Spring is here, and bringing with it the best sugar shack experiences around.
Huit 100 Vingt—a gourmet sugar shack company helmed by Chef Loïc Leperlier and his partner, Jessica Gregoire—will be spreading all the maple goodness at Time Out Market Montréal.
Expect a curated, dine-in maple-themed menu, as well as gourmet maple products to-go.
Whether you are looking for a traditional (and exceptional!) sugar shack meal, or a sweet treat to take home, the Market in downtown Montreal is the place to get your maple syrup fix.
When is the sugar shack pop-up event?
From April 13 to 16, Time Out Market Montréal will be collaborating with local gourmet sugar shack curator Huit 100 Vingt to bring you 4 days of maple-fun with a maple syrup-soaked menu.
What else is happening at Time Out Market Montréal?
With some of the best chefs and restaurants gathered under one roof, eating at Time Out Market Montréal is a larger than life experience. Throw in six bars, a retro arcade, photo booth and a cooking school—all inside 40,000 square feet—and you’ve got the downtown dream.
Chef Loïc Leperlier, co-founder of Huit 100 Vingt, has a next-level culinary background, including experience in Réunion island (where he was born), Michelin-starred restaurants and five-star resorts. Together with his partner Jessica, they have launched their own brand focused around an unconventional maple product range. Their products are a fusion of Réunion Island and Quebecois flavours, bringing a personal touch to their products. The couple's goal is to provide people with a one-of-a-kind experience, and they plan to expand this vision with a farm-to-table restaurant, offering guests the opportunity to indulge in their unique cuisine year-round.
We caught up with Chef Loïc Leperlier and his partner, Jessica Gregoire, about their exceptional backgrounds, what inspired them to create this maple syrup venture and a sneak peek at the Time Out Market Montréal pop-up menu.
Chef Leperlier, can you tell us about your journey from Réunion Island to Quebec?
After completing culinary school in Réunion, I started my career at Lucas Carton, a three-star restaurant in Paris. I then returned to Réunion to work in my parents' restaurant, before moving on to work in Dromoland Castle in Ireland, the Inn at Dos Brisas in Texas, and the Hotel Fauchère in Pennsylvania where I met Jess. For the past 10 years, I have been the Executive Chef at Point Resort, a Relais & Châteaux in the Adirondacks, and travel weekly to spend time with my family and to work on our project, Huit 100 Vingt.
How would you describe your cooking style?
My cooking style is a mix of my travels and my cultural heritage from Réunion, with a French cuisine foundation.
Jessica, how did your experience at ITHQ and La Source Bains Nordiques lead you to this moment?
ITHQ was the foundation of my career in the restaurant industry, as I had previously studied social work before enrolling in the Institute. I need contact with people, and through this journey, the desire to provide an extraordinary experience for people really materialised. One has the opportunity to do internships in various places, and I went to a Relais & Châteaux experience in the United States. It was also at the Hotel Fauchère where I met Loïc, so one could say that everything started there! I learned attention to detail and personalised, high-end service during my 14 years at La Source, which is partly why La Source is the best spa in Quebec. But the desire to please and provide something special for people is not something that can really be learned—it's part of who we are.
Can you tell me about your company, Huit 100 Vingt, and what inspired both of you to create your own brand focused on maple syrup?
Huit 100 Vingt is a project that is taking shape. The pandemic caused us to start out in a way that wasn’t planned. Because we were unable to host guests in 2020 and 2021, we decided to develop a line of maple products from our family maple operation so we could provide a gourmet experience at home. It was a great success. We stand out in our region, and we have customers from all over who enjoy Huit 100 Vingt products, which is very exciting! We really wanted to give meaning to our brand in terms of flavours, and when you taste our products, it's a marriage between Réunion and Quebec. We select quality ingredients to produce quality products, like our organic Bourbon vanilla which is carefully chosen and imported directly from Réunion. But Huit 100 Vingt is not just about maple syrup, it's a farm-to-table experience that will provide you with something gourmet and refreshing year-round, starting in the spring of 2024. We want to maximize our land and with Loïc as chef, we should be able to provide some great dishes. The best is yet to come!
What are some of the highlights of the pop-up menu at Time Out Market Montréal?
This year, the only way to taste our cuisine is at Time Out Market Montréal. The menu is all about comfort food, featuring classic sugar shack dishes with our twist, of course. But don't worry… there's maple syrup in everything. Lanaudois products are also highlighted, because promoting our region is part of our philosophy, and supporting small producers like us makes all the difference.
Check out the menu's mouthwatering details here:
For more information about Huit 100 Vingt, click here.
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