The Savvy Gourmet

Les Saveurs Oubliées, Charlevoix, Quebec

Rated the best country restaurant in the Charlevoix (by Tables et Relais du Terroir), Les Saveurs Oubliées features fresh lamb and quality local food products. Enjoy local dishes served on terracotta plates in a friendly atmosphere.

Chef Régis Hervé, recipient of the Renaud-Cyr award in 2007, creates dishes that judiciously blend French cuisine with the traditions and products of the Charlevoix region.

The adjacent boutique offers local food products such as lobster oil, country-style jams, original jellies, old-time ketchups, sausages and cold cuts, etc.

The dishes and foods of Les Saveurs Oubliées have won high praise from the Guide Restos VOIR (June 26, 2008), Philippe Mollé (Le Devoir, August 6, 2004), Litty Mathew (Travel + Leisure, July 2004) Marie-Josée Taillefer and Denis Gagné (Radio-Canada/L’épicerie, July 29 2003). Take their advice! Don’t forget to bring your wine and, in the summer months, to reserve in advance.

Les Saveurs Oubliées
350 rang Saint-Godefroy (Road 362)
Les Éboulements, Quebec G0A 2M0
Phone: 418-635-9888

Female Chefs Compete (Val d'Isere, France - March 2010)

Val d’Isère is breaking new ground. From March 15 to 21, 2010, as part of the Pistes Gourmandes – La Cuisine Pure festival, Val d’Isère will be organizing the biggest competition for professional women chefs.

The Cuillère d’Or award will be given to the winner of this international competition.

Chocolate Stamps (La Poste, France)

Since May 25, post offices in France have been selling stamps that pay tribute to chocolate and the fragrance of cocoa. The booklet of ten stamps is in the shape of a chocolate bar, with different designs on each square (cocoa beans, a chocolate manufacturing plant, etc.).

Thanks to a technological innovation, the booklet smells of chocolate, for perfumed microcapsules have been incorporated into the ink. The scent can last up to two years. Each stamp features a small drawing with a cocoa theme. One, for example, is an illustration of someone eating a chocolate bar, while another is marked 1609, the year that chocolate arrived in France.

All that’s missing is champagne stamps to toast the good news! That might be coming soon, given that for the past dozen years the French post office has been featuring coffee and vanilla-scented stamps for its Caribbean and overseas territories.