Quebec, Gourmet City: There's A New Chef At Château Frontenac And His Gastronomic Menu Is To Die For

A new 31-year-old chef has just taken over the helm of Château Frontenac’s flagship restaurant, Le Champlain, offering a daring gastronomic menu where modernity meets age-old traditions.

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It’s a homecoming for Quebec native Gabriel Molleur-Langevin, who has been Executive Chef at Mousso in Montreal for the past five years.

Photo courtesy of André-Olivier Lyra

His track record is impressive and includes several professional experiences abroad: at Restaurant Marcon (three Michelin stars in France), at Noma (in Copenhagen) – voted the best restaurant in the world several times – and at the renowned Fäviken in Sweden.

These stays abroad and many other trips have shown him how important it is to immerse himself in the surrounding nature when cooking.

Since arriving at Château Frontenac two months ago, the chef has forged relationships with producers from Quebec, Île d’Orléans, Charlevoix and even Kamouraska.

The new menu, launched last week, is based around local, seasonal ingredients, including rhubarb, asparagus, morels, lamb and halibut.

Above all pleasure

The chef likes to have fun, and you can taste that in this Discovery Menu, available in five or eight courses and also featuring a vegetarian version – a first at Le Champlain.

The first starter, a foie gras candy with black currant glaze from Mona et filles, is stunning.

Blackcurrant Glazed Foie Gras Candy Photo Marianne White

“I am happy to achieve such a result. “It’s visually perfect and it’s a treat for a bite or two,” the chef tells me, seated comfortably by the fireplace in the sumptuous restaurant, which is decorated with woodwork, gilding and tapestries.

The thirty-year-old stands out in this environment with his ponytail and youthful demeanor. But he feels like a fish in water and enjoys playing the alchemist to develop his recipes.

His cooking is both intuitive and very well thought out. “There’s a spontaneous side, with flashes that come from my experiences and that I collect,” he explains. I have elements, I see where I want to go with my taste and I put them together instinctively. I add a little, I add more, I play with the elements until I find a nice balance.

From the cedar hedge!

Take the halibut offered as a fourth course, for example. It’s not even the fish that inspired the original idea. “I started with celery. I wanted to bring some bitterness further down the menu,” he says. He married the in season halibut and prepared a lemon thyme butter and sunflower dill oil sauce. The result was “insane,” he swears. And I give him reason, it is a successful agreement!

Halibut with Sunflower Sauce Photo Marianne White

In the sixth course he unsettles us with a sour cherry kombucha, served in the form of ice cream and on a thuya cream. The latter, believe it or not, was made from scraps of cedar hedge freshly cut by a member of his brigade.

Sour Cherry Kombucha Photo Marianne White

Wanting to enhance it, the chef infused and tumbled it to bring out the flavors. “We can have fun, we’re almost limitless,” he says. I like simple things that contain surprises.” It’s surprising as one would wish, but it goes very well with the rest!

Another special feature: the chef recalls his Scandinavian experiences with a cracker made from split flour by the baker François Borderon. The reinterpreted version of an old classic is served in the center of the table with a delicate mushroom mousse.

Gastronomic capital

Back in Quebec after a 10-year hiatus, Chef Gabriel wants to help transform the capital into a gastronomic destination.

“I come back with a baggage, a vision. I’m in a new city for me. It’s not the same shops, the same restaurants. It has evolved, he says. I think we’re at a certain pinnacle of gastronomy in Quebec. I want to be part of that effervescence!”