Holborn Dining Room | Montréal en Lumière Style
WELCOME TO THE HOLBORN DINING ROOM – PIE ROOM DELIGHTS!
Like a fine bottle of wine, MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE improves it’s invited chefs year after year, to provide locals and tourists with an exceptional foodie adventure and winter escape. No one LOVES February, it’s that point in the year in Montreal where people are like “Thanks winter, you can go home now!” But on this particular evening, with fine food before me and a roaring fire beside me, I was loving winter. Thanks to the wonderful service at Auberge Saint-Gabriel, I was enjoying the sharp contrast of a winter wonderland painting, in my window, within the cave-like seclusion of an old late-16th Century stone town house.
WELCOME TO THE HOLBORN DINING ROOM!
Spearheaded by executive Chef Calum Franklin, Holborn Dining Room is a grand brasserie set in the heart of London, HDR serves up seasonal Brit cuisine with a twist in a vibrantly bustling dining salon. Its specialty is fanciful pies. Calum brings with him an arsenal of culinary skills: he has worked at a variety of renowned restaurants including; The Ivy, Aurora at the Andaz Hotel, Indigo and more… prior to directing the creative kitchen at Holborn Dining Room. Auberge St-Gabriel invited both he and sous-chef Nokuthula Mbambo to surprise us for the evening…
Often my favourite dish is a main dish, but sometimes it’s an app. In this case, even though I love little pies and pastries, I found my special culinary heaven in the very first platter than arrived. Our first introduction to taste, was in this playground of seafood with a refreshing sparkling wine by Benjamin Bridge.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9KBpI8j7t7/
Suddenly, I was feeling sun paint my hair and sea chill my toes as this Nova-Scotian theme washed over me. I loved the Parisian oysters, Trout gravlax (with gin), mini Blinis, cream and caviar (cutest entrée ever) but my favourite pairing was the Shrimp chips with Gruyère cream. The volcanic soil enriched bubbly teamed up with the buttery crunch of my absolute favourite cheese was sublime… not sure what they were sprinkled with in green, probably magic fairy dust as this was a magical pairing indeed!
Because Calum is an award winning pastry chef, the Holborn dining room has an entire Pie Room of delicacies.
From rich Wellington-esque crusted game in beds of liquory reductions to cloud-like puffy dessert shells protecting sugary secrets… He does it all- and with the careful craftsmanship of a glass blower or lace pattern maker. His final creations, are highly-instagrammable works of art that foodies admire at length prior to digging in…
PARIS-BREST, QUEBEC STYLE, A L’ERABLE!
The challenge of an invited chef, is to add local flavours to their traditional dishes. In this case there were 3 considerations to make! How does one take a classic Paris-Brest dessert with the Calum Franklin charm of round pie-ish pastries and add a local twist? Maple syrup of course! This happens to be one of my fave sweet treats and I am a lover of hazelnut everything. The perfect sweet yet light end note to an absolutely perfect meal pairing of wine & pastry delicacies. Want to see what else we enjoyed? Check out our FB Photo diary.
Here is what you need to know about MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE
Date and Time: Runs from Feb 20 Through March 1st, Yes there are still spots open!
Location: All around the island of MTL
RSVP: Check schedule on official site, then RSVP with resto directly
Facebook: @Montrealenlumiere
Instagram: @MTLenLumiere
Here is what you need to know about Auberge Saint-Gabriel
Location: 426 St-Gabriel, in old MTL
RSVP: 514.878.3561
Facebook: @lauberge.saintgabriel
Instagram: @aubergesaintgab
More into drink than food? Cider Tasting Weekend Returns!
