Rachael Ray Is Obsessed With the Chicken Schnitzel at One St-Henri Restaurant

St-Henri restaurant Arthurs received some serious love from American TV chef Rachael Ray this week, as the Food Network star replicated two of the Jewish eatery’s dishes on her eponymous show.

On her show last Friday, Ray put together a schnitzel dish with zhug (a Middle Eastern hot sauce) and fried capers, dubbing it “a love letter to a place I love in Montreal”.

“[Arthurs] is some of the best food I’ve ever had on the planet,” she declared, after a January visit to Montreal for a friend’s birthday. (Ray has a house in the Adirondacks, about two hours away from Montreal, but mainly lives in New York.)

When Ray’s Monday show rolled around, it turned out she wasn’t done with the love for Arthurs, whipping out another recipe, for a lentil cabbage soup.

“I fell in love with the entire menu, we were four people and we ordered enough food for 20 people.”

Ray did not have the exact Arthurs recipes, but instead aimed to replicate them with a few twists.

Arthurs’ chef and co-owner Alex Cohen tells Eater that Ray got pretty close to their recipes.

“It’s the nicest thing anyone could have ever said. It was really cool...everyone knows Rachael Ray, it’s pretty awesome that a woman with such a following did that.”

Cohen says he didn’t know Ray was going to do the segment on Arthurs, and his team only found out after people began contacting the restaurant to point it out. In fact, Cohen and co-owner Raegan Steinberg weren’t even at the restaurant when Ray visited about a month ago, as they were vacationing in Vermont.

And while some might say Ray was knocking off Arthurs, Cohen isn’t bothered, saying he was flattered.

“It’s an even nicer compliment to have her try to make the same food.”

Cohen said he’d be willing to go on the Rachael Ray Show — but there’s been no word back from the Food Network’s producers (yet).

• All Arthurs coverage [EMTL]
• Rachael’s Arthurs-Style Chicken Schnitzel with Whipped Honey & Green Hot Sauce + Braised Red Cabbage [Rachael Ray Show]
• Warm Up: Rachael’s Lentil-Cabbage Soup [Rachael Ray Show]