Canada’s culinary treasure revealed in recipes, stories and photographs Canada has a culinary treasure in Quebec, one that is not perhaps as celebrated as it could be, at least outside of that distinct and gloriously food-obsessed region. Julian Armstrong, longtime food writer for The Montreal Gazette, has spent her career eating, cooking, thinking and writing about Quebecois food. Quebec, A Cookbook is the result of those years of delicious effort. Quebec has a cuisine firmly based on French foundations, but blended and enriched over the years by the cooking styles of a variety of immigrant groups, initially British and American, more recently Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern and Asian. More than in any other province or region in Canada, people in Quebec are passionate and knowledgeable about their food. The restaurant scene is robust, not just in Montreal and Quebec City—you can go to just about any small town in La belle province and have a splendid meal. Farmers, purveyors, chefs, casual and dedicated home cooks all are poised in every season to produce or procure the perfect, seasonal ingredient; not for them the out-of-season asparagus from Chile. Quebec is where you can truly experience what food tasted like before the industrial food complex. Here unpasteurized milk and cheese is commonplace; indeed there is a herd of cattle descended from cows brought from France by Samuel de Champlain producing dairy just for this purpose. Imagine that in Ontario! Of course, Quebec is big news in the global foodie world these days, with Martin Picard (Au Pied de Cochon), Dave Macmillan and Fred Morin (The Art of Living According to Joe Beef), and even our own Chuck Hughes showing off the joys of dining in this great province. But there is much more still to discover about Quebec, from restaurateurs certainly, but also from farmers, foragers, artisanal cheese and bread makers, home cooks, and so many more. These people, their stories and recipes, will make up the bulk of Quebec: a Cookbook. It is high time for a comprehensive celebration of Quebecois cuisine.

Take a culinary voyage through the diverse regions of la belle province. From the habitant-influenced dishes of the Saguenay to the gastronomic hotspots in the Laurentians to the hearty cooking of the lumber camps of the Mauricie, join Gazette food editor Julian Armstrong on a journey through the past and present of Quebec cuisine. Along the way meet local chefs and producers, find out about the province's top restaurants and auberges, discover "not-to-be-missed" sights and learn more about the history of this fascinating part of Canada. The 114 recipes range from much loved dishes of colonial times to the freshest gastronomy of today's chefs. Whether going down memory lane to revisit old favourites or making your first discovery, let A Taste of Quebec guide you on your explorations of this beautiful and diverse land. Bon appetit.