Where is poutine from

One thing is not in doubt: poutine comes from Quebec. The warming nature of a poutine is perfect for the chilly winters that hit this province; the fries honor the humble potato that grows so well in parts of Quebec, as well as the French tradition of hot crispy frites. The fresh cheese curds were so widely available because French-Canadians kept up the cheese-making traditions of France long after the initial settlers established Nouvelle France.

What began in Quebec by no means stayed in Quebec, however. Truck drivers who loved the affordable sustenance poutine provided started requesting it from establishments outside the borders of Quebec and dragged the filling dish with them from the Maritime Provinces along the Atlantic all the way to B.

The dish has taken root in the diner, casual, and fast-food culinary world of Canada. Fine dining restaurants have gotten in on the action, too, by dressing the humble dish up with duck confit , foie gras , or lobster. Other places take advantage of the flexible nature of poutine and make corn dog poutines, pepper poutines, and poutines reflecting international cuisines.

Plenty of places now offer optional ingredients like different types of cheese, various sauces, and even sweet potato fries. So who came up with the idea of combining cheese curds with french fries in the first place, anyway?

And then smothering the whole tasty mess with gravy Is this just the kind of wacky, yet brilliant, idea you dream up during those long Canadian winters? Or was there some kind of secret agenda behind it? According to La Banquise , a Montreal restaurant that offers a mind-blowing 31 varieties of poutine, the dish's origins are shrouded in mystery, with several different restaurants and dairies claiming to have invented it.

Everyone does seem to agree, however, that poutine originated in rural Quebec, and that it's actually a fairly recent dish that dates back no farther than the s. From these slapdash beginnings, the combination of fries with the region's celebrated cheese became a hit.

But while poutine now can be found dressed up with kimchi, seaweed and even fois gras , during those early years it was looked down upon as a working-class junk food and, at times, a subject of shame. The origins of its name, which translates to "mess" in English, could provide a clue as to why. In Poutine Dynamics, Fabien-Ouellet discusses how "for older generations, the very subject of poutine consumption is often avoided and the dish itself deprecated, often seen as an embarrassing culinary invention.

Even considering the nationwide popularity of the dish, for some, the dish still has the power to evoke painful memories of a time when Quebec was seen as culturally backward by the rest of Canada. Mocked and ridiculed for such an unsophisticated food, a stigma existed around poutine that was difficult to shake. For her, the reasons for its nationwide popularity aren't complicated: "I think people love poutine simply because it's comforting.

In reflecting on his own childhood in Quebec, Montreal chef, restaurateur and TV host Chuck Hughes said, "Growing up, poutine was like a reward. It was always the go-to junk food that no self-respecting parent would ever make at home. It was definitely a guilty pleasure. Hughes cast aside any unease he had about the dish when he introduced it to an international audience more than a decade ago. In , Hughes appeared on the TV cooking competition Iron Chef America, serving up a playful lobster poutine to the judges.

Rather than guilt, he presented the Quebecois dish with a sense of pride. The combination became popular, with diners customizing the dish by adding ketchup or vinegar.

In , Lachance began to serve the dish on a plate to contain the mess left on his tables. When customers complained that the fries grew cold too quickly on the plate, he doused the fries and curds with gravy to keep them warm.

He had been serving fries in a special sauce since , in a dish he called patate-sauce. When he noticed that customers were adding cheese curds he sold them in bags at his snack counter to their fries, he added the dish to his regular menu under the name fromage-patate-sauce.

Notably, Roy had to travel to Toronto to find a vendor who could provide containers sturdy enough to hold the mixture. The word poutine is commonly believed to have originated from the English word pudding or as it were in French, pouding used to describe a mixture, typically messy, of various foods.

After the dish gained popularity in the small towns of south-eastern Quebec, it arrived in Quebec City in at the Ashton Snack Bar food truck on boulevard Hamel and in Montreal in A popular street food, poutine became a common offering on chip truck menus in Quebec and Ontario. The dish proved so popular that the brand began selling poutine in all of its Quebec outlets, and in Hawkesbury , Ontario, the following year.

Beyond the United States, poutine spread to many countries including the United Kingdom, Korea, and potato-friendly Russia, where it has been referred to as Raspoutine. While poutine is for many an unlikely choice for haute cuisine, the sturdy classic became a chef favourite during the comfort food revolution of the s.