..the Saint-Lawrence, a river-turned-estuary, waters that have provided a haven and habitat for the seafood that has fed generations since before recorded time.
...open spaces, an adventurous land, a paradise for game, a fertile field for its many crops.
...the founding peoples - the French, the English, and the people of the First Nations - North American Indians and Inuits. ...legendary hospitality - a place where people eat well.
Québec's culinary culture dates back to New France's earliest beginnings in the 17th century. Historians have even said that the first colonists ate better on this side of the Atlantic than they did in their homelands.
But successive waves of new arrivals have had a considerable and positive impact on Québec cuisine. New products have been imported, and numerous others are now produced here. Many dishes, which were originally known only to these new arrivals, have been integrated into the daily culinary experience. Restaurants have played an important role in popularizing such dishes.
A vibrant culinary present Québec's contemporary culinary culture has successfully maintained its own identity while incorporating new trends. French tradition remains at the heart of Québec cuisine with Québécois cooking remaining much the same for centuries, until the beginning of the 1960s.
One event, in particular, added has an impact on the culinary arts in Québec. In 1967, the World's Fair held in Montreal brought chefs from around the world to Québec to pique our curiosity and taste buds with new ideas. These chefs introduced new products, new dishes, and new behaviors to the table. Several stayed in Québec after the Fair, opening restaurants and multiplying the opportunities for new taste discoveries.
The second event that contributed to the development of Québec 's new culinary landscape was the advent of Nouvelle Cuisine. Québec chefs joined this movement with enthusiasm and their clients quickly followed. Despite the somewhat transient nature of this "culinary revolution," it did have some lasting effects on cuisine. It encouraged the introduction of new products into the market and it gave chefs a new status - from their kitchens, they became promoters of a new art of living.
In Québec this change of attitude has yielded one particularly important result. While up until the '60s, the top chefs were primarily of European origin, the new generation of chefs are native to Québec. This contemporary group is young, dynamic and aware of the potential offered by a cuisine with its own identity. They toil to continue the development of a modern cuisine that retains the spirits of its origins but is enriched by all that our era has brought.
Modern Québec cuisine is a personalized one. To achieve it, chefs work in close cooperation with artisans, be they farmers, growers, fishermen, or processors, to obtain products that, in variety and quality, measure up to their expectations. In every region of Québec, people are involved in developing their own culinary characteristics to enrich our gastronomic heritage. What is produced in Québec may surprise you.