When the amuse-bouche, which is usually just a mouthful, turns out to be a Kumamoto oyster, a spoonful of sturgeon caviar on top of a bit of fried taro, a goat cheese crouton and a little square of foie gras - diners know they are in a for a feast.
This was the start to a 10-course dinner prepared by Susur Lee, the renowned Toronto chef, who likens the starter to an "individual cocktail party for each guest."
The multicourse meal, which also included seven glasses of wine, helped kick off the Montreal High Lights Festival on Saturday night and set the tone for a festival that is all about the pleasures of eating and continues through the coming weekend.
"Sometimes we do like to have a little feast," Mr. Lee says. "There's nothing wrong with that."
Mr. Lee was selected to be the festival's honorary president, which inspired him to prepare the elaborate meal for 120 guests at the W hotel's Ristorante Otto.
More than 50 restaurants are holding meals that stretch late into the evening showcasing the skills of dozens of invited chefs and sommeliers from Toronto, the honoured city, and Chile, the honoured country.
Others have come from additional locales, just to be part of the party.
There are events at Montreal's outdoor markets, a cheese festival, culinary tours through Montreal neighbourhoods and a massive fondue evening.
And there are events, such as a dinner this past weekend celebrating the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, that have nothing to do with Montreal, Toronto or Chile - but have piggybacked onto the gastronomic festivities, apparently, for the sake of more eating.
The Quebec City dinner, held at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, was a six-course meal, each plate prepared by one of the capital city's top chefs. The cold appetizer was a plate of smoked sturgeon by Stéphane Modat, followed by foie gras done three ways by Daniel Vézina: as the oozing centre of a chestnut cake, minced in a crunchy macaroon as well as naked and simply seared.
Guests were most intrigued when served bowls of haggis, made from organ meat - curved black sausages in a broth, tucked under a sweet cracker. Some inquired as to what was in the bowl, but few digressed after learning the contents. The dish, from Yvan Lebrun, was part of a plate inspired by Quebec's époque anglaise, which also included roast lamb and a minced meat pie with onions and white beans.
From the French period, there was partridge stuffed with black mushrooms served on braised cabbage with lardons, by François Blais.
And while the descendants of New France have apparently always eaten well, that's not the case in Chile, according to Guillermo Rodriguez, from the Chilean delegation who was the guest chef at the Sofitel hotel's restaurant Renoir.
Gastronomy has come to Chile only within the last decade, largely so Chileans could have something to savour along with their good wines, says Mr. Rodriguez, who regularly travels on diplomatic missions promoting Chilean cuisine, in addition to his duties as executive chef of Bristol restaurant at the Hotel Plaza San Francisco in Santiago.
"Chileans didn't used to be interested in gastronomy," he says. "It was boring."
Mr. Rodriguez, who was trained in France, did a weekend menu at Renoir of 10 tapas dishes paired with wines from Cousino Macul, showcasing nouvelle Chilean cuisine, which he describes as a fusion between traditional spicing and ingredients new to the country such as tuna, served at Renoir as ceviche perfumed with green chili.
The gastronomic movement has also turned mundane peasant dishes into gourmet fare, such as a stewed silver crab casserole, a typical dish from Chile's fishing villages. The dish is flavoured with merquen crackers, made by smoking chilies with damp ocean driftwood, says Mr. Rodriguez, who brought the ingredient to Montreal, as well as the Chilean versions of cumin and paprika.
In some cases, he had to improvise. For a traditional pie made with a cornmeal that turns sweet and milky when ground, he used the cornmeal available in Montreal and achieved a similar effect by adding basil, sugar and milk, while mozzarella had to stand in for a tangy Chilean cheese.
Mr. Lee, on the other hand, managed to make Ristorante Otto feel like his own. Mr. Lee and his sous chef brought nine boxes of supplies even though he knew the Montreal restaurant would have happily supplied everything he needed.
"I'm a little bit picky," he says. "I didn't want to feel nervous."
Twice during the evening, he changed the order in which dishes were served - something he often does, he says, as he tried to imagine the sequence his diners would prefer to eat his dishes.
Each plate played with colour, texture and taste. Diners were instructed to roll a bit of lobster, for example, into a Boston lettuce leaf that also contained crunchy curry leaves and salted duck eggs.
Inspiration from the dish came from living in and working in Asia; he first tried salted duck egg in Malaysia, and the curry leaves are Indian. The use of lettuce leaf evokes a Vietnamese spring roll.
"It's about the richness of taste," he says. "And good appetite."
Juice from a tiny kalamansi fruit, a cross between a tangerine and a lime, sitting on the plate was to be squeezed onto the roll.
The result was mouthfuls that were crunchy and soft, buttery and tangy all at once.
And where did the famous chef eat in Montreal? At a non-descript restaurant in Chinatown, where he nibbled crab and drank tea on his own.
"I just walked by and it looked good," he says. "My instincts were right."
Festival highlights
The "Grande Raclette" at Marché Bonsecours is a massive cheese preparty kicking off an all-nighter that has more than 100 galleries, museums, movie theatres, jazz bars, lounges and even ice-skating rinks staying open. Saturday, 7:30 p.m., $45.
Quebec cheese makers take questions and give tastes at the Festival of Our Cheeses at Complexe Desjardins, tomorrow to Saturday, 11 a.m., free.
Lorenzo Loseto of Toronto's George Restaurant is guest chef at Europea, tomorrow, 6 p.m., $78.50. The restaurant is also playing host to Roland Del Monte, named Meilleur Ouvrier, or best pastry chef in France, tonight, 6 p.m., $66.50.
Steve Benjamin of L'Atelier Robuchon in Las Vegas is guest chef of Nuances at the Montreal Casino tomorrow to Sunday, 5:30 p.m., $95-$155.
Thierry Marx, of the two-Michelin-star Château Cordeillan-Bages restaurant, is the guest chef at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth's Beaver Club doing a dinner titled Culinary Acrobatics tomorrow and Friday, 6:30 p.m., $315, including wine.
Note: Many of the dinners are sold out. Please consult montrealenlumiere.com to view more eating opportunities.
Heather Sokoloff
Wine rules
Part of the reason Toronto chef Jamie Kennedy jumped at the opportunity to prepare meals during Montreal's High Lights Festival was to showcase Ontario meats, cheeses and wines - especially those from small producers.
His sommelier, Jamie Drummond, suggested a pinot noir from Norman Hardie Winery in Prince Edward County. But Mr. Drummond soon learned he could not bring the wine because it is not available through the provincial liquor board, the Société des alcools du Québec.
"It was surprising," Mr. Drummond says. "To learn we could get fined for bringing a wine to the province next door."
To be available through the SAQ, wineries have to be represented by a private agency that deals with importation. That costly process limits selection, Mr. Drummond says, "to the bigger players."
Still, he does not want diners to think they are getting second choices at Mr. Kennedy's dinners at Le Jolifou restaurant this tomorrow and Friday. He was able to source a number of good Ontario bottles from the SAQ - but would have liked to offer Montrealers something not ordinarily available to them.
According to Michel Labrecque, festival president and chief executive officer, wines not available through the SAQ may be imported privately through the government agency, but the process takes time and work. Chefs and sommeliers who want to do private importation for next year's festival, which features Paris as the honoured city, need to start soon, he says.
"If you try and do it two weeks before the festival, it's impossible," Mr. Labrecque says. "No one is bringing wine with them in their suitcases."
Heather Sokoloff