Sugar Rush

A Qubcois chef heads to the forest to sweeten haute cuisine

Javier Sirvent for TIME

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup

Martin Picard is not averse to pairing maple syrup with pancakes, though it depends on how you define a pancake. Case in point: the French-Canadian chef's Vinily sandwich, from his new cookbook Au Pied de Cochon Sugar Shack. Two thick flapjacks, fried in duck fat, act as doughy paperweights. Shreds of stout- and syrup-roasted pork belly, a maple-cream-cucumber-herb dressing and a layer of raw-milk goat cheese sit between them. The portly little pile is doused in syrup and staked with a Popsicle stick. In a footnote, the cook suggests tossing in two slices of salted foie gras: "If you're in the...

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