Nymark makes for sublime dining in an iconic setting

• Name + address: Nymark, Montebello, Que.

• Type of food: Ancestral Quebecois

• Diet: Seafood, meat, vegetarian

• Wheelchair accessibility: Yes

• Licensed: Yes

• Website: www.fairmont.com/montebello/dining/nymark/

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.

After a leisurely tour of the grounds and a change of clothes it was down to the lower level of the lodge to the recently opened Nymark.

The space was tastefully decorated with fixtures and furnishings that spoke of its Art Deco origins. Off to one side, a small stage at which later, a very talented jazz duo from Montreal would engage the room with a catalogue of Dave Brubeck classics.

We took our places at the cozy central dining room and were soon served a cocktail of Empress gin with blue pea flower and tonic. On the heels of that came the oysters dotted with an emulsion of seabuckthorn. An uncommon presentation but entirely pleasant.

Our challenge had just begun as there would be nine more courses with a palate cleanser of strawberry granita and zephyr halfway through the proceedings.

Executive chef Justin Charette describes his cuisine as ancestral Quebecois and it’s served rustic and family style. Everything is sourced as locally as possible and is meant to evoke bringing nature indoors.

Perhaps the most colourful plate of the evening was the roasted vegetable salad dressed with a sheep’s yogurt from Fromagerie Nouvelle France, one of Canada’s finest producers of dairy products. If you find it, you must try this sheep’s yogurt. My tip of the month.

While we were spoiled this night with superb execution from the kitchen, it was the vegetables that had our group exalting in superlatives. Everything was expertly roasted, retaining the colour and amplifying the flavours of every component.

We were then presented with a wooden platter of skewered red deer loin with ribbons of spruce aioli and groans were heard around the table at the fall-apart luscious tenderness of the meat. A magical execution.

But the chef was not done impressing us with these starters. Up next was the smoothest foie gras in memory. It was seasoned with Labrador tea historically used by Indigenous peoples and a plant belonging to the Rhododendron family.

We know that we’re advised to limit our appreciation of foie gras but the texture and flavour of this creation were hard to resist. Especially as it came served with a gorgeous grilled bannock over a bed of cedar fronds.

Three mains would make their way to the table over the next hour and all three were high lights.

Crispy pork shank fell off the bone and came with the punch of crispy asiago cheese alongside piled root vegetables in a gorgeous demi-glace. This almost had me throwing out all decorum and asking for a spoon to rob my dinner companions of the pleasure.

If more people could enjoy pork this distinct and naturally raised, an appreciation of beef might become a distant memory. This is how all pork should taste. 

Kenauk trout, from the properties fish hatchery, came served whole. It had been grilled and topped with a sort of gremolata. On the side, rounds of seasoned and poached daikon radish, potatoes, wild rice fritters and a summer salad from a farm at nearby Ripon.

The flesh was delicate and moist, peeling easily away from the bones and we all agreed that the wild rice fritters almost stole the show. They need to package these and market them as a TV snack.

Then came the protein finale: a grilled bone-in thick-cut rib steak, the mere appearance of which, almost finished off the table. Just when you thought you couldn’t eat anymore.

It was a quality cut and served a true medium rare, parts of which threatened to bleed out but once again, the expertise of the kitchen crew was on full display. The meat had been well rested before service and remained immaculate and intensely flavoured.

The accompanying wilted cherry tomatoes on the vine and the French green beans were perfection in both flavour and execution. When confronted with this quality, it’s always a mournful wish that most restaurants could be counted on to present the humble vegetable this well.

Chef Charette and his crew sent out the entire collection of desserts to close out the evening: 

1. Buckwheat shortbread, spruce ganache, sorbet with a haskap berry veil

2. Raspberry and blackcurrant mousse, camelina and hazelnut shortbread, blackcurrant sorbet with sumac whipped cream

3. Dark chocolate fondant with Chic Choc (a Quebec liqueur) rum caramel and green apple ice cream

4. House-made maple crème brûlée

The bar was quick to follow this selection with a special dessert cocktail: Maple smoked Old Fashioned made with dark rum, orange bitters, maple syrup and smoked with maple wood.

Everything was simply first-rate although I did have a predilection for the sorbets and creams and that haskap berry veil was extra special.

The dishes had been accompanied with a few wines clearly chosen by someone with knowledge of the subject. As with the food the wines made an effort to impress by defying conventional thought. 

A restrained, old world style chardonnay from California, a classic type-specific Pinot Noir from the Czech Republic and a deeply coloured sparkling rosé from the now renowned Domaine Bergeville outside of North Hatley. This was all good stuff and for the hardened wine geek, a welcome surprise that this level of effort had been made.

Someone knew what they were doing when they assembled this team of experienced professionals. 

There is one note of advice. The lighting in Nymark is rather low and because this is rustic cooking of the land, there is a uniformity to the colours on the plates.  Something to brighten the culinary landscape would add eye appeal.

Chef Justin and his team have created an ambitious menu of inspired recipes. It takes into account a respect for Quebec’s Indigenous culinary traditions, the foods that the land gives and the hard work of the local farmers. This was one heck of a journey.

I’d like to thank Veronique Lepage of Fairmont Chateau Montebello, her associate Marion Rivaud and Annie Boucher of Fuse Communications for making this experience possible.

Stay tuned next Tuesday when I offer a few final notes on my trip to Montebello.

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