Brilliant sunlight illuminates the electric-green hillside rolling gently behind the town of Ste.-Adele, one hour north of Montreal in the Laurentians. Anne Desjardins inspects her herb gardens with an-almost maternal devotion to nurturing the soil. Desjardins, the genius-artist-food sculptress at L’eau a la Bouche, is a naturalist, a believer in the pure art of cooking without trickery or pretense.

"At the end of the day it is the products — the quality of the raw ingredients — that determine the quality of the meal," said Desjardins, who has been inventing and defining the seasonal cuisine of Quebec since opening L’eau a la Bouche. "The skills and techniques of the chef are important, but the main thing is the food you buy in the first place."

Armed with a degree in geography (I’m not kidding!) from the University of Quebec, Desjardins and partner Pierre Audette bought a small house in Ste.-Adele that had belonged to a German cabinetmaker. The plan was to transform this diamond-in-the-rough into a centre for true French-Canadian cooking. Consider, though, that the cooking scene in Quebec was in its embryonic stages; Desjardins had to build a business from the ground up while inventing a new argot for Quebec gastronomy.

"When I started 25 years ago, the idea of a good French meal meant that all of the ingredients were shipped from France," said Desjardins.

"I decided to dedicate my efforts to promote the use of local produce, and that required forging a network between the farmers, producers, fishermen, the department of agriculture and the other chefs in Quebec.

Chef Anne Desjardins

"But don’t think for a minute that it’s easy to convince people to change their ways. When I opened the restaurant, the food in Quebec was drab. The trend was to serve "Continental" food, which meant steak and shrimp scampi cooked with garlic. If the restaurant was "French," the menu always included French onion soup and snails. Nothing original. And almost nothing created from the soil and waters of Quebec."

With the assistance of one of the best cooking teams in North America, including talented sous chef Nancy Hinton and Desjardin’s son Emmanuel — an up-and-coming culinary star in his own right – Anne and Pierre have succeeded in building one of the best small restaurants and hotels in North America.

All of the menus change on a seasonal basis, as Desjardins devises ways to turn the so-called limits of cooking in the "North" into strengths and opportunities to create and diversify the tastes and textures of the food.

"I describe my cooking as regional, because it is defined by a place," said Desjardins, who opened a first-class 25-room inn next to the restaurant in 1987. "Put simply, I can say that I cook in Ste.-Adele, in the Laurentians, in Quebec, in Canada, in North America, at the forty-seventh parallel."

And so in assessing the spring releases on my recent visit to this jewel of the north, I was able to sample a tasting menu gastronomique that offered Snow Crab from the St. Lawrence Gulf — an exquisite crab cake with a rice crust, tart Meyer lemon cream (that melts in the mouth) and Meyer lemon salt; rabbit consommé infused with pink peppercorns and served with a petite sandwich on brioche with Quebec duck foie gras, cippolini onion chutney and homemade raspberry vinegar; a roasted supreme of squab from Marieville, with pan jus scented with tonka bean from the Antilles — the squab’s skin was crisp and the meat was moist and tender; a Quebec lamb cooked two ways — the lamb shoulder braised and the loin cooked just before serving, with potato and morel, white asparagus spears and a beautiful red wine sauce with local morels; six-month Fetard cheese from la Fromagerie Champs a la Meule — Quebec cheeses are considered by most chefs to be the best in North America, and I would argue that most are on a par with the best cheeses of France; and a maple and rhubarb tartlet with maple dacquoise, a touch of strawberry and rhubarb yogurt and maple candy.

Seafood extraordinaire

This Spring Discovery menu — six courses with five wine pairings, is $140 (Canadian) per person, not including service and tax. A full A la Carte menu includes Desjardin’s signature touches such as braised veal sweetbreads with marsala and star anise served with lower Laurentian root vegetables ($22); a Quebec wild boar cooked two ways — seared tenderloin, braised shoulder — with maple, thyme and a sweet potato puree in a roast garlic and bacon sauce ($38); and Boileau venison tornedos with sunchoke puree, artichokes and sautéed mushrooms and a green peppercorn and Cabernet sauce ($44).

The wine list is considerable and all of the service staff is attentive and friendly. In its goal to promote the beauty of Quebec — the distinct French cultural heritage and the métier of its chefs and maitre d’hotel, L’eau a la Bouche continues to flourish after 25 years of innovation and dedication to excellence.