Home Cooking with J.C. Poirier
Family matters.
Soft late-afternoon light filters through the kitchen windows of chef J.C. Poirier’s East Vancouver home. The entire household is redolent with the aroma of roast chicken as he pulls a perfect golden-brown bird out of the oven. His eldest daughter Aila perches on a stool at the kitchen island, trimming white paper toques for the drumsticks. There’s a Bill Evans album on the turntable, spinning cool jazz to inspire Poirier’s wife Dara while she arranges fresh-cut flowers for the table. Baby Florence giggles happily from the dining-room floor as her mom and dad toast with glasses of bubbly rosé. It’s a family scene that has played itself out over countless Sundays at the Poirier residence, reminiscent of many such evenings during the chef’s childhood around his own mother’s dining room table. All these familiar kitchen scents and rhythms still resonate—both at home, and at his revered Railtown restaurant, St. Lawrence, where his cooking is grounded in tradition, memory, and heart.
The Sunday-night meals of Poirier’s upbringing in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec are indelibly etched in his memory. “My brothers and sisters and I would always wait eagerly for Sunday dinner to happen, because every single one was something special,” he recalls. The guest list would ebb and flow, sometimes including his grandparents, friends, and neighbours—but family was always at the core of these meals.
Poirier established his career at home and then moved to Vancouver in 2004. “The more experience I got under my belt, the more I began to know myself and what was deeply important to me,” he reflects. “I had to leave before I could truly come back home again.” Absence does, indeed, make the heart grow fonder, as he didn’t realize his own profound connection to Quebecois cooking until well after he moved away.
He came up with the concept for St. Lawrence in 2013 while in medias res with the success of his much-fêted Railtown pasta restaurant, Ask For Luigi (he is also a co-owner of Main Street’s Pizzeria Farina, along with Pourhouse and Di Beppe in Gastown). “I was very pleased with what we’d accomplished at Luigi. Even after winning so many awards, though, I still knew there was something missing,” he admits. Inspiration struck while preparing a dinner party for industry friends. He was tasked with making a dessert that was both gluten-free and vegetarian.
“Oeufs à la neige came to mind,” he says. “I’d only ever made it once before at school, but I figured I could wing it.” This classic French dessert, also known as île flottante, consists of pillowy meringues gently poached in milk and served with crème anglaise. “When I dropped the meringue quenelles into the hot milk, I suddenly got so excited that I literally had goosebumps,” recalls Poirier. “Nobody makes this dessert anymore because everyone has forgotten about it, but it was absolutely delicious—my guests loved it. And their enthusiasm helped me realize that this is it. This is what I need to do: teach myself the old classics and honour those traditions by bringing them back to life with a new energy.” With revitalized vigour, he figured, old could become new again.