I had no idea how to plant a tomato! And the way we take care of chickens, especially if we are afraid of them? Neither, as can be seen in the first episode of Chief Oli fires rural, a new documentary series from Télé-Québec deliciously full of twists and turns and derision. The chef entrepreneur Olivier Louissaint, who also participates in the programs Heads of wood and 5 chefs in my kitchenamicably known as Chef Oli, realizes his wildest dream there of creating his own gourmet table in the countryside… from scratch!
“To keep it simple, let’s say that the concept of a country table is to put the ingredient at the heart of the kitchen, because, to call it that [table champêtre]more than 50% of the products prepared and served must come from the farm or the surrounding fields,” explains actor Simon Pigeon (Between two sheets, Shooting Stars), Chef Oli’s on-screen accomplice.
According to him, the owners of country tables can therefore be considered as fruit and vegetable sommeliers.
“I have just come from a city restaurant, where I call my suppliers at midnight to have my order delivered to me the next morning”, continues Olivier Louissaint, who regrets having lost, over time , contact with the essence of the products he cooks. Born from a real need to learn, the program Chef Oli goes rural therefore has the main objective of proving – to the chef himself, but also to viewers – that it is possible, not without difficulty, to reconnect with the food we cook by cultivating it directly. “This idea, which has always been one of my desires, is very beautiful. But how to move forward when you don’t have the experience of a country table? he raises.
A dedicated team
In this quest that is both personal and professional, the chef has been able to count on a dedicated team, notably made up of directors Sophia Belahmer (Switch & Bitch) and Jean-Carl Boucher (Flashwood), to take a step back from this extraordinary ambition.
“If we see him mostly joking in front of the cameras, Simon accompanied me in there by opening my eyes so that I asked myself the right questions”, adds the chef, who completed his project in just three months. whereas, in normal times, the process takes an average of two years.
In order to rediscover himself as a cook, Olivier Louissaint criss-crossed Quebec to meet those who have so much to teach him about the local terroir. “I was born in Quebec and I have traveled the world, but I had never been to Charlevoix,” he says.
In Austin, in the Eastern Townships, he discusses with chef Dominic Labelle, at the head of Parcelles, a country restaurant that has the wind in its sails, the magnitude of such a project. Together, they also make an improvised dish, made almost entirely of garden produce.
An inclusive table
“I started the series with a tub of spices bought at the supermarket that I dropped as the episodes progressed in favor of local foods, like these great chefs here who only use what grows around their homes,” says the cook, who, for example, had to rack his brains to find a lemon substitute. After the first season of Chef Oli goes ruralSimon Pigeon says he is very proud to have accompanied the latter in his development, “with the strength of his doubts and his desire to bring this astonishing country table project into the world”.
If the documentary series Chef Oli goes rural is primarily focused on the quest for a rapprochement with the territory and its gastronomy, Simon Pigeon insists on this point: “Oli wants to set an example for the community and open up the field of possibilities. »
I started the series with a bin of spices bought at the supermarket that I dropped as the episodes progressed in favor of local foods, like these great chefs here who only use what grows around their homes. them.
In this regard, Olivier Louissaint does not fail to point out that farmers are mostly white in Quebec. “I really wanted to think outside the box. It is very important for me to illustrate in the media something other than the inauguration of yet another basketball court in Montreal North. If I become one of the few black farmers here, people have to see it! »
According to Olivier Louissaint, there is still so much to do to change mentalities. “When I tell someone that I’m doing snow [snowboard] regularly and that I have a horse, I am asked if I was adopted. No, both my parents are here! he said, almost annoyed. For him, nothing is exclusively reserved for blacks or whites.
“It’s normal to go skiing, we’re in Quebec… It’s just an activity, that’s all! Same with careers. Nothing should be predefined, for anyone! While confident that it can sometimes be difficult to be at the forefront of a sector, the chef does not forget to put all his heart into it and to immerse body and soul in his sweet madness. .
To do this, Simon Pigeon and Olivier Louissaint have bet everything on authenticity. “Absolutely everything on the show happens for real. We can see it very well, because there are a lot of things with which I was not comfortable at the beginning”, reports the latter, in reference, once again, to the famous “case” of the hens of the first episode.. Olivier Louissaint is strongly attached to it: nothing, neither the recipes nor the jokes, is scripted or written in advance in this documentary series which is always sensitive, a bit mischievous.