New Zealand Wines

New Zealand Wines

May 5, 2015

A professional wine tasting took place today at the Montreal's Marché Bonsecure. It was a special treat to discover the New Zealand wines, which are not well known in North America. In a sense, they appeal as being somewhat exotic. We all know the Australian wines, but New Zealand ones - that's a different story.  Why do they appear exotic, the posters at the tasting hall tell it all.

The following New Zealand wineries participated at the event: Blind River Estate, Cloudy Bay, Craggy Range, Elephant Hill, Hunter's Wines, Kim Crawford Wine, Monkey Bay & Nobilo Estate, Matua Wines, Mud House Wines, Oyster Bay New Zealand, Pernod Ricard Winemakers, Rockburn Wines, Saint Claire Family Estate, Schubert Wines, Sileni Estates, te Pa Family Vineyards, Toi Toi Wines, Villa Maria Estate, Waimea Estates, Whiteheaven Wine Company.

The participating new Zealand wineries presented themselves as being wholesome yet of the old world high standards of taste and quality. Although the way one perceives the wine taste is quite individualistic, I have to admit that wholesome always taste quite good to me, and even much better than good...

And of cause, there also was food at this New Zealand wine tasting event.

For those who would like to know more about the New Zealand wines, here is the official New Zealand wine website.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The Institute of Fine Italian Wines

l’Istituto del vino Italiano di Qualità
Grandi Marchi

The Institute of Fine Italian Wines or l’Istituto del vino Italiano di Qualità - Grandi Marchi as it is called in Italian, has held a fine wine tasting for professionals in Montreal today. The event took place at the Marché Bonsecure.

14 Italian wine producers participated at this event: Masi, Tasca d'Almerita, Carpene Malvolti, Ambrogio e Giovanni Falonari Tenute, Jermann, Rivera, Alois Lageder, Antinori, Donnafugata, Argiolas, Lungarotti, Umani Ronchi, Michele Chiarlo, Mastroberardino.

An impressive number of the Montreal wine professionals were in attendance. They asked many questions and were eager to get acquainted with the wines presented by the producers.

Italian food and cheese tasting was also offered to the participants and was much appreciated by everybody. This event by the Institute of Fine Italian Wines was a great success, as Italian wine has many fans in Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

For more information, visit the website of the l’Istituto del vino Italiano di Qualità - Grandi Marchi.

MKT Restaurant Official Opening

Official Opening: MKT Restaurant

Chef Marino Tavares' New Project

Monday, April 20, 2015

The opening of a new MKT Restaurant in the heart of Montréal's downtown and business district, marks the return of market cuisine to the forefront. 

Drawing on 25 years of experience, master chef Marino Tavares, native of Azores, Portugal, intends to offer the best of Italian and Mediterranean cuisine within an urban setting where tradition intersects with modernism. For this project, Marino has teamed up with true restaurant business enthusiasts: Manager Parry Kyriakodis, who brings a decade of experience in the field, and Joao Pereira from Restaurant Globe. Together, their mission is getting back to basics: the love of cooking and its traditions.

MKT is a tribute to the market and all its freshly supplied food, from vegetables to fish and seafood. MKT provides the opportunity to celebrate the market's best within the downtown core, a neighbourhood Marino loves and believes in. "This time, it's the table that does the talking," he says.

Marino is a leading authority in the Montréal restaurant industry, having been elected Chef of the Year at the Société des chefs cuisiniers in 2001 and star of the Chef's Gala in 2008. Above all, he loves working with family recipes, giving them a contemporary twist: slow cooking, fresh fish and marinades. The menu includes, for instance, Toscana risotto (duck leg confit, mushrooms), ostriche (oysters), and other fine meats and fine wines. MKT is an inviting and friendly restaurant.

The new MKT is an Italian and Mediterranean food restaurant. It is located at the 2044 Metcalfe Avenue, in downtown Montreal.

Slow Wine Montreal 2015

Le Salon des Vins Natures

4th Edition: Salon of Slow Food

The tasting of the organic wine, known as the Slow Wine Salon, will take place in Montreal, at the Bonsecours Market, on February 4, 2015, between 18:00 - 21:00. 

The Slow Wine 2015 is on its North American tour, and this is its Montreal stop. This event will be represented by 35 Italian wine producers, as well as 35 Quebec agencies and wine producers. In total, there will be 125 natural, organic, and bio-dynamic wines to taste. In addition, 5 artisan food producers will also participate in this show.

At the same time, there will take place a launch of the Slow Wine 2015 guide.

For more information, visit the Slow Wine 2015 website.

Half Your Plate Launch

Today, The Canadian Produce Marketing Association and its partners announced and also celebrated the Quebec launch of Half Your Plate program for consumers.

Rather than to have people to count servings, this program simply states that in order to be healthy and maintain vigour and well-being, half of a plate should be filled with the fruits and vegetables. This makes it very simple for people to remember what proportions of fresh produces should be included with every meal.

Although Canadians are becoming more conscious of what they eat, the study shows that they only consume 3.5 - 4.5 servings of fruit and vegetables every day instead of 7 - 10 servings recommended by Canada's Food Guide. The Half Your Plate program offers a visual alternative to Canadians instead of counting the servings. This facilitates the planning of the meals and and the serving of the healthy food,

The event took place at a Montreal's Metro Plus store on Notre-Dame street.

To better acquaint yourself with the Half Your Plate program and to learn new health recipes, visit the program's website.

Mondial de la bière 2014

Montreal’s Mondial de la bière
21nd edition

June 11 -  15, 2014

The Mondial de la bière was founded in Montreal in 1994. It is a unique and friendly tasting event, and is considered a doorway to the brewing industry in Quebec and around the world. It is based on learning, tasting, sharing and networking with the brewers and the industry’s professionals.

This year's THE MONDIAL DE LA BIÈRE in numbers 

• 570 products (beers, meads, ciders...) including 514 beers 

• 107 breweries, including over 40 microbreweries from Quebec 

• 269 new breweries – never presented at the Mondial de la bière – representing more than 50% of the beers available! 

• More than 100,000 visitors expected

• 5 day-festival when Montreal becomes Beer Central

A visitor will also have an opportunity to experience many culinary delights. For instance, IGA invites everyone to discover how to cook with beer. There will be three cooking workshops presented every day, where chef André-Paul Moreau and his helpers will use IGA products to create perfect matches with various beers. These fifteen demonstrations and a special presentation of Le Voyageur cheese with put the spotlight on local products, cheeses, quality meats as well as seafood.

Once again this year this prestigious World Beer Festival will be held at the Montreal's Palais des Congrès. To find more about the event, visit the festival's website.

Salon des métiers d’art de Montréal 2013: Food Court

Salon des métiers d’art de Montréal 2013: Food Court

December 6 - 22, 2013

This year once again the Montreal's Salon des métiers d’art is having a large section at the back of the exhibition hall devoted to speciality foods made by the Quebec artisans.

There are chocolates, sausages , various goose meat spreads, as well as preserves, cookies and alcoholic beverages made from maple syrup, honey, apples and pairs. Especially popular are iced wines made of frozen apples and pears.

The salon also offers many unique kitchen implements: wooden cutting boards, plates salad bowls, spatulas; ceramic dining ware, as well as many other indispensable kitchen and dining room items that make any meal a success.

This year the special emphasis is on how to set a table in the festive way, and right at the entry of the exhibition a big section is devoted to the holiday table setting and decore.

Do not hesitate to visit this Salon since it offers a great variety of products especially useful for the upcoming holiday season and the inevitable present giving.

There is Free Admission to this Salon.

Salon des métiers d’art de Montréal website.