We have seen her alongside Marina Orsini in 5 Chefs in My Kitchen, on the set of Curieux Bégin and in various televised culinary competitions. This winter, Olivier Louissaint, aka Chef Oli, is at the helm of his own show. In Chef Oli Goes Rural, he invites viewers to follow him as he implements his “crazy idea”: opening a country table. La Presse met him at the Jean Talon market.
Posted yesterday at 11am
“Crazy idea. The phrase came out of Olivier Louissaint’s mouth a couple of times during the interview. Though he’s “always been drawn to the rural way of life,” the Montreal-raised chef was ignorant of the steps to take to achieve his dream of a tiny farmhouse to have to cultivate land and cook the harvest.
“What is a country table? ‘ asks him also his accomplice in this documentary series – and friend in life – the actor Simon Pigeon, in the first episode that aired last week on the Télé-Québec airwaves. “I have no idea, man. That’s the beauty of the project. We are starting from scratch,” he replies in total transparency.
A few months after filming ended, chef Oli made the following observation: “It’s a lot more complicated than opening a retail store or saying, ‘I’m going to be a carpenter.’ »
Last summer, Olivier Louissaint, with his thirst for knowledge, and Simon Pigeon, with his sense of comedic wit, met with various producers and restaurateurs from across Quebec. Even a certain Ricardo gave them advice.
From the Équinoxe cider farm in Farnham to the Faux Bergers restaurant in Baie-Saint-Paul to the Parcelles country table in Austin, each stop allowed the chef to learn, discuss, experiment and sometimes, more about the agricultural world over the years Mistake. “I didn’t even know what broad beans were,” he gives as an example.
Each visit is also an opportunity to cook. Chef Oli takes inspiration from the food of the producers he meets to create delicious dishes. “All of the recipes we see on this show were thought up locally. All. Nothing is staged there. That was my greatest pride,” reveals the autodidact, who “learned how to cook on YouTube”.
A market boy
In the first episode, the duo stop at Jean Talon Market, a place Chef Oli knows very well.
“My mother worked in the market for more than 11 years. Since she was a single mother and worked a lot, the market held me. […] I used to help traders with small jobs,” he says. According to him, this is where his passion for food was born.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
La Presse visited the Jean Talon market with chef Oli.
Although he lives in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu now, he likes to come back there every month. He also insists on walking around the kiosks when we tell him it’s our first time there.
More than a country table
Throughout the discussion, we understand that the country table is just one of the elements of the big dream that Olivier Louissaint has. Above all, he wants to offer young people in the black community a different model.
“As a kid, I had a dream of becoming the first black chef in Quebec to have a TV show. And I’m the first! “, he says.
He is happy and regrets it at the same time. Growing up, the 31-year-old chef wished he had role models on TV.
He points out that the farming community is also “a white man’s world”. How many black producers did he meet on the show? “I discovered a girl sewing flowers in Charlevoix. A Haitian,” replies the one who would have liked to get to know many more.
The goal [de l’émission], frankly, it’s not about gaining fame. It’s really about showing young people in the community: Do you have a dream? Dark. We don’t have to do what we were preconceived to do and stay within the framework in which we were preconceived.
Olivier Louis Saint
To illustrate his point, he talks about the sports he enjoys: horseback riding, skiing, hockey… His friends often tell him that these are “white people’s activities”. “I want to deconstruct the stereotypes that we know in Quebec. Stop saying that it belongs to one culture and that it belongs to another culture. »
Olivier Louissaint hopes to one day welcome young black people to his country, to give them a different experience and maybe even inspire them. “I want to change something,” he admits and doesn’t say whether he managed to create his country table at the end of the show. To find out, you need to watch the episodes.
“Life is very well done,” however, gives a clue as someone who still offers his services as a cook at home.
Chef Oli vire champêtre is featured on Télé-Québec on Thursdays at 9pm.
What is a country table?
Like Olivier Louissaint a few months ago, you’re wondering what a country table is? “To have a country table on farmland, you have to produce at least 50% of your food yourself,” explains Dominic Labelle, chef and owner of Parcelles, a country table in Austin, in the Eastern Townships.
The essentials of Jean Talon Market, according to Chef Oli
Pastificio Sacchetto pasta
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Meat ravioli by Pastificio Sacchetto
One of the first recipes Olivier Louissaint cooked? Butter and sage ravioli with some parmesan, which he let the customers taste in the Pastificio Sacchetto. “It was my first real job,” he says. Today, whenever he passes Jean Talon Market, he always buys fresh pasta from his former employer.
Wawel donuts, Polish pastries
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Wawel donuts, Polish pastries
“You absolutely have to try it,” emphasizes chef Oli about the donuts from the Polish patisserie Wawel. For him, a stop at Jean Talon market always rhymes with a box of six plum, apricot or cream delicacies.
The sausages from you smoke it well
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The shop Ils en fument du bon offers a wide range of cured meats.
For Olivier Louissaint, the premises of the boutique Ils en fument du bon are full of memories, as they used to house his mother’s butcher’s shop. When he goes back, it’s now for sausages with popped flavors: Kraft Dinner, ribs, spaghetti sauce… “It’s really nice what they create. »