough -- not in the pastry bag! Let it come to room temperature before piping. It dries out, so to get it back to the right consistency, you might need to add another egg. Why not just pipe it out and freeze it raw?

Eerr...not in my books. Chantilly is sweetened whipped cream, whipped to stiff peaks, as you would see on top of a ice cream sundae. It's used to decorate cakes. You wouldn't use it to make a chocolate mousse. For a chocolate mousse, you would use very lightly whipped unsweetened whipped cream. You could, though, use it to decorate your chocolate mousse. As for a St-Honore tip, it's a round tip with a V cut in one side, so that when you pipe the cream it comes out in a crescent shape. The topping of a St-Honore cake is traditionall made with rows of these curves, which end up looking like waves. When properly done (it's a bit tricky at first) it looks incredibly beautiful. Some chefs pipe the curves in the same direction, but I like to altrnate the rows.

Hmm, I would think the puff pastry base is the authentic one. It also works well with pate brisee. I have never seen it with shortcrust (do you mean pate sucree?). For the filling, isn't -- again -- the authentic one chiboust? I see a St-Honore as a very fancy tart. My favourite is a St-Honore aux Fraises: puff pastry base, pate a choux ring around the perimeter and a spiral in the middle, a base of pastry cream topped with strawberry halves to cover, a thin layer of Chantilly and a St-Honore piping decor made with the curved St-Honore pastry tip. Finish with alternating whole strawberries and caramel-topped choux filled with custard. Seriously delicious because the fruit cuts the richness of all that cream and gives the cake a much-needed shot of colour -- great for Valentine's Day!