Montebello fall food

Good morning,

There’s a double benefit to sharing my discoveries in and around Ottawa, both you and I learn something new. It’s certainly the spirit of discovery that keeps this work new each and every week.

It’s always exciting to report on local events and recently I was invited to Chateau Montebello to take in their Autumn Harvest Festival. 

Apart from the food on display, six wineries, from both Quebec and around Ottawa, were pouring their best. There was also a distillery that impressed so much that you will see a few of their products in the upcoming Christmas Drinks Buying edition. You don’t want to miss out on these items.

Let’s hit the road.

Ralf Joneikies, food and drink editor. [email protected]

QUEBEC

Montebello’s fall food showcase puts the region on the food map

I expect that some Quebec food and drink producers may have a few qualifiers around my assertion, but I’ve not come across a province that supports local gastronomy as well as Quebec does. As a result, the standards and expectations run very high and competition flourishes.

Every visitor to the province just feels it. From beer and spirits to internationally recognized cheeses, to charcuterie and smoked fish, there’s an unrelenting inventiveness to food and drink production throughout that province. Better still, these artisans go out of their way to emphasize regionality. 

So when I received the invitation to experience the Chateau Montebello Autumn Harvest Festival, it was not something I could miss, and an opportunity to share the delights of the region with Ottawa readers.

For some reason, precedent I suppose, I was expecting a sit-down affair; instead this was a grazing production with endless tables displaying the fine work of the Chateau Montebello restaurants: Nymark and Aux Chantignoles.

The evening would be filled with foods to satisfy every seafood lover's palate. Endless dishes involving scallops, lobster, crab, shrimp and oysters.

The shuckers were diligently at work putting out quality bivalves from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI, and I grabbed a lobster parfait as an accompaniment. 

It was a tasty and sumptuously constructed appetizer topped with a bit of claw meat.

Otherwise known as gravalax, the cured salmon was satisfyingly rich, layered in flavour and not overly salted. Here it came, arranged with creme fraiche and slivers of fresh green apple on a bed of dulse, a type of red algae.

One of the wineries present was Stonehouse Vineyards, about an hour outside of Ottawa near Alexandria. 

The hybrid grapes used in their wines are understandably designed for colder climates and while these wines may seem uncommon for many palates, they were cleanly made and better expressions than I’ve had in the past. I also expect to be featuring them in a future edition. (And if you like wine, be sure to subscribe to my free wine newsletter).

I always enjoy an adulteration to a classic bite, and the culinary team outdid themselves with a savoury macaron constructed using tomato. The filling was a seasoned chevre mousse, the texture of which married seamlessly with a fragile crunch and the inevitable demise of the meringue shell.

The selection of terrines was, frankly, overwhelming. What a delicious assortment of cured and compressed meats were artfully presented. The standout was a layered slice of pressed duck and rich foie gras. I was mad to eat it but what a pleasure even if it was only once.

Another of the wineries present was Pigeon Hill from Quebec’s Eastern Townships. It was again a cold-climate winery delivering well-made wines of interest. 

The Soir d’Ete is a blend of four different grapes from a collection of vines between eight and 17 years old. I recognized some lovely yellow stone fruit characteristics and while hybrid grapes, generally, have been uncommon for most wine consumers, these wines were very well made.

In this line of work, you attend many events and over time you develop, unconsciously, certain expectations. You just know what you’ll be offered and those expectations are usually met. 

On this evening I walked into an event that exceeded expectations. Not just because of the vast array of foods made with premium-priced ingredients but because of the execution and the care in presentation. In my experience, this was a singular, luxury affair.

For all intents and purposes, this was a royal buffet and you could graze to your hearts content. The servers and bussers were in good spirits and ensured that guests were comfortable at their tables.

Wines for the evening had been assembled by Master Sommelier Pier-Alexis Soulière who was on hand to answer questions. I also enjoyed a number of products from Quebec distilleries and one of these (Fove) impressed me so much that I will be adding them to my Christmas Buying edition.

Those who’ve stayed at Fairmont Chateau Montebello know to appreciate the unique architecture, which casts an otherworldly spell. You feel removed from modernity, which can be entirely the point of a mini vacation.

The nicely appointed rooms do however, provide all the modern conveniences (television, wifi, fridge, USB ports) and the bathrooms are beautifully tiled with spacious glass-walled showers fitted with rainshower heads. 

This was my first time attending their Autumn Harvest and for gastronomes everywhere, this is an affair to add to your calendars. 

I’d like to thank Fairmont Chateau Montebello director of marketing and public relations Veronique Lepage for extending the invitation so that I could share this experience with our readers.

Finally a heartfelt thank you to all the Montebello service members whose professionalism and good humour make these visits so memorable.

Local products mentioned

• Fove

• Pigeon Hill

• Nymark

• Pier-Alexis Soulière

• Fairmont Chateau Montebello

• Stonehouse Vineyards

Quick bites

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LOOKOUT WINE

What are wine ratings and how to understand them

This story is available in our Lookout Wine newsletter. Subscribe for free to get access to exceptional and affordable wines recommended by Ralf.

It’s generally true that wine professionals, whether producers, educators or wine journalists, can recognize wines of quality and categorize them into one or another scoring system. It’s also true that while each may apply a different rating scale for wine, they’ll often be within the ballpark of each other. That’s the benefit of an experienced palate.

What does this mean for the average consumer? First, it often means that a good score will end up on the bottle in the form of a sticker. It’s an efficient, short-hand way of marketing the wine to you. You see a 90-point score and you think, “ Ooh that’s the wine for me. So and so says it’s 90 points, and that means it must be good.” Possibly.

To read this article and subscribe to our free wine newsletter, click here.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Nymark makes for sublime dining in an iconic setting

Originally published in July 2024.

When the invitation came, it was impossible to say no. I’d never been to the Chateau Montebello and with its storied history, including a meeting of G7 world leaders in 1981, I was more than a little intrigued.

I and another food journalist from Montreal had been asked to sample the inaugural menu at Nymark, the Chateau’s newest restaurant. What I found would leave an impression.

Chateau Montebello (what employees refer to as “The Castle”) sits on sprawling grounds that include 65,000 acres of game reserve, 70 lakes and a fish hatchery.

The Chateau itself, built in 1930, is measured at 4,000,000 cubic feet and is said to be the world's largest wooden lodge.

The structure resembles a six-point star and was built of 10,000 hand-cut red cedar logs shipped from British Columbia by way of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Harold Marcus Saddlemire, an American businessman whose vision it was to create a retreat for society's political and business elites, employed Finnish architect Victor Nymark to lead the project. It took as many as 3,500 craftsmen to complete the Chateau in just three months.

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