This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Colombe St-Pierre and Adrian Pastor have something in common: the culinary inspiration that Bas-Saint-Laurent provides them. One is native to the region, the other arrived there in recent years. They both reinvent the traditional restaurant model in their own way. A two-part meeting with the two chefs who make you want to plan an end-of-summer stay near the river, for a gourmet weekend.
At 32, Adrian Pastor is a free spirit in the restaurant industry who has been running his own business for almost a year. As a “caterer”, he prefers that of “seller of gastronomic experiences”.
“If I don’t have enough words to tell you what I saw, then I will cook. » Adrian Pastor loves this sentence from the book The maple and the partridge by Elisabeth Cardin and Michel Lambert. It reminds the young chef, Peruvian by origin and Rimouski by adoption, why he loves exploring forests and coastlines so much before entering the kitchen. “The call of nature,” he confides, “is instinctive for me who lived on the edge of the Pacific. It awakens me with its colors, its smells and I find my inspiration there. » Moreover, the sea is so important to him that he named his new company “Yaku Project” (water in Quechua language).
Adrian runs culinary workshops as well as chef activities at home or in the chalet, as he does at Vieux loup de mer, whose hotel chalets dominate the Bic archipelago. He also prepares dishes in the processing kitchen of the restaurant L’Arlequin, in Rimouski, which he offers during one-off events and at the Vieux loup de mer delicatessen (le Garde-manger). Adrian Pastor even has his place reserved as “chef in residence” in the building under construction on the chalet site, which will host group events in a few months. For the moment, he is also a cooking teacher in a high school and a culinary columnist on Radio-Canada Bas-Saint-Laurent radio.
Immigrate without speaking French
Adrian Pastor was already working in the kitchen in Peru when he met a Quebecer there, got married and returned to Quebec with her in 2017, speaking barely two words of French. “I learned it by integrating, reading a lot and working hard. It was very hard, but one day I felt relieved: I was thinking in French. Now I’m very proud of it. »
After six months in La Belle Province, becoming sous chef at the Quebec restaurant-bar Chez Rioux et Pettigrew, he met Colombe St-Pierre at Bic. “She amazed me so much,” says the man who will join the team of his restaurant, Chez Saint-Pierre, in 2019. He becomes sous chef there shortly after. “Colombe allowed me to consolidate myself in my profession,” he explains, “while letting me express myself, for example by offering a Peruvian ceviche where rhubarb juice replaces the lime. »
Separated, with two young children in shared custody, the following year he joined the restaurant L’Arlequin, in Rimouski, as lunch chef. Semi-finalist on the TV show The Chiefs !2022 edition, he then decided to strike out on his own, but without dreaming of opening his restaurant.
Runner, surfer, gatherer
Short brown hair and a thin mustache, Adrian Pastor has the physique of a great sportsman. A skilled surfer in Peru, he chases big storms in Gaspésie and Nova Scotia. On a daily basis, he says, “I get up very early and go for a run. These moments of silence and observation of nature energize me and are an integral part of my creative process in the kitchen.” Picking sea spinach, sea grass pea, Scottish lovage, spruce shoots, mushrooms and wild fruits is also essential to your balanced life.
“Cooking is for me a way of communicating,” he adds. I don’t live in nostalgia for my country of origin. As humans, we have mobile roots that allow us to adapt and create a feeling of belonging to our place of life. »
You have to try its oysters (from Trésor du large): with mignonette with haskap puree, fennel and shallots, flying fish roe and fake caviar with gelled oyster juice. Or this “chalet chef” dish inspired by his Peruvian roots and the boreal forest of Bas-Saint-Laurent: a ball of cold potato dough in balsam fir oil, topped with a pan-fried scallop on which flows with an exquisite halibut aroma and reduced cream. Her favorite “land and sea” dessert, lemon tart style? A tart base with squid ink, rhubarb juice, ganache flavored with sweetgrass reminiscent of vanilla, and centaury flower.
His project for October: four culinary workshops given at the restaurant L’Arlequin about the Saint-Laurent sea urchin, to “demystify the product, know where to source it and integrate it into our diet”. Above all, the chef appreciates direct contact with the customer, to convey his message: that of “someone who comes from elsewhere and communicates his adaptation to the territory in culinary creations based on regional products”.
Colombe St-Pierre: democratizing gastronomy
Met at the Coastal Cantine of Saint-Fabien, open since June and until the end of September, the star chef, a native of Bas-Saint-Laurent, has lost none of her enthusiasm when it comes to talking about food autonomy, democratization of gastronomy and succession in catering…
Your move from the Coastal Canteen, from Bic to Saint-Fabien, caused a lot of noise in the spring. Why did you make this decision?
It was necessary to change municipal regulations on zoning to reopen the canteen, installed in 2020 near the Bic church, but the file was not moving forward. Last December, we bought the Lilo snack bar, on route 132, in Saint-Fabien [pour y déménager la cantine]. We had to enlarge the kitchen, build a covered terrace, invest in a refrigerated truck, and move our Bic containers which decorate a festive rear space.
With your season ending soon, what conclusions do you draw from it?
We had three times more traffic than at Bic: from 800 to 1,200 customers per day at the height of summer. Our main challenge was finding and keeping staff. I lost several young people who returned to school at the end of August, which is why I have to reduce my opening days. It takes people to prepare, among other things, more than 200 lobster or shrimp rolls and 300 pogos of pork and bourgot sausages per day, and to transform 1,500 pounds of potatoes per week into fries!
What future for your restaurant Chez Saint-Pierre, which was closed this summer?
I’m still thinking. For the moment, it remains closed and I use it as a production kitchen for the Coastal Canteen, the preparation of some cooked meals and for gourmet dinners that I organize spontaneously, when I have staff.
I found it difficult to manage the notoriety that I had acquired and I wanted to change register with the Coastal Cantine and a formula pop-up at the Bic restaurant. Its low profitability (with 2% profit, compared to 12 to 17% at the Coastal Canteen) also played a role.
Above all, I want to work towards the democratization of gastronomy rather than maintaining a restaurant where people pay $350 per meal. I want to serve a purpose and I want to introduce good dishes and ingredients to as many people as possible.
We know you as a committed chef. What motivates you today?
The idea of the Cantine was to produce quality and healthy volume, while rediscovering our coastal footprint by promoting seafood products caught in the St. Lawrence. It is in line with my involvement in the Mange ton Saint-Laurent collective and in the questions that I have shared for twenty years about what we eat and why we eat it. It’s my way of trying to have an influence on the consumption of products caught here.
I have also been campaigning for years for food autonomy and a more identity-based Quebec cuisine, reflecting the territory where we live. I’m not just a cook, because even in the kitchen, I’m a little girl always thinking, who wants to keep her creativity without clinging to the past and while keeping the link with my territory.
Next February, you will return to the television show “Les chefs!” Is supporting the next generation of restaurants also part of your commitment?
I like youth. I like meeting her in my daily life as well as in this TV show. It is a great challenge for our sector to take care of this next generation.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.