The world’s best hard-shell lobster coming up at Trout Point

Lobster Fishing Area 34 in Southwest Nova Scotia covers 8,500 square miles (21,000 km2), an area the size of New Jersey. It has the largest catches of Canada’s 41 lobster fishing areas, accounting for 40 percent of the country’s catch and 23 percent of North American landings. Local fishermen pride themselves on harvesting cold-water lobsters with a hard shell. As luck has it, Trout Point Lodge lies in the centre of it all, just inland from Yarmouth, Shelburne, and Digby.

The winter lobster season is upon us, and there is simply nowhere else in the world to enjoy better lobster! The chefs at Trout Point will make the most of this local delicacy during the season which runs from November through late May. While many people boil lobster, local fishermen in Southwest Nova Scotia steam their lobster (often in sea water) to maintain its delicate texture and delectable flavours! Trout Point will go beyond this simple and effective cooking technique to showcase local lobster throughout the menu!

Stay tuned . . .

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Sample menus from 2012: Chez la Tousquet & the Dining Room at Trout Point Lodge

In 2012, Trout Point Lodge placed its new Chez la Tousquet dinner venue into full operation, with white table cloths contrasting with painted wood panelling and a handcut red sandstone fireplace, views of the river. A hewn hemlock bar rests atop wine racks. Riedel crystal stemware and fine flatware complete the picture.  Guests can now enjoy several possible dining spots at the Lodge for an expanded 4-course fixed menu with options . . .

June 22

• Spanish Mojama w/ Breviro caviar
• choice of soups: Black Eyed Pea w/ shrimp or Roasted Yellow Squash w/ mussels
• Fennel & Tangerine Salad
• choice of main dishes: Homemade Fettuccine with Wild Mushroom Sauce or Fresh Local Hadock w/ Dill & Sesame
• Choice of desserts, including Homemade Chocolate & Caramel Ice Creams with Merengue, Chocolate Gourmandise, Raspberry-Rhubarb Custard Tart, or Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

July 7

• choice of amuse bouche: Grilled King Oyster Mushrooms marinated w/ White Wine or Homemade Gravlox w/ Homemade Creme Fraiche
• choice of soup: Oxtail Soup or Eggplant & Pepper Soup w/ Coconut
• Greens from the Garden w/ Tarragon Vinaigrette
• choice of main dishes: Grilled Local Swordfish (harpoon) w/ Sage Beurre Noisette or Homemade Porcini Ravioli
• Choice of Desserts

August 2

• House Smoked Sturgeon w/ Acadian Sturgeon Caviar
• choice of soups: Black Eyed Pea Soup w/ Cabbage & Leak or Wild Mushroom Soup
• Mixed Green Salad from the Gardens
• choice of main dishes: Local Scallops Ravigote w/ Lobster & Chanterelles or Homemade Squid Ink Spaghetti alla Arrabiata
• Choice of Desserts, including Lemon Curd Tart w/ Vanilla Ice Cream or Homemade Passion Fruit Sorbet

September 3

• Charred Trout Point Grape Leaves stuffed with Beef & Lemongrass
• choice of soups: Creole Red Bean Soup w/ Coconut & Pork or Carrot & Ginger Soup w/ Shrimp
• Baby Spinach Salad w/ Homemade Yoghurt Dill Dressing & Lamb Confit
• choice of main dishes: Rainbow Trout Almandine w/ Leek & Potato Mash or Handcut Paparadelli w/ Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
• Choice of desserts, including Blueberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding or Pear Tart w/ Maple Glaze

Trout Point’s 180 selection wine list includes selections from $29 to $1245, with strengths in French and Spanish wines.

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Sustainable seafood to be featured

Chef/proprietors Vaughan Perret and Charles Leary look forward to the 2012 season at Trout Point, which opens May 1, and particularly to making greater use of local and regional sustainable seafood. One particularly exciting event is the availability of Arctic Char and European Sea Bass from Nova Scotia’s cutting-edge Sustainable Blue, which will add to resources like Eel Lake Oyster Farm in the Lodge’s home municipality and Breviro Caviar just across the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

The availability of char and sea bass will greatly enhance the menu offerings at the Lodge, which has always focused on local seafood resources like harpooned swordfish, tuna, haddock, and halibut.

Sustainable Blue is a Canadian producer of both exotic and native species of fish, situated close to The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. It uses world leading aquaculture technology, designed in-house, in the operation of land based recirculation fish farms. It is committed to product quality, environmental responsibility and commercial success through technological excellence.

Breviro Caviar has the only CITES licensed captive breeding facility for Acipenser Brevirostrum sturgeon on the planet, and  believes in environmentally sustainable, traceable, and responsible aquaculture. The company’s ongoing commitment to research, testing and innovation produces caviar that is acknowledged to be one of the best available for its egg size, flavour, colour and nutrition.

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Dining at Trout Point in 2012 . . .

Proprietors Vaughan Perret and Charles Leary plan many improvements to the dining experience for 2012. Final touches are being put on the Lodge’s second dining venue, Chez la Tousquet, which features views of La Riviere Tousquet, paneled walls, and a masterful hand-chiseled red sandstone fireplace. There’s also a rough-hewn bar carved from a giant Hemlock tree.

Chez la Tousquet first received diners in 2011, but this year will see padded tables with white linens, crystal stemware, fine china chargers, and silver flatware for an enhanced dining experience unparalleled in the province. This dining room seats up to just 10 persons, either as a private dining room or a more intimate venue for couples.

Following the 2011 season where the table d’hote menu started always offering a fresh, homemade pasta option for the main course, in 2012 the Lodge will offer a choice of 2 full fixed menus, one focused on local seafood.

Trout Point’s cuisine has garnered praise recently, with veteran writer Nigel Richardson giving the Lodge’s food & drink a score of 9/10 in The Telegraph, Departures magazine naming it among the world’s top 10 foodie getaways, and Sarah Barrell writing for The Independent:

Trout Point’s gastronomy looms large on the North American culinary scene. The owners – organic farmers, cookbook writers and restaurateurs – have won numerous accolades, representing three of only a handful of Americans who are members of the French Cheesemakers Guild. The trio have roots in New Orleans and came to Nova Scotia seeking their Acadian heritage – Louisiana’s Cajun culture descends from Atlantic Canada’s 17th century French colonists. Food is a mix of Creole, French and modern North American, with seasonal ingredients drawn from the lodge’s organic garden and surrounding forest.

Couples seeking a romantic, candle-lit dinner can also request seating in front of the fireplace in the main lodge’s Great Room. The longstanding favourite Dining Room remains the venue of choice for most guests as well as those reserving dinner only. Come experience what WHERE Canada recently featured: “a kitchen specializing in Atlantic Acadian cuisine: locally inspired meals that highlight sustainable seafood, foraged ingredients and produce from the extensive on-site garden.”

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Wine Access selects Trout Point Lodge for the 2011 Food Lover Gift Guide!

Wine Access–Canada’s wine magazine–has selected the Lodge’s cooking vacations for its list of 10 holiday gifts for those with a culinary bent. Written by Canadians and covering international and Canadian wines from a Canadian point of view, the magazine’s Allison McNeely compiled the list for foodies, gourmets and people who love to cook.

A perfect way to give a Trout Point gift is through Gift Certificates purchased online!

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12th season of “Food Learning Vacations” ends today

The final session of the Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School wraps up today, with 13 participants from Amherst, Nova Scotia to Yellow Knife and Apalachicola, Florida. The 3-day, 2-night programs have been offered several times a year since July 4, 2000, the day Trout Point Lodge opened for business.

During the weekend, guests stay at the Lodge and learn about everything from how to select quality seafood to how to make cold smoked salmon. Field trips include visits to the Eel Lake Oyster Farm and SeaKist Lobster. Classes include demonstrations and hands-on cookery.

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Trout Point Lodge, Nova Scotia’s only member of Relais & Chateaux, to open romantic second restaurant

Trout Point Lodge is expanding the dining experiences offered to guests and local residents with the opening of the new Chez la Tousquet scheduled for June 1, 2011.

Entering its 12^th season of operation, the Lodge has always emphasized gourmet food in table d’hôte menus focused on local produce & world-class seafood. Trout Point often features products from its own 5,000 square foot vegetable, herb, & flower gardens.

Chez la Tousquet will offer candle-lit dining in an intimate space with walls of blue-granite blocks and painted wood panelling. A focal-point hand-cut red sandstone fireplace will compliment views of the Tusket River, the restaurant’s namesake. A hewn hemlock-wood wine bar provides a spot for pre-dining beverages, including 140 selections from a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence-winning list.

Guests will have the option of the classic The Dining Room, with its rustic wood furniture, or the new venue for dinner. Chez la Tousquet’s will offer some options of appetizers and main dishes versus the purely fixed menu of The Dining Room. Home-made pastas and vegetarian options will be served alongside local seafood. Trout Point emphasizes the importance of local ingredients and sustainable practices. It is among only a handful of properties in the country holding a 5 Green Key rating and won the inaugural Green Restaurant Award from the Nova Scotia Restaurant Association.

Chef-proprietors Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary will oversee both restaurants. Authors of The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook: Creole Cuisine from New Orleans to Nova Scotia (Random House), the duo steered the Lodge to membership in the prestigious Relais & Chateaux Association in 2009. An grouping of boutique hotels and gourmet restaurants around the world, Relais & Chateaux members hold more than half of all the stars for cuisine awarded by the Michelin guide. Perret & Leary are featured in the 2010 cookbooks Chefs at Home and 85 Inspirational Chefs alongside the likes of The French Laundry’s Thomas Keller, Patrick O’Connell of the Inn at Little Washington, and Daniel Boulud of New York’s Daniel.

Chez la Tousquet will require reservations and will have a single seating each evening starting June 1.

 

 

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Looking back on 2010: here’s a sampling of dinner menus

Sample Trout Point Lodge Dinner Menus from the 2010 season

Please also check out our new dining at Trout Point web page: www.troutpoint.com/Dining/

July 26, 2010

Salmon Gravlox

 

Roasted Eggplant and Cod Soup

 

Mache & arugula salad (baby carrots and beets) from garden

 

Rainbow trout almandine

 

Peach and Nectarine Tart, or

Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee, or

Chocolate Gourmandise

 

 

August 1, 2010

 

White fish ceviche

 

Carrot & ginger soup

 

Bonito on a creole tomato base

w/ balsamic vinaigrette

 

Fresh local haddock w/ red gumbo sauce

 

Vanilla bean crème brulée, or

Flourless chocolate cake w/ vanilla ice cream, or

Walnut Kahlua tart, or

Banana pine nut chocolate tart

 

 

August 5, 2010

 

Roasted shallot custard

 

Ajo blanco

 

Tropical root vegetable salad

 

Grilled local harpooned swordfish with sage beurre noisette

 

 

Individual tarte tatin, or

Plum tart, or

Vanilla-bean Crème Brulée, or

Meringues and fresh berries & ice cream

 

 

August 7, 2010

 

Grilled local black trumpet mushrooms

 

Mediterranean lentil soup

 

Mussel and crab salad

 

Scallops étouffée

 

Walnut & chocolate tart, or

Flourless chocolate cake w/ vanilla ice cream, or

Home-made caramel ice cream w/ praline crumble

 

August 10, 2010

 

Shrimp ceviche

 

Mediterranean bacalao & chickpea soup

 

Romaine salad w/ Caesar yogurt dressing

 

Sesame and dill encrusted local haddock

w/ dill cream sauce

 

Cherry walnut tart, or

Crème brulée, or

Almond meringues with Kemptville blueberries & ice cream

 

 

August 13, 2010

 

Digby scallops ceviche

 

Roasted eggplant and haddock soup

 

Romaine with tomatoes & anchovies

yogurt Ceasar dressing

 

Braised Halibut w/ white wine sauce

 

 

Nova Scotia Apple Tart Tatin, or

Blueberry & white chocolate brioche bread pudding, or

Vanilla bean crème brulée, or

Flourless chocolate cake

 

 

August 21th, 2010

 

Grilled King oyster mushrooms

 

Roasted sweet green pepper and shrimp sou[

w/ yucca and shrimp egg noodles

 

Mussels in a saffron white wine sauce

 

Mediterranean style grilled albacore tuna

 

Blueberry white chocolate bread pudding

w/ ice-cream, or

Peach Tart, or

Chocolate gourmandise, or

Coconut custard tart

(no dairy)

 

 

September 25^th, 2010

 

Local Ruisseau oysters in a

fresh tomato marinade

 

Lamb and roasted eggplant soup

 

Mixed greens from the garden

w/ ginger miso dressing

 

Grilled swordfish w/ sage brown butter

 

White chocolate and strawberry

bread pudding, or

Flourless chocolate cake, or

Crème Brulée

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Eat (and cook) like a man, says Esquire

Esquire magazine’s “Eat Like A Man” Blog has featured the Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School as a chosen weekend cooking school. “Emerge from the Acadian forest as the only guy on your block who can make a decent squid-ink pasta or rappie pie (traditional Acadian dish),” says the post, which also features of photo of the Trout Point kitchen at work.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/best-weekend-cooking-classes-122210#ixzz18vmyO9lj

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USA Today checks out Trout Point

USA Today travel writer Kitty Bean Yancey joined a weekend cooking vacation as an anonymous participant, only revealing that she was researching a story after a 2-night stay. The Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School formed the centerpiece of a story on the increasing popularity of culinary vacations.

You can find her travel feature here.

There’s one more culinary weekend in the 2010 season, starting September 10!

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