Montreal chef Lesley Chesterman dishes on the non-negotiables of a proper poutine | Canada Voices

How – and what – we eat is shaped by who and where we are: our upbringing, our cultural influences and preferences, economics and accessibility, seasonality and terroir. It’s also swayed by the people we share our life with and what they like to cook and eat.

Montreal chef and author Lesley Chesterman describes her latest book, A Montreal Cook: Recipes and Reflections from My Kitchen, as a repertoire of what she cooks at home, influenced by her time as a restaurant critic and pastry chef. With an English-Irish dad and Ukrainian-Polish mom who was a devotee of Julia Child, Chesterman grew up “eating baguettes spread with pâté de campagne as a kid as much as PB&J sandwiches,” says Chesterman.

“Montreal food is a mix of English, French and American, with many multicultural influences, from Italian to Greek to Vietnamese to Moroccan,” she says. “Of course the language means that we adopted French dining and customs way before the rest of Canada – or even North America – with a significant number of French chefs around when I started cooking in restaurants.”

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In A Montreal Cook, she credits many local chefs for their recipes and influence. “It’s especially for those who live outside of the city, who love it and recognize places like Beautys L’Express, the Jean-Talon Market and Schwartz’s,” she says. “All of these places have made me the cook I am today.”

Because Chesterman is someone who makes poutine at home, she dedicates several pages to telling its story. She notes that historians have more than one theory for its origins, tracing it back to the town of Warwick, Que., in the 1950s, as well as to Drummondville, about 50 kilometres west, in the 1960s.

Regardless of which origin story you believe, the three key components are non-negotiable: Fries, gravy and fresh cheddar cheese curds. Together, they make not a Montreal invention, but a Québécois dish. Chesterman says versions made outside Quebec tend to pale in comparison to the real deal – the sauce in imposters is often fancier than the authentic starch-thickened gravy, and the fries are sometimes topped with grated Swiss cheese or cubed mozzarella, lacking that essential “squeak,” which is the hallmark of a fresh cheese curd and a proper poutine.

If you want to try it at home, here’s Chesterman’s version.

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Lesley Chesterman’s Poutine

Serves 4

Poutine isn’t usually a dish you make at home. First, you must have access to fresh cheese curds, and second, the sauce is a challenge to get right. I think this recipe comes pretty close to the classic. You can either make your fries from scratch or use commercial frozen fries, but I’d suggest frying them instead of oven-baking. As for the cheese topping, I find mine generous, but go crazy if you like.

Excerpted from A Montreal Cook: Recipes and Reflections from My Kitchen, by Lesley Chesterman (Simon & Schuster Canada).

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot chopped
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup, plus more to taste
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 cups (500ml) reduced-sodium beef broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• A few drops of Worcestershire sauce
• Pinch of savory
• 1½ tbsp HP sauce (or other steak sauce)
• ½ tsp dry mustard
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ⅓ cup (80ml) cold water
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground pepper

To assemble the poutine:

• 1 pound (500 g) freshly fried French fries
• ½ pound (250 g) fresh cheese curds, or to your taste

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil and brown the shallot and garlic. Add the maple syrup and stir to reduce for about 30 seconds, then deglaze with the vinegar. Add the broth, tomato paste, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, savory, HP sauce and dry mustard. Bring to a boil.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water, stirring until smooth, and then whisk into the boiling sauce. Bring back to a boil, stir and remove from the heat.

Season with a few drops of maple syrup, the salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaves and keep the sauce warm. Just before serving, whisk well and taste again to adjust the seasonings (poutine sauce should be on the salty side).

Fill a large serving bowl with half the fries. Add one-third of the cheese curds, pour over enough sauce to moisten, and then add the rest of the fries, followed by the remaining cheese curds. Pour over enough sauce to cover but not drown the fries (I don’t use all the sauce, but you might want to) and serve immediately. A hot poutine waits for no one.