what s the most perilous aspect of the job? would it be dogs or icy stairs? in this area there s a lot of dogs, but i would say icy stairs. it s one thing to have to work outside in this wintry mess, but it takes a strange and wonderful kind of mutant to actually find it pleasurable, like, well, these two gentlemen. do you like the cold? i mean, by you, i mean the quebecois. it cleans the streets of ebola. the cold? yeah, the frigid cold keeps the riffraff out of the city, for sure. fred morin, dave mcmillen, restauranteur, chefs at the legendary joe beef, bon vivant, recanteour, historians of their beloved great white north, princes of hospitality. and what do men like this do for fun when the rivers turn to ice
renegade, innovator, he s one of the most influential chefs in north america. he s also a proud quebecois, and perhaps he more than everyone else has defined for a new generation of americans and canadians what that means. he is an unlikely ambassador for his country and his province. but maybe not so unlikely. i mean, look at him. out for a day trapping beaver with local trapper karl. so the bait is wood? yeah. just the bark. they eat the bark? yeah, yeah, yeah. are i understand in pioneer days beaver was the financial engine of canada. empires were built on it. every hat practically in the world was made of befr pelt. that s why today it is the icon of canada. to a less er extent the tradition continues today. karl continues to trap, usually called on by provincial
go back far enough, and you get a clearer picture of why. the french arrived on the shores of quebec city in the early 16th century, but succumbed to the military might of great britain in the mid-18th. thus began a gradual but steady persecution of all things french. the quebecois have struggled mightily to hang on to their french heritage and language. the issue of seceding entirely, a notion that persists to some extent even today. journalist patrick legas meets me to understand what many feel is at stake. so i was going to talk about the whole history of french quebecois, but i have to get to the pressing matter of the day, pastagate. pastagate, what do you want to know about that? for those not up on current quebec politics, pasta-gate refers to an incident where local authorities notified an italian restaurant that they were in violation of french
stupidity, and that was it. and you know what? it will not stand. the anglo-canadians treated quebecois like second-class crap for much of history, so i get it. i d be pissed, too. i would want my own thing, and when i got it, i would want to make sure there is no back-sliding to the good old days. when the first sovereignist party to be elected in 1976, it didn t come out of a vacuum. it came out from a couple of decades of awakening and struggle. 50 years from now, will people still be speaking predominantly french in montreal? yes. no doubt about it. no doubt about it. french first is something most would agree with. how far and how rigorously you want to go with that, well do you think there was ever any possibility or real majority or plurality of quebecois who have have voted in separate nation status? in english, you guys say timing is everything. right. and timing was never better than in the period 1990, 1991, 92, because in 95, this country came inches
once every few decades, maybe every century, a nation will produce a hero. an escoffiere, a muhammad ali, a dalai lama, joey ramone, somebody who changes everything about their chosen field, who changes the whole landscape. life after them is never the same. martin picard is such a man. a heretofore unencountered hybrid of rugged outdoorsman, veteran chef with many years of fine dining experience, renegade, innovator, he is one of the most influential chefs in north america. he is also a proud quebecois, and perhaps he more than everyone else has defined for a