Sigh. I just clicked
the cancel button for my dinner reservation at Le Bremner Restaurant in
Montreal. Feel free to take it – 6pm
Friday May 10. It is supposed to be “ahhhhmaaazing”. Here at home, we love Chef Chuck Hughes. We watch his show. We cook from his book. We may even have a celebrity crush on
him. And by we, I am referring to my
girls. (And myself.)
I’m fortunate in that my girls will pretty much try
anything. R is acting a bit more like a
typical kid due to the influence of her peers (why, oh, why didn’t I
homeschool?!) by having an exaggerated reaction to things she doesn’t
like. But R’s version of an exaggerated
reaction is probably quite subdued compared to most. And there is very little she doesn’t like in
terms of food. In fact, all three girls
are growing quite adventurous in their tastes.
Add to that, the excitement of being in Chuck’s restaurant, being in
Montreal, getting all-fancy…the evening holds the promise of fabulous
memory-making!
The reality is, while our recent dinner at Chef Lynn
Crawford’s Ruby WatchCo was a huge success in terms of a family dining experience
– my girls dressed up, they were excited, they stayed put, they loved the food,
they got to meet the chef!! – it was a long night for the littlest one. Baby C, who will continue to be referred to
as such until she actually stands up and starts walking which should be any day
now, loves food but is really not a fan of being constrained in a highchair
with only a spoon to play with. I
completely dropped the ball by not packing anything else for her to play
with. While this did save Mark from
having to play a 90 minute game of “Uh
oh I dropped that. Will you please pick
it up Daddy?”. It also resulted in her
becoming bored. Thankfully, she allowed
Mark to distract her with people watching, And with a bedtime of 7pm but a
dinner reservation of 6pm we were racing the clock as it was. Except.
It’s kinda hard to race a clock in a busy restaurant serving three
courses. Three delicious, melt in your
mouth, divine courses. Three courses
that they happily served up free to my children and as soon as they came off
the line. The last course being a
scrumptious butterscotch pudding they put a candle in L’s birthday.
I’m fairly certain, a multi-course meal at Le Bremner is
going to take more than an hour. Add to
that, the fact that we will have been wandering around the old city all day, I
doubt very much Baby C will take kindly to being strapped into a high chair
after being strapped into a stroller (again – learn to walk!). I don’t want
to race through a meal at Le Bremner. I
don’t want to watch Mark stalk off with Baby C under his arm, telling me “It’s
fine.” When it really isn’t, as he has to abandon his meal and go back to our
hotel in Montreal. That would not be
such a fabulous memory.
So instead, we will lower our dining standards, not to
accommodate their palate or but rather the temperament of our youngest because
no one wants to drop serious coin on a meal they have to rush through. Or, one I spill all over myself as not so little Baby C breastfeeds at the table. On the other hand, Mark thinks maybe we'd get to meet the chef once word got around that I was flashing serious boob.
A la prochaine Chef Chuck!
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