A prestigious Quebec culinary school, the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ), will showcase seal meat at this year’s YUL Eat food festival in Montreal held from September 2nd – 4th.

It will happen on one day over the Labour Day weekend festival. Ex-Laloux chef, Jonathan Lapierre (now at ITHQ) will lead a group of students in prepping Japanese-tinged dishes with seal cooked over a fire pit. It’s based on Lapierre’s knowledge from when he lived in Japan, where seal has traditionally been eaten. He notes that Japanese flavours meld well with the part-gamey taste of seal. Those dishes will include maple-glazed yakitori (skewers cooked over charcoal) and burger-like buns with “pulled phoque”, using seal shoulder.