Canada's insider blog

Montréal has always been known for its food, but it’s been a low-key love affair: classic French cuisine with a glass of wine on a sunny sidewalk terrace or hearty Québecois dishes on a wintry night. But lately the city is becoming a magnet for high profile celebrity chefs.

Canadian Chuck Hughes, an Iron Chef America winner and star of the Food Network’s Chuck’s Day Off cooking show opened his second Montréal eatery, Le Bremner, this past July. Like his first venture, Garde-Manger, it’s located below street level in an historic stone building in Old Montréal. A cozy seafood diner, Bremner became an instant hit with some of its most popular offerings – lavish lobster parfait and a kimchee snow crab dish with crispy rice cake.

Then, in August, Gordon Ramsay, the short-tempered celebrity chef of the British and American reality-television cooking competition show, Hell’s Kitchen, set up shop in the chic suburb of Outremont. Ramsay had long ago fallen in love with Montréal, so when he heard that the legendary rotisserie chicken institution, Laurier BBQ, had shuttered, he reopened its doors as Laurier Gordon Ramsay. The menu continues to cater to families with comfort food like their classic chicken and slaw, poutine, bagels and sliders, but Michelin-starred Ramsay has added gourmet flair and contemporary twists to the dishes and the décor.