went last week to Splendido to sample the cooking of Norman Laprise of Toque!, often said to be Montreal's best restaurant. I've never been there so I was looking forward to this dinner, part of Winterlicious' chef series, where Laprise would cook alongside David Lee.

Laprise was a surprise, he's really out there with his cooking.While Lee is all suavity, Laprise assaults the senses. His first fusillade was a ceviche of two Princess scallops (small Scottish mollusks) coated with fir foam and with a kind of pouch of clementine juice underneath. Great way to start. Lee countered with a smoothly delicious chunk o f lobster and uni sauce. Laprise's way with fresh foie gras was to pair it with pear juice and jelly. Lee cooked a squab breast sous vide with blood sausage and best of all chestnut agnolotti. I wish chestnuts were more often on the menu. The most interesting part of Laprise's plate of seared, poached venison loin (which was i thought was largely tasteless, no hint of game) was the crispy salad. His dessert prompted most of u s at the table to drop our spoons. White chocolate mousse with buckthorn berry flakes and sorbet was like a yogurt and grain breakfast! He's really a challenging chef. Would love to get to his restaurant.

We were seated at long tables, assorted strangers, -- an excellent idea because as we ate, we discovered a shared passion in food. Takes commitment to pay around 224 each for this special dinner The cost of the dinner was $149 plus paired wines , $75. I kept learning more and more about food from my neighbours who I felt were way ahead of me. One young couple spend weeks in Mexico each winter and have discovered the perfect mole! A Quebecois foodie said it was his Jewish wife who made the best tourtiere - they were a guide to Quebec. My immediate neighbour, a tax lawyer, loved wine and she was disappointed with the selection of Ontario wines - but I guess that is part of the Winterlicious deal.

We all loved the Swiss Vacherin Mont D'or with shaved black truffles that was spooned out of a large round that had lait cru stamped on it. Vacherin Mont d'Or is only made from winter milks, October through March, and it is aged encircled by a strip of fir --- once ripe, you must eat it with a spoon. The big round box had lait cru stamped on it but when I checked the Provincial Fine Cheese website, I found that it was "thermise" which is pasteurization lite. "Thermise" is now the way many soft cheeses are being made so they will age at 60 days and thus be legal in North America. But alas, the texture and taste is different, the cheese doesn't gush like Vesuvius and there is no inner burning sensation. Of course for anyone eating a Vacherin for the first time these qualities won't be missed -- still it's sad theyre going. I think the cheese that suffers most from thermise is Epoisses. It's now practically impossible to find a true Lait Cru Epoisses in town.