Venison shepherd's pie. Ragoût de pattes de cochon. Giant shrimp just pulled from the sea then fashioned into "baroque sculptures." Thrilling applies to just about everything at Montréal, QC's Au Pied De Cochon. With a name that translates as "the foot of the pig", though, it's the restaurant's signature dish that generates the most giddiness: a heart-stopping version of pied de Cochon stuffed with rich and gamy foie gras.

With one pied in the country and one in the new millennium, chef Martin Picard transforms pork hocks, reinvented in a variety of novel ways, into something extraordinary. "I believe that people are happiest when the food they eat conjures up images of their grandmother braising meat and cooking in those huge simmering pots," says the master, of whom bad-boy star-chef Anthony Bourdain is a devotee.

Picard's Au Pied De Cochon, opened in 2001, is a loveletter to the classic, rustic Québécois dishes of his childhood. Just sitting at the rough-hewn wooden bar, my favourite seat in the house, facing the bustling kitchen and watching the ballet of talented young chefs working at breakneck speed, is enough to rev the appetite. A chef soaks plates of crisp, dark fries in thick gravy, then tops them with cheese curds and gilds with a seared slice of foie gras for the restaurant's most notoriously naughty foie gras poutine.

In the five years since Picard's restaurant debuted, it has garnered international praise for its extravagant take on simple dishes. Picard recently inked his first cookbook, Au Pied De Cochon, the Album. It is as singular and idiosyncratic as the chef himself, with a foreword by Bourdain, mouth-watering recipes, luscious photos, wild illustrations by restaurant staff and its own DVD. By rescuing nearly-forgotten recipes and unfamiliar ingredients, and combining them in honest, generous ways, Picard has created a bistro that's defining Canadian cuisine. No surprise, it's become an instant institution.
www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca

Chris Johns is a food and travel writer based in Toronto. He has eaten his way across Canada three times for enRoute magazine's annual restaurant survey. His work appears regularly in The Globe and Mail, National Post, Elle Canada, Fashion Magazine, Chatelaine and Toronto Life, and was recently published in the anthology, Best Food Writing of 2006. Beats: food, travel, restaurants and hotels. chrisjohns@look.ca