Montreal Gazette
February 28, 2008: David Lee at Toqué!

A seriously impressive menu was on offer Thursday night at Toqué! when David Lee, chef of Toronto's Splendido, guest-cheffed alongside Normand Laprise. This dynamic duo split the cooking duties on an eight-course "menu de dégustation" paired with fabulous wines chosen by resident sommelier, Pascal Paradis.

Star chefs like Charlie Trotter, Ken Oringer, Rocco DiSpirito, Tetsuya Wakudo, and Daniel Boulud have guested at Toqué! at High Lights Fests of the past. The Lee/Laprise collaboration was just as successful as the two chef's similar styles and focus on topnotch ingredients made it tough to decipher whose dishes were whose. Laprise got the meal off to a rollicking start with an amuse-bouche consisting of a long bread stick wrapped in thin strips of smoked duck, a few ribbons of smoky La Quercia prosciutto, and from Lee, tufts of crackling Berkshire pork fat. Yum!

Though the next dish seemed well-suited to Laprise, it was Lee all the way and featured a delicate confit of Scottish salmon, paired with tiny dollops of lily bulb purée and sake scented salmon roe.

The fish dishes continued with a Laprise offering of monkfish liver terrine surrounded with a ring of tiny radishes and set upon a sake jelly marbled with soya vinaigrette. Following that came a beautiful filet of Spanish mackerel paired simply with aubergine puree and crispy accents provided by dried morels and deep-fried rice lettuce.

Lee was up next with three dishes: an impossibly tender rabbit leg served with orrecchiette pasta mixed with pancetta and slow roasted saddle of rabbit, a dry-aged Cumbrae Farms rib steak paired with a mound of shredded pulled beef brisket, and a cheese course featuring a melted slice of the New Brunswick Tomme Le Champ cheese accented by a spice-poached pear topped with honey truffle syrup and truffle shards.

For dessert, the Toqué! pastry kitchen produced a pink-and-white creation filled with meringue, white chocolate ganache, raspberry sorbet and single cube of bitter almond jelly. Superb.

At the close of the meal, Lee mingled with the guests, sharing his love for Quebec ingredients and his admiration for Montreal's adventurous diners. He also expressed two wishes: for Laprise's wild edibles supplier to ship edible flowers to Toronto, and for more of our chefs and diners to head west to get to know - and love -- the Toronto restaurant scene as much as he does ours.


- Lesley Chesterman

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