i. Biography
Owner of Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Martin Picard is associated with a contemporary Québécois register built around foie gras, maple syrup, and a robust Quebec pantry. The restaurant opened in 2001 and became the central workshop for a style that is generous, direct, and rooted in place. Born November 20, 1966, the Canadian chef-restaurateur extended that same language into television, books, and a sugar shack in St Benoit de Mirabel, with abundance remaining the through-line.
Coming Up
Television gave Quebec outdoor cooking and appetite a public format through The Wild Chef, where Martin Picard worked as host. The more durable working stage became the dining room: since 2001, Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal has been the site where his richest ideas around foie gras, Quebec ingredients, and large-format pleasure were put into service. The sugar-shack branch of the work kept the same grammar and changed the season. As author of Au Pied de Cochon Sugar Shack and founder of Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, which has operated since 2009, Picard treated comfort, season, and place as materials to be amplified rather than refined into politeness.
Where They Are Now
Contemporary Québécois cooking at Au Pied de Cochon remains built on foie gras and Quebecois ingredients served with force rather than restraint. Martin Picard remains owner and founder of the Montreal restaurant, where dishes featuring foie gras sit inside a room designed to be loud and bawdy. The scale of the portions and the energy of the room are part of the same proposition: muscular Quebec food, served as a nightly party. Foie gras poutine states the method clearly: gravy-soaked fries with cheese curd topped with a lobe of foie gras. The dish keeps the structure of a familiar Quebec comfort and increases the load without detaching it from appetite. Plogue à Champlain works the same way, layering a buckwheat pancake with melted cheese, roasted potatoes, bacon, seared foie gras, and maple syrup. Sweetness, salt, fat, and starch function as the build, not as garnish. Maple syrup became a second foundation for the same practice. The Au Pied de Cochon team bought land in Saint-Benoît-de-Mirabel in 2008, and in 2009 Picard opened Au Pied de Cochon Sugar Shack in St Benoit de Mirabel. In that setting, maple is not only a flavor cue but a working base for the kitchen’s seasonal ideas. As Picard put it: “I want to see if we can make maple syrup fuagra.”
Signature
Signature dishes include White Russian with Maple Marshmallow, a drink name that places maple inside the richer, and playful side of Martin Picard’s register without separating it from the Quebec pantry.
In Their Words “I want to make a product unique to Kebec. I want to see if we can make maple syrup fuagra.” “I love fuagra and I love trying new and crazy thing.”
Honors
Recognition here attaches to the plate as much as to the résumé. Bon Appétit called the Plogue à Champlain defining, pointing to a construction of buckwheat, potatoes, bacon, seared foie gras, cheese, and maple syrup that reads as distinctly Quebecois. The dated markers remain clear: the 2001 founding of the Montreal restaurant and the 2009 opening of the St Benoit de Mirabel sugar shack.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Martin
Where did Martin Picard work before?
Earlier in their career, Martin Picard worked at The Wild Chef.
What is Martin Picard known for?
Foie gras and contemporary Québécois cooking.
