Videos

Vertige (Cuisine de Caractère), in old Montreal, is the darling of Montreal's food cogniscenti. It is simple and unpretentious... pleasant and relaxing with soft lighting, plush red chairs and a blazing fireplace. The magic of Vertige, however, is it's chef and owner, Thierry Baron, who has been described as "the most painstaking chef in Montreal". With his associate Johnny Zaki, he creates "simple" dishes of elaborately prepared French classics, beautiful to look at but far better to savor. The ingredients are way over the top. You might have a salad with touch of caviar and chêvre cheese, liberal addition of fois gras, truffles and rare mushrooms. The wines seem to be priced far less than their quality should command. This is a long video, close to 25 minutes, but we didn't want to slight the amazing amount of work that went into Chef Baron's signature Riz de Veau. It's in both French and English. There are English subtitles to describe the preparation. Sweetbreads aren't everyone's cup of tea but after watching you'll be left wanting to give them a try. We did and it was definitely worth it.

Chef James Walter at restaurant Pesce Blue in Portsmouth, NH, prepares salt encrusted Bronzini.

Each year one of Montreal's most exciting food events is the wild mushroom festival at Jardins Sauvage. Chef Nancy Hinton prepares a seven course meal using local game and wild mushrooms foraged from the forests around Quebec.