Montreal

- [Kelly] On this episode (bell chimes) of The Original Fare, it's a culinary adventure in Montreal.

(synthesized music) (upbeat music) Our adventure begins with the Jewish influence in the Mile End neighborhood.

First stop, an institution of the area since 1955, St-Viateur Bagel.

- I used to deliver the newspaper here when I was a teenager.

- Really?

- And this was 1981.

I came in for a bagel, and Joe was there.

He asked me, "Hey, you wanna work here?"

- No!

- Yes exactly, yes.

- Did you even like think about making bagels?

- [Saul] No, no, no.

It was just a summer job.

- [Kelly] Saul is gonna show me how to make bagels.

And hopefully my other guest star for the day, Raegan, is gonna join us.

- [Saul] And now sesame is the big seller.

That's what we are known for.

- Really?

Can I come here for an everything bagel?

- [Saul] Sure.

We have some.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- Hi.

- Hi!

- We made it.

- [Kelly] You made it (laughs).

Thank you for coming.

- This is my hubby.

Sorry, don't mind the outfit, I changed in the car.

- You really had a barmitzvah?

Saul's just showing us how he makes bagels.

- Hi.

- And then we're gonna-- - [Raegan] Cool.

- Yeah.

- Steal the recipe?

(laughing) He won't tell us-- - I don't ever wanna make bagels.

(laughing) - You know about the whole Montreal and New York bagel-- - No.

- Like war.

- Our bagel is, it's half of the size, but twice as better.

- [Raegan] Yeah.

- [Kelly] Saul puts this together, the flour, yeast, eggs, sugar and malt flour.

- This one makes your bagels?

- Like chewy?

- Chewy on the inside?

- Yeah they're chewy on the inside, yeah.

Shall we give it a try?

- Yeah.

- Rolling?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Left hand go, and then you pat it down, okay that's it.

Okay.

- I hate following directions.

(laughing) It is the worst thing ever.

I'm so bad at following directions.

- [Saul] Now to make about 30 every minute and a half.

- 30 every minute and a half?

- Yeah.

- [Kelly] Look at your arm, you're good!

- [Raegan] Yeah.

- [Saul] And then you go around.

- Right hand?

- That's it, you're done, cut it and close it, together.

- [Raegan] It's something in your DNA here, girl.

- [Kelly] I'm a native, it's my blood.

Your loops are bigger, yeah.

- Wow, not bad!

- Look at that, see!

- Wow.

- Am I hired?

- [Kelly] The bagels bathe briefly in boiling honey water.

And since we're making their most famous sesame, a little roll on the seeds comes next.

- [Raegan] Look at that, I'm like a pro!

(laughing) I'm so intimidated right now.

I think Kelly destroyed the bagels.

And I made the bagels.

- [Saul] Yeah, this is the hard part.

- [Raegan] Yeah that, I am not doing that.

- [Kelly] Yeah how do you do the scoop?

- [Saul] Come here.

Okay go.

- Wow.

- Woo!

- [Saul] Good.

(Kelly clapping) - Hey now!

- [Saul] One more shot.

- [Kelly] Damn.

- [Saul] Put your hand down here like this, it's gonna be easier, yeah.

Go.

Oh!

- [Kelly] Oh oopa!

(laughter) Pardon?

- Can you catch this bagel?

(laughing) - L'chaim!

- L'chaim!

- [Kelly] Raegan and I head to the Saint-Henri neighborhood to spend the afternoon at her and her husband's beautiful restaurant, Arthurs.

Here, I'm gonna learn how to make latkes.

- [Kelly] You're born and raised in Montreal?

- [Raegan] Yeah.

- How long has Arthurs been around now?

- We just hit our two-year mark.

- Oh my God.

- [Raegan] Yeah, so we're babies.

- [Kelly] Babies having babies.

- [Raegan] Yeah, (sighs) literally.

- [Kelly] And in so many ways.

- Yeah, yes exactly.

(laughter) - When we opened it, we were like, we don't know what we're doing.

(laughter) We're like don't tell anyone.

Like we have no (beep) idea.

- [Kelly] So both of you came into this a little sideways?

- Yeah, but my dad got very sick with cancer and died when I was 21, and I was like, really lost.

And I ended up like working, just to go work at this catering company.

I liked cooking.

I was like, I like cooking.

And then, that kind of segued into like, me ending up doing it as a career.

- What about Alex, your husband?

- He is a trained artist in Fine Arts, like went to school for that and he was like a dish washer at like, a supper club and one night they were like, someone didn't show up to work bro, like get in the line.

and that-- - Really?

- that was it.

And we're total opposite.

I'm like by the book, very technical, organized, not creative and he's like, very like outside the box.

Like things you would never think, like total mess.

(laughter) - Oh man.

- Like, cooking with him is like a (beep) disaster.

- I can't wait for him to see that-- - I love you, but you're a (beep) disaster.

(laughter) - [Raegan] Hey, he's better now that he can relate.

(laughter) As my husband holds the camera- - [Kelly] Who's the disaster?

(laughter) - Where'd you learn this recipe from?

- [Alex] Nobody.

- [Kelly] You made this one up?

- [Alex] Yeah well I am Moroccan, we don't do lattes.

- [Kelly] So there is no like, you gotta boil the potato first, nothing like that?

- You don't wanna go too deep into the grater because you really want, like a feta cheese style grate, which will melt when you cook it.

- Have to get the texture balance going.

- Exactly.

- Because I would do it, and then I would do it my way, and he'd say, do it your way and then you would be like, you're not doing it right, and that's not how I do it, (muttering).

So, it's better that he just does it or else-- Oh good cutting skills.

- [Alex] Hold it closer, like, no, no, like shorter, maybe.

(Kelly laughs) - [Raegan] You're so bossy!

- I am not, I'm worried her will cut herself!

- [Raegan] When did you become so bossy?

- Oh my god, I can't wait-- - I'm sorry.

- for you guys to have a kid.

(laughter) I'm also just making him do all the grating work.

- [Kelly] Yeah, it's not fun and if you catch it-- - [Alex] I am just gonna let this sit for a second so the water comes out of it a little bit.

You can chop the, and seeds and all.

- [Raegan] And slice it thin.

- [Alex] Just slice it.

- [Raegan] When you're slicing, it's always good to rock your knife.

You're not crushing the vegetable, but you're using the blade to slide through.

- (laughs) Show me, I'm from Missouri, show me.

I feel like my mother in law just showed up.

(Reagan laughs) Showing me how to use a knife in the kitchen.

Those are beautiful Raegan, I love them.

- Oh Reg, do you mind separating the eggs and making egg whites?

You okay for this, Reg?

I'm not trying to say she can't, I'm just saying she doesn't have to.

(whisking) I can do it.

- [Raegan] Honestly, you're a condescending prick.

(laughing) - Oh I'm having so much fun today (laughs).

Are we waiting on the eggs?

- [Alex] Yeah, right now we're just waiting on the eggs a little bit, but while she does that, we can do this.

- Yeah.

- So we're going to-- - [Raegan] We do it in the mixer usually.

- [Alex] Yeah, but when it's for a small amount we might as well use your muscles.

So we're gonna take out all that liquid - [Raegan] Bam!

- [Alex] So we add some flour to the dish.

- [Raegan] Just a nice little dust.

- [Alex] Just like little bit dusting, you mix it.

You wanna make sure you don't put too much flour, then it becomes like a pasty, cooking mess.

You just mix that in.

Now the thing is that, your grandmother always used her hands.

Cooking for her was easy, so I like to use my hands.

Then you wanna add the jalapenos.

- [Kelly] And the green onions?

- [Alex] Go for it.

We might not get a lot in one bowl, we'll make sure that at least one of them has a lot.

- [Kelly] Oh my god.

The thing has so much black pepper in there.

- [Alex] And then basically all we're doing now is just-- - [Kelly] Folding in the egg white?

- Just folding it in.

- [Kelly] And why the separation of the two?

- [Alex] It's basically so when they cooks, it will puff up and become a lot lighter.

- [Kelly] Tradition dictates, we use schmaltz.

That's rendered chicken fat used as a base for cooking.

It's so nice to watch another husband and wife team work together.

(bell dings) (upbeat pop music) (lyrics being sung in French) Montreal has more than 300 green alley ways where neighbors collaborate and curate to garden their shared back spaces.

- It's like our regular row homes.

They lead out to a back garden, and then to the alleyway, which is sort of like the extension of the homes.

- [Kelly] And there's 360 of these?

- About yeah.

And most of them were built in the last 10 years or so by this community called Le Coup Cartier.

Here in this one, what they'll do is they'll do pot lucks and like meet your neighbor parties on the weekends and they'll like set up a table out here and be drinking wine, they'll have garlands.

So I was actually fortunate enough to start one in my neighborhood.

And for us it is really difficult because my neighborhood is, a lot of people who have just arrived into the country, not speaking English or French.

- Yeah.

- So me knocking on 280 doors.

Feeling like I was Erin Brockovich but then having this reaction that people like "Ahh" you know.

It's Canada, you could stay.

And so (laughs).

- I feel like that's a dig on you guys (laughs).

- [Danny] No, not a dig at all.

You brought it on yourselves, so ah-- - [Kelly] We head to Danny's neighborhood and do some nibbling along the way.

(upbeat synthesizer music with lyrics in French) - This is, we call them beef hearts.

- Their grapes look great.

- [Danny] Yeah, these, she uses the vine leaves for dolmares and things like that.

- Hello.

- Hi, how are you?

- Good, how are you?

- [Kelly] Good, this garden is beautiful.

- [Danny] She's my 90 year old grandma.

- [Kelly] No.

- Yeah, 90, young woman.

- Yeah, yeah.

- No.

(Danny laughs) - Nine, zero.

- Nine, zero, yeah.

- [Kelly] So you use to make the, is it dolmas?

- [Danny] Dolmares de Feta.

- Yeah, sometime.

(laughing) - [Danny] She used to make more when she was, not 90.

- He speak English, he no speak Greek.

(laughter) - [Danny] She often yells at me for not speaking Greek.

(bicycle bell ringing) - [Kelly] The Boreal Region boasts ingredients like pine, spruce, cranberry, wild rose, mushrooms and some chefs dig into this on their menus.

But what about distilling?

Could I forage mushrooms and make a flavored whiskey?

- We're small.

We've laid down about 70 or 80 barrels.

- That's barrel number one.

- Aw!

- So that tradition is that, when you create your first barrel at the distillery, you seal it and you never open it.

It's bad luck if you open your first barrel.

So, I wanted to dedicate that first so that's, my father in law who passed away about 15 years ago.

- It's like we're, separated at birth here.

The fact that you got into this because you wanted a really good whiskey.

(laughter) But Paul gets me jazzed about of all things, a sipping Gin.

- You know it's Montreal's 375th anniversary, right?

- So you can smell the forest in this cup.

- What we wanna do is use all Quebec Botanicals.

So I went with spruce rather than pine and larch.

- It's beautiful, like the fragrance on it is-- - [Paul] Yeah it's-- - It's nothing that I've ever experienced.

- [Paul] It's much more flavor forward than that.

This was designed to kind of be a whiskey style gin, where it's a sipping Gin.

- Yeah.

- [Paul] The color comes from sour cherry, cranberry.

We use a wild rose in these.

- I like the rose.

- And then we sweeten it with this, gorgeous organic honey we get from up North.

So wine and beer is big here, but spirits are starting to come back.

- [Kelly] I get so bored by bar programs.

But foraged bases, limiting your garnishes off your surroundings, that's what we're about to get down with, at Manitoba.

- We need to create a lift without lemons or limes or any spirits that is not from Quebec.

And the garnishes and everything has to be from here and is like okay, let's do this.

- [Kelly] Let's do this.

Wild sumac.

- That I foraged.

We make infusion out of it.

Then we use a long pepper, (mumbling) it grows wild all over Quebec.

It's a bit lemony, perky, the Gin is from a region in Northern Quebec.

We always make a different jam with wild berries.

These are Gooseberries.

- Look at that juice just go down.

There's something about it that tastes nourishing.

- My favorite is called Le Flervor.

This is a gin made with a mix of herbs.

- Oh my gosh.

- The idea is to work with seaweed and the acidity is Fair Ju, so that's the grape juice I was talking about.

So it's very acid grape and we've foraged some winter green leaves up North, so it tastes like mint.

- [Kelly] Wintergreen leaf?

- And we end with the seaweed water.

Imagine you go camping and you are sitting there and you look around, you fish that fish, you forage that berry, that root, and you build a fire.

You build a smoker.

Then you do a meal out of everything you find around you.

That should be Manitoba.

(light synthesized music) (laughing) - [Kelly] Oh it's really good.

♪ I'm yours, I'm yours, when you said, oh ♪ (light rock music) ♪ I want, I want, I want, she said, oh ♪ ♪ And I'm never gonna find ♪ ♪ I'm yours, I'm yours, I'm yours and said, oh ♪ ♪ I won't, I won't, I won't seem sad, oh ♪ (clapping) - There is no peace.

(trumpet playing) (laughter) (trumpet playing and echoing) - [Kelly] So we're gonna start our day at, like this is the market of Montreal.

- [Chef John] This is the primo.

- [Kelly] The primo.

- The creme de la creme.

(laughing) - [Kelly] After a very satisfying night at Candide, I challenged Chef John to make breakfast, somewhere in the wilderness, of course.

Luckily, both of us have a mindset to see what the market provides, rather than bidding the market to our desire.

What about ground cherries?

- Do you want ground cherries?

- Well I don't know, I like them, I know I can get them in the States.

Can we cook with them?

- [Chef John] I told you, there is no-- - [Kelly] Oh my gosh, can we get duck eggs?

- [Chef John] Sure.

- [Kelly] I just found flour, and I am obsessed with good flours.

- [Chef John] The advantage of this stall is that you can't go wrong.

- [Kelly] Where are the grains coming from?

- In the south of Montreal.

- Oh it's in the South of Montreal?

It's grown there?

- Yeah.

- [Kelly] And then where is the mill?

- The mill is on the farm - Right there?

- Yeah right there, directly (laughs).

- [John] The godfather himself.

(laughter) - [Kelly] They have all the fun at this market stand.

- [John] They do have all the fun.

(Kelly laughs) It's also that they've probably been up since five and had six coffees each.

- [Kelly] Yeah.

- [John] Just wait til you see them at one in the afternoon.

(laughing) It's a whole different story.

- [Kelly] It's a whole different story.

(waves gently breaking) (light instrumental music) - [Kelly] Chef starts the fire.

- [John] Why?

- [Kelly] (laughs) I don't know, because I am just like making you work.

- That's a stupid rule.

Cross your fingers.

Oh were gonna get hash, hashy, hashy.

We got eggplants, we got peppers.

What else do you need?

- Is that the glue?

Whiskey.

- Whiskey.

I don't know about you but my favorite things in the world are an ingredient with salt on it.

(Kelly laughs) - Like tomatoes with salt.

- Yeah.

- Cucumbers, with a little bit of salt.

- [Kelly] With a little bit of salt.

- [Chef John] Eggplant over the fire is-- - [Kelly] Yeah.

- Zucchini over the fire is, with a little bit of salt.

- [Kelly] You're like, I'm happy.

At your restaurant, you wanted to follow the seasonal threads?

- [Chef John] It's very hard to design a restaurant around that concept.

(Kelly laughs) Here's your slice of carrots with salt.

Here's your sliced tomatoes with salt.

- Oh would you like a little more salt?

No that's too much salt.

- And the easiest way to do that was not to let people choose, because people will choose kind of, what they like.

- [Kelly] Or what they know, yeah.

- Or what they know.

And whereas, you know we were going to come at, come at it with an idea that we were going to serve a whole lot of plants.

Regardless.

So, if we put choices on the menu and say we did like, eight choices.

- Eggplant, like seven plants in one-- - And one meat.

- One chicken.

- And one chicken, and we sold nine chickens for every one of the other flavors.

- I know where this is going.

- [Chef John] So what we try and do is to make it so that, it's actually that, at the restaurant just with it's combinations.

- Right.

- So it's, lightly cooked tomatoes with clam broth instead of salt, cloves, eggplants, you know salty herbs, like in the end, that dish last night is tomatoes and salt and eggplant and salt.

(Kelly laughs) - I'm gonna need some time to process that.

- Right, that's all it is.

(eggs sizzling) One more for good measure.

- [Kelly] So you're hashing it up here.

- Yeah, I feel like but, we're gonna crack the yokes after.

(uplifting pop music) ♪ Everything around me ♪ ♪ Everything around me ♪ ♪ Around me, around ♪ (lyrics in French) - [Kelly] The ginger in this by the way is-- - [Chef John] Good, huh?

- Yeah, I am really excited we got that ginger.

(jazzy saxophone music with lyrics in French)