OP: Au Pied du Cochon: The Album

$250 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters · No longer available

Douglas McIntyre, Vancouver, 2008. Paperback. Near Fine. Martin Picard—along with his contemporaries at Joe Beef, Fred Morin and David McMillan—is giving form to cuisine Quebecoise, drawing from its French roots and employing the use of the hearty, rustic fare of Canada’s indigenous ingredients. The result is a rich, hedonistic experience that irreverently ignores the fine dining trend toward small, elegantly composed plates but one that respects the ingredients absolutely. Picard’s first cookbook, Au Pied de Cochon: L’Album (2006), offers recipes from his Montreal restaurant of the same name. Among the recipes you’ll find a foie gras poutine—just one of many utilizations of foie gras in the book. There is a pig’s stomach stuffed with seared pork loin and whelks, braised in a tomato lobster sauce. And the remarkable “duck in a can”—a duck magret quite literally cooked inside a can with buttered cabbage and a balsamic glaze; the can is turned over tableside onto toasted bread and celeriac puree, the final instruction: “Serve, raising a glass to your health and hard work.” Anthony Bourdain, in his introduction, recalls being wined and dined at Au Pied de Cochon to the point of bursting. There is no reason to think that his fame would have made the experience exceptional. Do all the chefs of Montreal engage in hospitality with sadistic generosity? Originally published in French, ours is the English paperback edition, published in 2008, in Near Fine condition. Illustrations by To

• Binding: Hardcover

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