Montreal's Culinary History

A creative, festive, exuberant and diverse city, Montreal is a gastronomic destination where the pleasures of the table are endless. With this 5-step tour, discover the unseen side of the city's culinary history through the buildings, milestones and cultural communities that have contributed to its development.

Located in the heart of the St. Lawrence River, the island of Montreal’s history is rich in anecdotes about fishing and fish. Did you know that a hundred years ago the city had many rivers and streams where residents went fishing to feed their families? In the 19th century, the city buried them for hygienic reasons, to stop the typhus and cholera epidemics that were decimating the population. In the underground passages of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum (metro Place d’Armes) you can still see the remains of the Saint-Pierre River, which used to flow underneath what is now Place d'Youville. 

Established on the south shore of Montreal, in its current location of Kahnawake for the last 300 years, the Mohawk people formerly known as Iroquois, have been fishing the waters of the St. Lawrence since immemorial time. They used to smoke fish, a specialty that can be found in a particularly celebrated North American dish in Montreal: smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese! For the most famous version in town, head to Beauty's Luncheonette on Mont-Royal Street and order the Beautys Special (metro Mont-Royal). 

The oral history transmitted in the Mohawk community tells that around the 1900's, a fisherman from a foreign nation came to teach the men of Kahnawake how to catch sturgeon in the St. Lawrence River. This prehistoric looking bony fish is a real monster, it can measure from 2 to 5 meters in length (between 6 and 16 feet!), so its fishing is extremely perilous. It is done on a boat on the Lachine rapids, and considerable strength and skill are required to catch this giant fish that hangs in the shallows of the St. Lawrence. For a face-to-face encounter with this "leviathan of the Jurassic era", no need to put on a diving suit, it is possible to observe very beautiful specimens in the dry, at Montreal Biodome (Metro Viau).

At the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 (to be discovered in the exhibition ''Where Montreal Began at Pointe-à-Callière Museum), the Iroquois people signed a truce in their conflict with the French. The Mohawks then discovered different ways to express their bravery. The south of the St. Lawrence River, the Lachine Rapids, which can be admired during a walk in Parc René Lévesque, has always been an impassable obstacle for ships that wanted to bypass Montreal. In the 19th century, the Mohawks became particularly famous as guides, for crossing the Lachine Rapids.

Because of their knowledge of the river, their bravery and their agility, they were the undisputed specialists in navigating the tumultuous waters of the Lachine rapids. In 1837 and 1906, it was the people of Kahnawake who rescued shipwrecked -survivors from the steamboats "Louis Renaud" and the "Sovereign". Some of these 19th century ferrymen, such as Big John Rice (Baptiste Taiaiake) and Big John Canadian (Sawatis Aiontonnis), became larger than life legends. Big John Canadian even performed daring feats at New Year's Eve celebrations and was a pilot on the Nile for the British Army in the 1880s!

Once caught, the Mohawks of Kahnawake went once a week to sell their sturgeon in the Chinatown markets at the corner of St. Laurent, St. Urbain and de la Gauchetière (metro Saint-Laurent). Montreal's Chinatown was formed between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, by Cantonese workers attracted by the Canadian Pacific Railway's construction sites. Most of them arrived from British Columbia where they first worked in the mines during the gold rush!

Continue your discovery of Montreal by clicking on the 4 thematic tours below