I WAS ANTICIPATING duck confit, tourtière and even poutine in my search for authentic French-Canadian cuisine in Québec — I never expected shepherd's pie. With a mischievous grin, François Blais, the acclaimed executive chef at Restaurant Panache, presents me with hachis Parmentier: succulent braised duck layered with fresh corn, leeks, potato purée and a golden goat cheese crust. The dish exudes the pure and distinctive flavours of le terroir, the sense of place and personality with which the region's soil, climate, tradition and history imbue its products.

Overlooking the St. Lawrence River in Vieux-Québec, Panache is housed in an 1822 maritime warehouse beautifully restored as part of the Auberge Saint-Antoine. Criss-crossing beams soar high above diners tucked into comfy banquettes. A gas fireplace and sleek handblown glass light fixtures cast luminous shadows against the original stone walls and intricate ironwork.

"I grew up on my grandmother's shepherd's pie," says Blais, a second-generation Quebecer, "leftover meat, corn, potatoes." His hachis Parmentier — he makes several seasonal versions, including lamb, hare and vegetarian — typifies nouvelle Quebec cuisine, a back-to-basics type of cooking that began to emerge a little more than a decade ago in Québec and Montréal with an exciting new generation of chefs. These young up-and-comers were trained in the rigorous and elaborate cuisine of France. Like Blais, however, they had also grown up on Québécois home cooking, based on simple peasant fare. Nouvelle Quebec cuisine draws from both of these legacies and uses local, seasonal produce in dishes inflected with Quebec's particular cultural influences.