{"id":1880,"date":"2012-03-18T08:57:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T13:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:13:06","slug":"louvrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1880","title":{"rendered":"L’Ouvrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the soup tonight is butternut squash\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh please\u2026 What is this, 1989? Butternut squash soup? The single most boring and ubiquitous clich\u00e9 of Canadian restaurants for 30 years!<\/p>\n

And the restaurant was doing so well up to that moment. This is a place called L\u2019Ouvrier, on Dundas, between Markham and Palmerston. DIY d\u00e9cor \u2013 everything painted white except one of the tables which is red (the key), cement floor, white bucket plastic chairs which are too low for the tables, home-made-looking art (Ziploc baggies full of bits from the reno, attached to the wall), a central bar overshadowed by lights that seem to be classroom models of the atom. And yet\u2026 it\u2019s spacious and comfortable and not too loud and the music\u2019s okay if you like Coldplay and the art kind of grows on you and the server seems to knows what\u2019s what. The tap water is decanted into an old Bulleit bourbon bottle, which strikes me as a nice touch.<\/p>\n

But butternut squash soup? Oh I see\u2026 The kitchen is being ironic. L\u2019Ouvrier means \u201cthe working man\u201d and the choice of soup is deliberate \u2013 the most mundane workhorse known to frugal chefs, proudly proletarian. Or then again, maybe it\u2019s sensational soup \u2013 the apotheosis of butternut squash pur\u00e9es, a potage that will change my view of the dish suddenly and forever. Should I try it, just to make sure? Nope. Let\u2019s move on to printed matters. I don\u2019t ever remember seeing a menu that began with a burger but also offered a six-course tasting menu ($50pp). Unfortunately, you have to book it ahead, so first-time visitors like me can never experience the chefly magic. Never mind, there\u2019s plenty to be going on with.<\/p>\n

We start with half a dozen small, smooth, briney oysters from New Brunswick\u2019s St. Simone Bay. They are lovely and don\u2019t need any amelioration so I end up tasting the black pepper mignonette, the horseradish, and the sambal of red pepper, garlic, shallots and sugar all on their own \u2013 and very good they are, too. I\u2019d like to take home a jar of that sambal.<\/p>\n

The list of starters begins with duck confit croquettes which are salty but delicious \u2013 forked duck confit meat, mashed up and fried. Chef (and co-owner) Angus Bennett serves them with crunchy, gently pickled Jerusalem artichokes shaped like little bricks (a brilliant idea), a well-dressed watercress salad and St. John\u2019s chutney. This is not a Newfoundland recipe \u2013 it comes from Fergus Henderson\u2019s restaurant in London, England, called St. John \u2013 or more precisely from Henderson\u2019s cookbook Nose to Tail Eating<\/em> (page 192) and is a tangy compote of apples, tomato, shallots and spices. It\u2019s good with the croquettes and it also underlines the philosophical allegiances of Bennett\u2019s kitchen more subtly than the restaurant\u2019s name or the giant photograph of no-nonsense World War Two army cooks on the wall. To further prove his loyalty, Bennett offers a smoked ham hock terrine \u2013 rich, salty, glossy as spam but much more delicious, cut into thick slices and served with crostini, a mild picallili relish and a clump of celery hearts and pea shoots \u2013 green, earthy flavours that are a perfect counterpoint to the terrine.<\/p>\n

Main courses are no disappointment. Ontario farmed rabbits taste like chicken when compared to wild Newfoundland or English animals but L\u2019Ouvrier\u2019s rabbit leg is notably tasty and tender \u2013 the best bunny I\u2019ve had in ages. Bennett pairs it with a soft wild mushroom risotto that is quickened with greens and parsnips both roasted and fried as crispy ribbons. He also knows what to do with great big Qualicum Bay scallops, searing them and then surrounding their delicately flavoured, opulently textured personalities with the intensity of chorizo and preserved lemon, a salad of fennel, parsley, tomato and black olives, and a mound of Israeli couscous in a sweetish tomato sauce.<\/p>\n

Yes, there\u2019s room for dessert. We share a toblerone mousse that comes in a Mason jar topped with red berry coulis, whipped cream and chocolate chips. The presentation is deliberately blue-collar and so is the idea of taking a candy bar and deconstructing or resurrecting or reconfiguring it in some cute way. Like butternut squash soup, it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 that has lost any charm it once had. Still, chocolate mousse is easy and can be made well in advance of service. I just think dinner at L\u2019Ouvrier \u00a0deserves a more interesting epilogue. It\u2019s a pleasant room and the food is good. I\u2019ll be going back.<\/p>\n

L\u2019Ouvrier offers brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner every evening except Mondays. Find it at 791 Dundas Street West (at Markham), 416-901-9581. www.louvrier.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd the soup tonight is butternut squash\u2026\u201d Oh please\u2026 What is this, 1989? Butternut squash soup? The single most boring and ubiquitous clich\u00e9 of Canadian restaurants for 30 years! And the restaurant was doing so well up to that moment. This is a place called L\u2019Ouvrier, on Dundas, between Markham and Palmerston. DIY d\u00e9cor \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,19,95],"tags":[603,602],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}