I'm glad it's finally in my hot little hands, though. I've never eaten at Picard's Au Pied de Cochon, but it sounds as though the restaurant serves the kind of food I love - extravagantly rich and indulgent, with dishes such as foie gras poutine, foie gras hamburger, pig's feet stuffed with foie gras, lobster roll (also containing foie gras) and duck in a can.

I have his first book, , and love the quirky illustrations (mostly of pigs, birds, seafood and other ingredients) and photos, one of which turns food porn on its head: it shows a scantily clad Picard and another rotund man posing for a rather horrifying Bacchanalian still life.

His second book is named after the cabane à sucre - the shacks where sap from the sugar maple tree is boiled and condensed until it becomes maple syrup or sugar. Picard has a sugar shack in Quebec, which he turned into a restaurant called Cabane à Sucre au Pied de Cochon. Naturally enough, it serves all manner of dishes in which maple syrup plays a role.

has a similar playful design to Picard's first book, and the recipes are just as indulgent. It's heavy on the desserts, such as soft maple sugar candy, maple almond croissants, maple and almond nougat, strawberry charlotte with maple mousse and maple meringue, maple crème caramel, maple butter-glazed doughnuts filled with maple pastry cream, and maple sponge toffee (which is the first recipe I plan to try).