Hall of Fame Award | 2014

Born in Saguenay, Quebec, Michel Lambert is a teacher, chef, and food historian. In university, he studied literature and then taught poetry and literature classes. From 1992 to 1995 he was the chef at Auberge de la  Rivière Saguenay, where he crafted recipes from local ingredients found in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec. After surviving a serious car accident, he turned from cooking to writing. His first book, L’histoire de la cuisine familiale du Québec, was published in five volumes between 2006 and 2013. In this ambitious project, Lambert traced the history of family cooking throughout Quebec, from the prehistoric age to the middle of the nineteenth century. His ethno-historical approach to research is based in part on his examination of family recipe collections, along with extensive travels throughout the province, interviewing Quebecers about their culinary traditions. His second book, shown in this case, was co-written with Elisabeth Cardin and is titled L’érable et la perdrix. It is a tribute to twenty foods native to Quebec, including caribou, maple syrup, snow goose, whelk, and morels. Lambert evokes the essence of these foods through poetry, stories, and photographs. The end of the book features one recipe for each food created by Montréal chef, Simon Mathys. 

Lambert, Michel,  Elizabeth Cardin, and Simon Mathys. L'érable et la perdrix: l'histoire culinaire du Québec à travers ses aliments. Montréal: Les Éditions Cardinal, 2021. University of Guelph Library (GT2853.C2 C37 2021).