Renowned Quebec City chef heads north to learn Indigenous ways of cooking

A renowned Quebec City chef recently visited the northern community of Chisasibi, Que., because he is studying Cree ways of cooking fish.

Stéphane Modat, an avid hunter and fisher, is the head chef of Quebec City's Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.

Since the spring, he has travelled from Nunavik to the shores of the Saint Lawrence River researching for a new book he is working on about cooking fish in Quebec.

Modat said Indigenous ways of cooking are an important part of his research because of its traditional methods.

"If I want to make my recipes authentic, I need to know how the first people cook. They made the original Quebec cuisine and it's important to learn this."

Before going to Chisasibi, Modat was in Salluit — one of Quebec's northernmost communities — with his photographer and co-author Frédéric Laroche. There they studied Inuit techniques for cooking Arctic char.

In the James Bay region, Laroche and Modat fished for brook trout, lake trout, speckled trout, pike, whitefish and walleye.

"In James Bay, it's the quantity of different species you can find. That's pretty impressive compared to the other places we've been," Laroche said. "You could have six or seven different species in the same water."

Since beginning their research in the spring, the two have also travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador and the Magdalen Islands. James Bay is the last stop on their trip to close out their summer.

'I couldn't believe it'

The duo's first excursion in the region was with Chisasibi resident and guide Jerry Rupert. 

Rupert took the authors to his camp on the coast of James Bay where they netted fish and exchanged cooking techniques on the shore over an open fire.

What amazed Rupert were the local herbs and plants Modat collected to flavour the fish — such as sweetgrass, juniper and spruce buds.

"He collected them from the trees and the ground and he put them in the frying pan. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know we could cook those things," Rupert said.

After the tour, Rupert said he cooked goose wings for the men in his teepee.

"I wanted to show them the way my father used to cook goose wings over the fire, the traditional way."

Chisasibi resident Charlie Louttit took the men out to the bay to fish, and taught them cooking and other Cree techniques for surviving when stranded on an island.

"It's important for people to know what to do when something goes wrong. Those skills don't just belong to the Crees. They belong to everyone that is out on the land," Louttit said.

Modat also attended the Mamoweedow Minshtuk festival — when the town of Chisasibi returns to the original settlement on the island of Fort George for a week of celebrations — for more cooking experiences.

That's where Modat traded cooking techniques with the traditional cooks of the festival.

"It's all about sharing. Sharing our experiences and our ways of cooking," Modat said.

Cree ways different from South

One of the highlights of his trip was trying the different variations on Cree food that he was not aware existed, like the different ways of preparing bannock — cooking it on a stick, with fish eggs, or on an open fire on the shores of James Bay.

Modat said he likes how everything is fresh and readily available in season, like the fish.

"Here you put out your net and eat the fish, no middleman. We ate fish all week and it was so fresh and natural."

The men said they're anxious to return to the North to experience fall and winter cooking.

Their new book is scheduled to be released in November 2019.