St. Lawrence restaurant celebrates Québécois culture with Cabane à Sucre dinners
Chef J-C Poirier brings back the series that sold out last year in homage to la Belle Province
St. Lawrence chef J-C Poirier pays tribute to maple-syrup season in Quebec with his popular Cabane à Sucre dinners.
St. Lawrence’s table d’hôte Cabane à Sucre dinner series runs from January 15 to February 28.
WINTERS IN CHEF J-C Poirier’s home town of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, are all about the outdoors, hard work, and hearty meals. It’s maple season, when people tap old-growth trees for golden sap and make it into syrup in cabanes à sucre (“sugar shacks”).
“Some of my earliest memories were being at my grandfather’s every year when it’s maple syrup season with my extended family,” says Poirier, chef-owner of Vancouver’s St. Lawrence restaurant. “Not only we were eating everything maple, but my grandmother and aunts were always bringing more food.”
On the table would be dishes like fried pork rinds, split-pea soup with smoky bacon, and flaky tarte au sucre, or sugar pie, which, in a first, Poirier offered this past holiday season for people to take home.
Last year, Poirier introduced the table d’hôte Cabane à Sucre dinner series; it experienced overwhelming success. The event is back for 2021, in a new format, with the table d’hôte maple-focused feast available for dine-in service or to take home from January 15 to February 28.
"As a chef, one of my core values is to be authentic to myself,” Poirier tells Stir. “That means sharing my knowledge, my culture, my experiences and presenting a little piece of who I am to my guests.”
The three-course meal includes a choice of starter, main, and dessert.
Options for appetizers include soupe aux pois, bacon, and copeaux de foie gras (split-pea soup with smoked bacon and shaved foie gras); truite mariné à l’ érable et au gin du Quebec, blinis au Sarrasin (cured trout with maple and Quebec gin with blinis and truffle crème fraiche); profitérole de mousse de foie de canard, sucre d’érable et salade de pommes (choux puff stuffed with duck liver mousse, maple sugar, and apple-celeriac salad); and crêpes aux champignons et jambon avec sauce Mornay (crêpes with mushrooms, ham and Mornay sauce).
We love chef J-C Poirier’s tourtière de cerf STL (venison tourtière).
Tourtière de cerf STL (venison tourtière), ragoût de boulettes et longe de porc (roasted pork loin with meatballs stew), confit de canard avec chou farci à la saucisse à l’ail et fèves a l’ érable (duck confit with cabbage stuffed with garlic sausage and baked beans) and vol-au-vent de fruits de mer et sauce Diplomate (vol-au-vent with maple-marinated salmon, mussels and Diplomat sauce) make up the main-course options.
For desserts, Quebec cheese with brioche and jam is among the options for dine-in only; other choices across the board are tarte au Sucre with vanilla ice cream (or crème Chantilly with take-out orders), mille-feuille à l’ érable, and baba au sortilege (vanilla cake with maple liqueur, apples and crème Chantilly).
Optional add-on starters for an additional cost include those aforementioned oreille de crisse (fried pork rinds with maple and Montreal spice) and croquettes de fromage (cheese croquettes), among others.
Tickets are $69 per person for dine-in service or $49 for take-home orders. See St. Lawrence to reserve.
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