For most, time spent in the garden is a hobby, a trip south is for tanning and social media is a quick distraction from the workload growing high.
But for one chef raised in Bryson, social media is an opportunity to research new recipes, his vacations are spent learning new techniques, and the garden is just one source of ingredients.
This approach to the world around him is how Yannick La Salle, chef of Chelsea’s Les Fougères, has continued to grow and succeed in his career to the point of placing first in a national competition.
Driven by ambition and instinct, La Salle’s success is a far cry from the initial world he set out to join, and he wouldn’t have even considered a chef as his career choice, until a trip to France would open his eyes.
Starting out as a young man, La Salle was studying as a machinist while filling his wallet working in kitchens dishwashing and cooking. Soon enough he realized the course wasn’t for him, but the side jobs had appeal, so he attended the Centre de Formation Professionnelle Pontiac in Mansfield et Pontefract to help kickstart his education.
Eventually, he made his was to Chelsea’s L’Orée du Bois where the chefs saw a passion for the culinary arts. They decided he could use some real experience and sent him to France’s L’Escarbille, a one-star Michelin restaurant, on an exchange.
This would change his view of what a career can and should be, and was the first time he felt prepared to embrace the kitchen as a lifelong vocation.
“That’s where I saw the drive, the energy and the teamwork that was happening inside the kitchen,” said La Salle.
These factors, plus the kitchen’s structure – obedience and respect to the chef as commander – appealed greatly.
“Just the intensity,” said La Salle. “Seeing everybody give 120 per cent to what they did, the drive, the love for the food.”
It all reminded him of growing up playing sports, where everyone is working towards the same goal, succeeding or suffering as one.
“I could really feel that working in the kitchen,” he said. “You know it’s a team effort, if somebody goes down, everybody goes down.”
Returning to L’Orée du Bois, La Salle was reinvigorated and would spend the next few years there. But after that, it was time for a new adventure, one that awaited just a four minute drive away.
This is when he joined the team at Les Fougères and began working in another new environment, a kitchen serving dishes closely connected to the restaurant’s garden and local suppliers.
That’s because Les Fougères is a farm-to-table style restaurant, where dishes are reliant on what is available locally and focuses on bringing the natural flavours of an ingredient to the forefront. La Salle said he came to appreciate this style of cooking because it forces the chef to consider a lot more about a dish, including where the ingredients came from and what they’ve been exposed to.
He explained that the quality of the dish arriving to a customer is reliant much more on the quality of the ingredients involved, rather than how it is prepared.
In some ways, working with Les Fougères and its garden is familiar territory for La Salle. Growing up in the Pontiac, many are fortunate to enjoy local, fresh offerings and his family enjoyed some items straight from their backyard, too.
“My family had a little garden, it was nothing big but I remember going outside, going out to the garden, picking some cucumbers, lettuce and carrots,” he said. “My mum and dad were really keen on putting healthy food on the table.”
Though, he’s quick to admit that he was not nearly as adventurous with his palate as a kid.
“I was really fussy when I was young, I remember that,” he said. “My mum and dad laugh at me [now], they don’t understand how I got into this.”
However it’s changed, La Salle’s sense of taste and adventure has brought him far since joining Les Fougères, including two brief stints at world-class restaurants.
First was a few years into his time at his latest restaurant, when he had the opportunity to travel to California and work at David Kinch’s Manresa. This three-star Michelin restaurant was similar to home, where it works directly with a farm attached to it.
“It was really in my lane,” said La Salle.
Then, when Les Fougères closed for renovations a few years back, La Salle had another opportunity.
“While that was closed I went out to New York for a stage with one of the greatest chefs in the world at this point now, Dan Barber,” said La Salle.
He spent one month working at Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the Pocantico Hills, another high-end experience using the farm-to-table method.
As well, over the years he’s taken up opportunities to travel with his fiancée, Sara Romain, to places all over the world, where he looks to expose himself to the local cuisines and cultures.
Using connections made with contacts over the years, La Salle has been able to dive right into impressive restaurants and local philosophies in places such as Bali and Peru.
“There’s learning [opportunities] in cooking everyday,” said La Salle, adding that it could be lifestyles, techniques, the economy, ecosystem, or just their recipes.
All of these experiences have come back to Chelsea in one form or another, continuing to influence his cooking and what he can do with an ingredient. Especially once he became chef at Les Fougères, upon his return from the time off during its renovations.
Working under co-owners and executive chefs Charlie Part and Jennifer Warren-Part, his drive has only grown more ambitious.
“It’s not just a job you know, after work I’ll go home and read some books or check out what’s on social media and do a lot of research about it,” he said. “On the weekends it’s going out to the restaurants, supporting our local favourites or checking out what’s new in the region.”
It’s seems like nonstop work when seen like this, but for La Salle, it’s rather comforting and familiar thinking, especially since it’s within a career he loves.
“Like my dad says, ‘You’ll stop when you die, so just keep on pushing,’” said La Salle, with a laugh.
In 2017, Les Fougères was invited to compete in the regional qualifiers for the Canadian Culinary Championships. This national competition sees chefs compete from across the country, all the while fundraising for Canadian Olympic athletes.
“Jenn and Charlie have always supported these types of fundraisers and have taken this seriously,” he said, adding that their chefs have been invited to the regionals throughout the years.
Placing second, they earned the opportunity to return to the regionals in 2018, which is where they really hit their stride. Working with his team, La Salle served a red currant dish complimented by beets and duck magret, and finished with a beet syrup, black garlic mustard and Quebec black walnuts.
The dish also featured chips made from Île d’Orléans’ potatoes and served alongside a 2015 Cabernet Franc from Derek Barnett.
The restaurant won and soon found themselves competing at the nationals in Kelowna, B.C., proving a whole new challenge.
Here, La Salle and his team were given an unlabelled wine on the Thursday night of the competition, Jan. 31. After brainstorming that night, they were given $500 the next morning to source local ingredients and build a dish around this wine.
“So on the Friday morning we were out at six in the morning just to buy our ingredients,” he said.
Knowing the region was ideal for mushroom growth, La Salle found eight varieties to work with and prepared them all in different fashions. That leg of the competition finished up around 11:30 that night, but the end was far from sight.
Saturday’s challenge saw the chefs confronted with a black box, containing seven mystery ingredients. Once opened, they had one hour to prepare a dish for the judges.
Seeing as the new food guide was just introduced, focusing on increasing the consumption of vegetables nationwide, the competition decided to embrace this theme. The box contained solely vegetables, including a variety that La Salle was very familiar with.
“The seven ingredients were already stuff that we work with here at the restaurant, so we were pretty pleased with what came out,” he said.
As they only had a few hours to prepare the dish for the grand finale on Saturday night, La Salle decided it best t o stick to the thinking of Les Fougères.
“I always try to focus on things that we know, compared to just inventing and trying to put a whole bunch of stuff on the plate,” he explained. “So we try to keep our same philosophy, approach the products in the best way to make them shine.”
When it was time to announce the competition’s champions, La Salle was not expecting to make the podium, let alone the top spot.
“I didn’t really think we were going to make the podium because I was watching the other chefs work around [me],” he said, adding that a few had previous experience in the competition.
When they did announce La Salle and Les Fougères in the top spot, his first thought was to drag his entire team up alongside him to the podium. That was quickly stopped, he said laughing.
Reflecting on the whole experience, La Salle said he hopes his career and this latest win inspire others, as the road to success isn’t always clear or easy but putting your all into something may lead to unexpected results.
Back at Les Fougères, La Salle still has many aspirations. He is committed to the Chelsea restaurant and would love a chance to follow in the owners’ foot steps, should they decide to move on from it.
As well, he hopes to write a cookbook, focusing on working with local farmers and supporting the community a chef is in.
“At the same time, I want to find my balance,” he said. “In this industry, it’s a little hard because you’re always working, and you know, you’re working long hours.”
After many long nights spent in the kitchen, La Salle looks forward to more opportunities to enjoy time with his fiancée. After all, he credits her, his parents, and his bosses with his latest success, as they’ve all afforded him the freedom to grow and learn as a chef.
By Donald Teuma-Castelletti
