Ferdinand Schleeh is a lovely young man from Switzerland who recently completed EC Montreal’s French plus Gastronomy programme. Ferdinand experienced three different Gastronomy sessions during his stay. Here is what Ferdinand wanted to share with everyone about his EC Gastronomy experience:
My first session of the gastronomy program was the about how to make tapas at Ateliers & Saveurs of the Time Out Market.
After a little while of randomly walking through the Centre Eaton, because of the missing capability to orient myself properly, I found the right place. The room or the area is surrounded by walls of glass or partwise open and has in my opinion a very fancy modern interior design, so my first impression was very positive.
To start the evening properly we mixed a very interesting drink with ginger, orange juice, lemon juice and Bacardi which I really enjoyed.
The cooking part of the evening began with an introduction about the food we intended to cook, it sounded amazing, but it was also the moment I realized that my French is not on the level it should be in order to follow. That’s why I focused on picking up some words I’ve learned to understand the meaning which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t work at all. Nevertheless, the important instructions we were showed and a man beside me translated some sentences for his wife, so it wasn’t that big of an issue.
“Galette de polenta bardée de bacon grillé à la sauge, crème d’ail et Parmesan Beignets de maïs et ognons caramélisés, crème de fromage Pleine Lune Margret de canard laqué au sirop d’érable, granola de céréales dorées au miel, purée de cœrs d’artichaut, estragon Boulettes de veau à l’italienne, sauce aux tomates cerises confites, basilic, ricotta Madeleines au miel, citron vert et vanilla” is the description of what we made. If you didn’t understand it and were too lazy to look everything up, just look and enjoy the pictures.
During the evening we could taste different sorts of wine, which I really enjoyed.
To sum my experiences with the first session of the EC gastronomy program up, I must start with my goal to improve my French: the evening was a motivation to learn words related to that topic but the evening itself was just a reminder that I have to improve a lot on keep on studying.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t want to miss the delicious food, good wine and the experience I made.
My second session had the topic Cocktails, specifically Gin, and took place at Ateliers & Suveurs Vieux-Montreal.
Just arrived, I was welcomed very nicely which together with Queen as background music, I was immediately put in a very good mood. Throughout the whole evening the music kept being on and in my opinion very high level, so the atmosphere was great. I also really liked the interior design, this old bar style just fit and contributed perfectly to the atmosphere.
We started off with the tasting of two different Gins and the man who led us through the evening explained how Gin is made and talked about the different tastes of it.
Over the duration of the two hours, we mixed three cocktails which was a pretty good number. It wasn’t too much but we were mixing or drinking the whole time and had different styles of flavour.
The first one had the rather classic, a little bit bitter Gin Tonic taste. The other two were relatively sweet, so if you wanted to recreate one of them you can choose the one which fits your taste the best.
To complete the experience, we were handed tapas to every drink which tasted great and, in my opinion, just fit perfectly.
During the whole evening everybody kept speaking in French to and with me, though they were speaking English with other participants, so at least my responses seemed like I understood them.
I enjoyed the process of mixing cocktails, drinking them and eating the delicious food.
My third and last part was the food tour in the Mile End of Montreal.
We started at the “La Panthere Verte” restaurant where we ate the best falafel in Montreal, according to the last falafel contest in 2020. Not only do I agree, it’s the best falafel I’ve ever eaten, I also really liked the style of the restaurant and their philosophy of not wasting anything.
After that, we went to “Cantine Emilia” and ate great Portuguese style poutine, had some very nice chocolate, a great bagel, delicious gnocchi and to have a good closure a beer with a slice of cheese.
During the times of walking from one location to another our guide gave us some insights in the history of the Mile End. I really enjoyed the combination of food and getting to know the neighborhood, mostly because our guide did a great job mixing facts with personal anecdotes and making me excited to try the food. The fact that the tour guide explained everything and told the stories in English made it for me very relaxing from a language perspective.
But what I liked the most was talking with the other persons there. It is always nice to talk to people from Canada and I also met people for the USA as well as two from Austria, so there was a wide range of topics. I found out a lot about Canada and got great tips where to go and what to see.
To be honest the constant interacting with the others was also the reason why I didn’t take a lot of pictures, so in order to see the food you have to take part in the food tour, or you have to explore the Mile End on your own, I can just recommend it.
To conclude and sum my experiences with the gastronomy program up, it was overall a great experience, a motivation to keep on improving my French and an interesting insight in the food culture. So, despite it being sometimes a little bit exhausting when I tried to understand what was told, from my perspective it was absolutely worth taking.
Get a taste of Montreal with our English or French plus Gastronomy programme at EC!