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Squirrel sushi and stuffed beaver: Montreal chef’s new cookbook is anything but typical

"That's a very, very good meat," Montreal star-chef Martin Picard tells The Globe and Mail when asked about a squirrel sushi recipe from his latest cookbook. And his thoughts on beaver? "Beaver is a very specific taste," he says. "It all depends on the kind of tree he's been eating. Some trees give a better taste than others."

Squirrel sushi and stuffed beaver are only two of the many wildly unconventional delicacies presented in Picard's new cookbook, Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, inspired by the chef's Montreal countryside sugar shack that opens every spring. Known for his unique takes on traditional Quebec dishes and his Food Network TV show, The Wild Chef, this rebel in the kitchen would never settle for a run-of-the-mill cookbook, which is why he and his colleagues took the self-publishing route.

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TV chef and author Anthony Bourdain describes Picard in this manner: "Martin Picard's particular genius — beyond having the impeccable sense and timing to realize that now, right now, is the perfect time to give the whole world of fine dining the middle finger — is that he knows who he is, what he loves to eat, where he comes from, what's good, and how best to prepare it so as to most effectively allow others to discover what was good about it all along."

Picard's first cookbook also features pancakes deep fried in duck fat (drowned in Canadian maple syrup, of course), spicy small birds and grilled pig (as in, the whole pig). Complete with a chapter on the maple syrup making process and beaver-butchering instructions, this cookbook is far more than just recipes from your typical Québécoise sugar shack. To make this 386-page book all the more strange, Picard's included an illustrated children's story about sap-loving pigs and a sugar themed short story written by his best friend. Let's not forget the comical photo spread of pastry chef Gabrielle Rivard-Hiller — the images of her maple syrup wet t-shirt contest and maple syrup bathing bring this book to a whole new level of eccentric.

While all this wild fare might sound like some sort of cruel practical joke to those of us who think stuffing our chicken breasts with goat's cheese constitutes adventurous cooking, the book also includes some more universally appealing and easy-to-make recipes like maple-sugar candy. Picard tells The Globe and Mail that while many of the book's 100+ recipes might be a tad tricky to execute, his detailed instructions and more than 2,000 images ensure that anyone can make them, should they be so daring.