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The holiday season is barely over, yet Montrealers have only a few weeks to recover before the High Lights Festival begins on Feb. 21.

The festival has become, over the past few years, what I think is North America's most important gourmet event, attracting top culinary talent from around the world. This year, Toronto is the featured city and 14 chefs from the city will be cooking in Montreal's best restaurants.

This collaboration goes both ways - I will be a guest chef in Toronto for the Winterlicious festival on Feb. 5 and 6 at Splendido, whose chef is the dynamic and very talented David Lee.

This year's honorary president of the festival is Susur Lee. I met Susur, one of Toronto's most acclaimed chefs, when he was at Lotus years ago. At the time, he introduced me to a seafood delicacy I had never tried before: abalone.

Abalone are a group of mollusks that belong to the class gastropoda. Like other marine snails, abalone have a soft body surrounded by a mantle, an anterior head and a large muscular foot.

Abalone shells are very strong and present a low and open spiral structure.

Abalone meat has a delicate yet powerful taste and texture -salty and crunchy. That is why it is most often served in thin slices and is popular as a sashimi dish.

In the past 50 years, the increasing availability of commercially farmed abalone has allowed more common consumption of this once rare delicacy.

Farming of abalone began in the late 1950s in Asia and grew rapidly around the world. There are many different varieties of the mollusk. In North America, there is only one red abalone rearing facility: Atlantic Abalone, operated near Halifax by Gerry O'Neill and his wife, Vandee.

Nine years ago, Mr. O'Neill had been growing dulse seaweed, but his crop was spurting at a much faster rate than the market could handle. At one point, he was dumping more than he was selling.

The solution to his nightmare came from Icelandic researchers who were working with abalone and feeding their charges seaweed - and lots of it. A partnership was established in 2003 and, just like the seaweed they were fed, the abalone grew like Topsy.

Mr. O'Neill raises more than 800,000 abalone, which take about two years to grow. Abalone is not as common as scallops, but more and more Canadians are discovering and enjoying them.

Now, you can buy abalone in any good fish shop.

ABALONE

What you need

4 medium-sized abalone

8 supremes of clementine

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

1 tablespoon finely sliced green onions

12 pomegranate seeds

vinaigrette

11/2 tablespoons organic

soy sauce

11/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon chardonnay vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Quince Foam

400 millilitres quince juice

21/2 sheets gelatin

What you do

Start by soaking the gelatin in cold water and set aside for a few minutes. Once the sheets are soft, heat the quince juice just until hot and add the gelatin. Stir until well mixed. Cool the liquid over a bowl of ice and set aside.

Thinly slice the abalone and arrange in the shells. Toss the shallots, green onions and pomegranate seeds in a bowl and place a spoonful in each shell along with two supremes of clementine, then drizzle with the vinaigrette.

While still working with the liquid over ice, whisk the juice quickly until foamy.

Finish by spooning a bit of the foam into the shells and over the abalone.

Serves 4

The Montreal High Lights Festival runs Feb. 21 to March 2; 1-888-477-9955, montrealenlumiere.com*****

Chef Normand Laprise is head chef and co-owner of Toqué

Beppi's wine matches

Lots of wine-pairing challenges in this dish, with its mix of sweet fruit, acidic vinegar and salty soy sauce. Sake, the Japanese rice beverage, would be my top choice. Because of its high alcohol and light-yet-penetrating flavour, it can provide a seamless, silky canvas for the fresh flavours. But make sure it's a quality sake designed to be consumed cold, such as Hakutsuru Junmai Ginjo ($8.10 for a 300-millilitre bottle in Ontario). Among the best white-wine choices is gruner veltliner, the sweet-sour (yet technically dry) specialty of Austria. A great choice: Rabl Spiegel Gruner Veltliner (available in British Columbia for $18.78).

Beppi Crosariol