We were so excited to finally be celebrating the end of winter and the first spring ingredients at the last SAISONS event! The spring SAISONS took place on May 15th, 2017 with chef Marina De Figueiredo of Restaurant Candide. Having honed her skills at some of Montreal’s best restaurants including Chien Fumant and Laloux, Marina has been working at Candide since its opening in the fall of 2015. She is passionate about using regional and seasonal products and highlighting Quebec purveyors in her cuisine and will take guests on a discovery of the province’s best ingredients for this SAISONS spring 2017 edition.

We celebrated the spring SAISONS dinner at Trinidad Studio in Rosemont. Trinidad is a gorgeous photography studio that one can rent for photo shoots and events. The space is also shared by a lighting fixture maker so the lighting–both natural and artificial–was just beautiful. The wood ceiling and beams, white walls and drapes create a luminous space that one wants to immediately move into! We transformed the space into a restaurant for a night and decorated the long table with spring flowers and stems from Origine Fleurs and tons of candles creating an intimate and warm ambiance.

Chef Marina De Figueiredo created a seven course menu for the evening inspired by Quebec’s local and seasonal spring products. Here’s the menu the guests enjoyed:

SAISONS Spring Awakening Menu by chef Marina De Figueiredo

Amuses-bouche
Blanc de gris oyster mushrooms, crème fraîche.
Asparagus, garlic, Monnoir cheese.

1st course
Radishes, black garlic, puffed wild rice.

2nd course
Pickerel, cucumber, yogurt.

3rd course
Boucherie dans la Côte pork, golden nugget potatoes, ramp kimchi.

4th course
Fresh buttermilk cheese, peppers, marinated cherry tomatoes.

Dessert
Honeysuckle, camomille.

Just in case you are not familiar with the SAISONS concept yet, here’s how it works:

Each season, a chef is invited to explore his favourite ingredients through his cooking. Each event’s multi-course menu will highlight what’s in season in and around Québec at that time of year and feature foraged ingredients, along with unique products from local producers and growers who share the SAISONS philosophy.

You bring the wine, and we’ll take care of the rest!

The concept is simple. You purchase your ticket in advance, which reserves your seat(s) at the SAISONS dinner table. A week or so before the event, we will email you a flavour profile for one of the dishes on the menu so that you can shop for a fabulous wine to pair with that dish. The day of the dinner, bring your bottle of wine to share with the other guests, and when your dish is being served, you will be asked to describe and present your wine to the other guests attending so that they can understand the pairing. We don’t expect you to be a professional sommelier so don’t worry too much about your wine presentation. You can ask an SAQ vendor for recommendations. This is supposed to be fun! Our aim is to surprise, teach and inspire our guests with great food and a few surprises.

Our next SAISONS event will take place in August with chef Patrice Demers who will celebrate Quebec’s summer ingredients. Follow us on our social media channels and sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date and be the first to know about advanced ticket sales. 

SAISONS 07
May 15th, 2017
Chef: Marina De Figueiredo of Restaurant Candide
Venue: Trinidad Studio
Partners: Origine Fleurs / Boucherie dans la côte / Ceramik b. / Blanc de gris

There are more outstanding photos of this event by the very talented Jean-François Frenette on the SAISONS Facebook page.