Martin Picard at Vassa Eggen

In the end of last week Vassa Eggen had Martin Picard from Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, Quebec in the kitchen för two days.
We knew that it was a rather unusual dinner coming up, but don´t think anyone guessed it to be like this, bisarre and decandent. For those of you who don´t know who he is he was one of the first "nose to tail " chefs with a special focus on pig and foie gras. In fact, the restaurant is the biggest buyer of foie in the world......

It was a little bit odd start to the dinner because they were not ready with the tables for the next sitting so we had to wait for something like 45 minutes before the other diners left the diningroom. Then it was almost a pumping atmosphere in the bar, packed with people all talking with friends leaving, some with doggybags others saying that they were stuffed beyond .....
What should we drink to this was our question, no one wanted to tell us what we were about to eat ?

The menu started with a Maple Daiguiri with a maple siphon foam finished at the table. We went for the set beverage after talking to the staff.

Before telling you about the food, I sadly have to say that the service in our opinion, except for some highlights were far to low. It doesn´t matter if it´s a one off dinner, should it be that hard to know that few amount of dishes and ingridients ?? Coming back to this in the end....

So how was the food ?

Well, it started off with some snacks before they bombarded the table with a whole duck, that was a little bit overcooked but managed to be quite moist anyway due to it being served whole.... served with stuffed squid and black ink pasta and different sauces.. A big serving of tripe and meatballs and temakis filled with reindeer topped with a quail eggyolk.
All the dishes this evening was served in the way of sharing food and master carver Ölwe took the knife and sliced the duck, nothing for ordinary restaurant customers ;) but it didn´t seem to be that many of them out there this evening...

The second serverings were bisarre to say the least.
A boudin tarte was the dish good but compared to the other dishes it was quite ordinary ;) , the rest was a different thing... Complemented by a WHOLE baked foie gras with Perigord truffles with half a baguette ?? WTF ! this was also nothing for scared guest being baked quite light...
And then the pigs head made entrance in the middle of the table. A pig crispy head with the front of a lobster hanging out the mouth ! We all went crazy exploring everything and Niklas found a kind of meat/muscle inside behind the ear that tasted great, the eyes and so on......The lobster tail was dingling just waiting to be teared apart. After this we were getting quite stuffed.

We had choosed to go for the more decadent menu so now was the cheese course consisting of melted Änglunda cheese from Jürs ( insted of a canadian cheese they normally use ) topped with sweetbreads, brain and foies gras.
Fun dish but when thinking of us paying 250 sek times 5 ( something like 125 + euro ) isn´t exactly priceworthy in my opinion.

After this we got a big serving of maple meringue and then they made " maple tire " on snow of reduced maple suryp from Blaxsta.

Then, when everything was served the waiters seemed to dissapear in the back areas and this has to be the first dinner that is is finished by a guard lighting up the room asking everyone to finish.....! It isn´t our fault that no one want to take our bill or that we were almost an hour behind schedule..... and this was almost all of the guest..... so sad. As I said earlier, the service this night was nothing to write home about.

The food was more fun, crazy and bisarre than a fantastic meal.... But we had great company at our table so it was a fun dinner.
Can´t remember when I was that stuffed, this was at least as having to tastings menu after each other due to all the fat...

Menu Decadent

Maple Daquari
*
Oysters & Oreilles de Crisse
*
Temaki Caribou
Tripe and Meatballs
Duck and Calamari " The Black Tide "
*
Boudin Tart
Pigs Head & Lobster
Whole Foie Gras and Truffles
*
Cheesecake witn Maple Meringue
Tire on Snow

" Complement - Menu More Decadent "
Cheese Service, Änglunda with Sweetbread, Brain and Foie Gras