This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
To what do we attribute our fondest memories, our favorite dishes, our favorite ingredients? Some link them to their childhood; others, to travels, to a passion for cooking, to discoveries or to encounters. For chef Fisun Ercan, whom we discovered at the helm of Montreal restaurants Su and Barbounya, and who today shines brightly at the country table Bika in Montérégie, there is a bit of all that. The combination of his Turkish and Quebec roots as well as his unconditional love for the land and seasonality constitute his creative engine, but also dictate his way of life and his values. In his new book Roots, she invites us into her kitchen, onto her land and into the heart of her secret garden. Interview with this exceptional woman, with a talent as great as her idealism.
Fisun, why is your new book called Roots ?
The title of this book was suggested to me by my daughter, who knows how important my connection to my native land, my adopted land and the land I work today is. When I think of my childhood spent in a small village near Izmir, Turkey, images of beauty, abundance and freshness come to mind. I remember being in the kitchen with my mother from the age of three. From my dad, too, so enthusiastic with the food. I was lucky to grow up in this family, with food that was 100% local, sustainable and respectful of producers. It was this privileged childhood that led me to later start cooking. These are my deep roots. And then there was Quebec, where I was born again at the age of 18. In immigration, sometimes, we try to get back what we already had rather than enriching ourselves with what we discover. Personally, I have always felt in my place in Montreal and in Quebec. I rooted here. An even more striking observation since I settled in Saint-Blaise-sur-Richelieu, where my past and my present, my double roots, have come together.
How would you describe your kitchen now?
I think she is Turkish by essence, but has become intuitive over time. Now I really focus on the ingredients, not the recipes. I consider myself a bit of a tool between these ingredients and the plates I serve. This explains why I refuse to distort them using complex techniques. My menus, I build them with simplicity and with what my garden brings me.
For example, if one week I harvest a lot of courgettes, I create several services on this basis, which pushes me to be creative. The courgettes in question can therefore be pan-fried, baked, lacto-fermented, candied, dehydrated, or even transformed into pickles, in ketchup, in sauce or canned for later. The options are endless!
I also invite the readers of Roots to improvise them too from my recipes, which are not calculated in the form of portions, but of reasonable quantity as they do in Turkey. That way, if there are leftovers from a vegetable dish, for example, they can be cooked the next day with pasta or rice.
What relationship do you have with your garden?
I have always loved gardening. I had a vegetable garden on the roof of the Su as early as 2011. And in 2018, when I made a burnout severe, what saved me was putting my hands in the ground. I spent a whole summer gardening. So, I can tell you the happiness and the inspiration that I have here, in my big garden!
Plants guide me. They have such a strong survival instinct, and they all have their own personality. Some of them grow quickly, others more slowly. I grow up with them. I now understand much better what I’m doing with them and where I want to go. For example, I never liked throwing food away, but now that I’m growing all these plants, I feel even more responsible because I know how much time I spend growing them. And I have even more fun preparing and serving them. Because the taste of a vegetable picked the same day is incredible!
What are the values that drive you?
I think I’m an idealist. At Su, I had given myself the mission of introducing Quebecers to Turkish cuisine. With the Bika, I want to facilitate the awakening of consciences. I find that many people are uprooted from their plate and their land. However, we need to connect with the seasons through our food, even more here in North America where they are more distinct than elsewhere in the world. So personally, in winter, I feed on winter ingredients to feel in this present moment.
That’s what I want to communicate with Roots, a book structured around the four seasons in which I identify ingredients and give recipes for preparing them, like a little guide. But I also like the idea that this book comes out of the kitchen and is leafed through on a sofa, that it inspires people to change their way of life or provokes reflection.