Chef Martin Picard knows a thing or two about taking a walk on the wild side. Not only is the Montreal native star of the culinary road show The Wild Chef - for which he once cooked and ate muskrats - he also serves up adventurous dishes, like duck fat-fried pancakes and squirrel sushi, at his own sugar shack restaurant in St-Benoît de Mirabel, QC. The sweets and stories behind the remote eatery (which, by the way, is open only 10 weeks a year), can be found in Picard's latest recipe book Au Pied de Cochon Sugar Shack.

We caught up with Picard to talk about his love for sharp knives, the ingredients that inspired his culinary career and his affinity for making maple taffy on snow.