Kitchen Galerie

The Kitchen Galerie restaurant, located just steps from the Jean-Talon market, focuses on two strengths: the freshness of its menu's ingredients that come from the nearby market, and the unique arrangement of its interior space. The restaurant boasts an open kitchen that allows diners to not only see the chefs at work, but to be served by them as well. "It was born from an experience I had in the past at Auberge Hatley, where the chef served guests in her kitchen," explains Mathieu Cloutier, who co-owns the restaurant with Mathieu Bourdages. "I served my customers at a table of 10, with one of my friends who was the sommelier. To recapture this user-friendly concept here, the chefs, cooks and waiters serve the tables."

Mathieu Cloutier left his native France at the age of 17 to work in the restaurant business and ended up spending 10 years travelling from Quebec to places like England, Australia, Hawaii and Western Canada, "I was searching for new ways of working, of using different techniques and different flavours," he elaborates. Finally, in July 2007, he returned home and opened the Kitchen Galerie in Montreal.

As for Mathieu Bourdages, after working at Holder and Laloux, he joined the Kitchen Galerie's team in 2009 as the chef and in 2011, became one of the owner chefs.