Chef Oli chasing a dream

We could see her alongside Marina Orsini in 5 chefs in my kitchenon the set of Curious Begin and in various televised culinary competitions. This winter, Olivier Louissaint, alias Chef Oli, is at the helm of his own show. In Chef Oli goes ruralhe invites viewers to follow him in the realization of his “crazy idea”: to open a country table. The Press met him at the Jean-Talon market.

“Crazy idea. The expression came out of Olivier Louissaint’s mouth a few times during the interview. Although he was “always drawn to the rural way of life”, the chef, who grew up in Montreal, knew nothing of the steps to realize his dream of having a small farmhouse, cultivating land and cook the crops.

“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, broadcast last week on the airwaves of Télé-Québec. “I have no idea, man. That’s the beauty of the project. We are starting from zero, ”he replies, in complete transparency.

A few months after the end of filming, Chef Oli made this observation: “It’s much more complicated than opening a retail business or saying: ‘I’m becoming a cabinetmaker.’ »

Last summer, Olivier Louissaint, with his thirst for knowledge, and Simon Pigeon, with his sense of comedic repartee, 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, via the Parcelles country table in Austin, each stop allowed the chef to learn more about the agricultural world over the years. discussions, experiments and, sometimes, errors. “I didn’t even know what fava bean was,” he gives as an example.

Each visit is also an opportunity to cook. Chef Oli draws inspiration from the foods of the producers he meets to create mouth-watering dishes. “All the recipes you see in this showthere were thoughts on the spot. All. There is nothing staged. It was my greatest pride”, confides the self-taught chef who “learned to cook on YouTube”.

A market boy

During the first episode, the duo stops at the Jean-Talon market, a place that Chef Oli knows very well.

“My mother worked for more than 11 years in the market. Since she was a single mother and she worked a lot, the market kept me. […] I used to help merchants with little jobs,” he says. According to him, this is where his passion for food was born.

Even though he now lives in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, he likes to come back there monthly. He also insists on going around the kiosks when we tell him that it’s the first time we’ve been there.

More than a country table

Throughout the discussion, we understand that the country table is only one of the elements of the great dream that Olivier Louissaint cherishes. What he wants above all is to offer a different model to young people in the black community.

“As a child, I had the dream of becoming the first black chef in Quebec to have a show of TV. And I’m the first! “, he says.

He rejoices 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 people’s world”. How many black producers has he met on the show? “I discovered, in Charlevoix, a girl who was making flowers. A Haitian, “answers the one who would have liked to meet many more.

To illustrate his point, he talks about the sports he likes to practice: horse riding, skiing, hockey… His friends often tell him that these are “white people’s activities”. “I want to deconstruct the stereotypes we know in Quebec. Stop saying that, it belongs to such a culture and that, it belongs to such another culture. »

Olivier Louissaint hopes one day to welcome young black people to his land in order to allow them to live a different experience and perhaps even to inspire them. “I want to change things,” he confides, taking care not to reveal whether, at the end of the show, he succeeded in creating his country table. To find out, you’ll have to watch the episodes.

“Life is very well done”, however, gives as a clue the one who still offers his services as a chef at home.

Chef Oli goes rural is presented Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Télé-Québec.

The essentials of the Jean-Talon market, according to Chef Oli

Pasta from Pastificio Sacchetto

One of the first recipes that Olivier Louissaint cooked? Butter and sage ravioli, with a little parmesan, which he made customers taste at Pastificio Sacchetto. “It was my first real job,” he says. Today, when he passes by the Jean-Talon market, he always buys fresh pasta from his former employer.

Donuts from Wawel, Polish pastry

“You absolutely have to taste this,” insists Chef Oli, speaking of the donuts from the Polish patisserie Wawel. For him, a stop at the Jean-Talon market always rhymes with a box of six plum, apricot or cream delicacies.

The sausages of They smoke it good

For Olivier Louissaint, the premises of the Ils en fument du bon boutique are filled with memories since they previously housed his mother’s butcher’s shop. If he returns there, it’s now for the sausages with burst flavors: Kraft Dinner, ribs, spaghetti sauce… “It’s really nice, what they create. »