The maple leaf and poutine

Four years ago, a fire levelled a cheese co-op in Eastern Ontario, which launched a panic throughout the foodery world. The St-Albert Cheese Co-op, in the small village of St Albert, Ontario near the Quebec border, was not only one of the oldest cheese co-ops in the country, starting in 1898, it had grown to become the largest supplier of cheese curd in the entire region, especially in la belle province.

Ironically, in the same year as the fire, the co-op was the Grand Champion of the 86th edition of the British Empire Cheese show. For anyone who insists on real-deal poutine, the squeaky cheese curds need to be produced in the area of its origin. Think of it as the terrior of cows. Poutine lovers, would not hear for a minute about a substitute for the St-Albert curd. Also, the co-op was the main employer of the region. An army of poutine lovers; volunteers from far and wide, joined in to see production moved to a temporary facility while other workers were re-deployed to a nearby school.

You see, in the world of poutine there is a set loyalty here, as if poutine were a flag. In fact, the Leacock Debate of a few years back made it official. It was decreed to be one of the nation’s ten greatest inventions, just behind insulin, the telephone and five-pin bowling, but beating out standard time, the Blackberry, lacrosse, Plexiglas and basketball.

There are many claims to the origin of the recipe of potatoes, gravy and cheese curd, but the one I like best is from Warwick, Quebec in the 1950s at a hang-out called Le Lutin Qui Rit, where a local asked the owner Fernand Lachance to add cheese curds to his fries. “Ca va te faire une maudite poutine!” came Fernand’s answer; “That will make a damned mess!” And so it goes with poutine, a slang word for mess; and while some may call it heart attack in a bowl, it hasn’t slowed the appetite for the comfort food, as it is now embraced by various cultures and fine dining establishments.

Take for example foie-gras or lobster poutine served on china on linen table cloths in restaurants in Toronto and Montreal. A little red wine, cream and pepper added to the gravy pushes it over the top. Even our renowned neighbour chef Jamie Kennedy, has featured his local braised beef poutine.

There is Italian poutine made with spaghetti sauce in place of gravy; then the style made with mushroom sauce and veggies; Irish poutine with lardons; in New Brunswick, its Acadian recipe calls for boiled potato dumplings with pork in the centre with a splash of maple syrup and is called poutine râpée; in Gaspé, Quebec they like it with peas; in Newfoundland a friend once had it delivered to her table with cut-up strips of Kraft singles replacing the curds.

In New York they call it ‘disco fries’ using mozzarella because they’ve never heard of the cheese curd Taj Mahal of St-Albert—but please don’t tell them for reasons of national security. The cultural appropriation is bad enough with the UK and Korea joining in. In Russia they call it Raspoutine, I mean, come on, eh! I guess no one dares to confuse the name with their current leader Putin.

So while no one has yet to come up with the poutine all-you- can-eat buffet, there are contestants at events walking away with trophies far from the epicentre of the annual St-Albert Cheese Co-operative Curd Festival held at its shiny new operation.

For example, Joe Beeverz of Brandon, Manitoba beat out the people of Chicoutimi, Quebec in a grand slam win by making a 1,949 pound poutine. Whew! I can imagine the gravy arriving in a tanker truck!

Speaking of tanker trucks, at the annual Poutine Eating Championships for Charity in Toronto, two of the world’s top-ranked professional eaters, Matt “The Megatoad” Stonie and Joey “Jaws” Chestnut competed for first place with “Jaws” ending up in the lead, consuming 25.5 pounds of poutine in 10 minutes. Whoa man! That’s a lotta curd. Hope it works out for ya.

As a follow-up meditation this early morning on the case for poutine, and always wanting to consider the tie-ins of subject matter, I am thinking that we may want to become a player in the poutine game. We have a retired cheese factory at Black River, right? We have mega acres for growing heritage variety potatoes. See where I’m going here? We have red wine and dairy production up to our armpits. We could beat out everyone with our authentic of authentic terroir for poutine-making and start up the Poutine Winter Olympics to help fill our parking spaces year round.

Oh, and by the way, in faithfully doing my research? I solicited the brother and sisterhood of French speakers at Trenton airbase for a sound opinion since the claim for the patent resides in Quebec. They led me to a Quebecoisinspired food truck down at Carrying Place called Tabersnack. The Jamaican-inspired jerk chicken poutine in my view is definitely a front runner for Poutine of the Year, which will be featured on the front cover of Time magazine. Sampling is one of the pluses of doing your homework.