Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe and His Passion for Local Products

‘’I make accessible gourmet food. My dishes are tasty, hearty, creative and visually beautiful’’, says the chef, who has just revamped the menu at Le Boulevardier restaurant according to French brasseries’ etiquette.

Because French cuisine is something that Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe knows all about. Before settling down here in Quebec, the chef interned all over the world, learning skills and techniques from different cultures.

’’My cuisine is now strongly inspired by what I learned during my internships, he explains. For example, I always have a well-executed fresh pasta on the menu. I learned that in Italy. From Denmark, I bring back the mentality of cooking with local ingredients and the love of boreal cuisine as well as the green cuisine. The Danes love to cook with very herbaceous flavours or green strawberries, for example. And from France, I brought back some very good basic skills and classic techniques. French cuisine is super difficult.’’

But is most important lesson is about the quality of a product. "During my internships, I was taught to work with the best regional ingredients available: lemon from Menton, blue lobster, asparagus from Pertuis’’, he recalls with great enthusiasm. All of this fueled my passion for quality products. What I love to do is find the best ingredients available and then make them shine through my recipes.’’ This is why you might come across Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe at the Jean-Talon market, rummaging in search of the freshest seasonal vegetable or fruit, chatting with small local producers, forging links with them. For him, cooking the best that the land has to offer and showcasing local products is not just his culinary philosophy, it is also a passion.

“I've been doing this for 10 years and I’m still very passionate about it” he says.

When asked which products he particularly likes to work with, the chef lists more than ten, obviously unable to choose his favourite. "I like the zucchini flower, blackcurrant, chanterelles, mushrooms in general. I like fish a lot, too. I order hyper local fish caught locally from Indigenous people. Oh, and also skate fish, halibut, shellfish.’’ And the list goes on and on.

In the fall, he’ll try to preserve as much as possible, making marinades and preserves as well as fermenting products. This is his way of stretching out the harvest season and serving Quebec products all year.

How does he cook all these beautiful ingredients? ‘’I like to say that I am a kitchen technician’’, admits Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe. I love the chemistry of food. I like to take an ingredient and break it down to its many forms: cook it, burn it, grill it, mash it. Play with its textures.’’ The menu will change with the seasons, but the one he presented for the summer of 2021 proves what Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe is made of: a dish of lobster from Gaspésie served with zucchini and pansy flowers, piglet from the Beaurivage farm with its onion shortbread, brown butter skate wing and its fresh seasonal peas or even Miramichi striped bass and its yuzu grapefruit marmalade.

‘’My job as a chef is to take a local product and present it to customers in a way that makes them love it.’’ Mission accomplished, Samuel.