History of Poutine

It is a widely known fact that Poutine comes from Québec, however, two restaurants (both in the region south of Trois-Rivieres) have fought over the rights to being called the birthplace of the dish.

One is Cafe Ideal who claims to have served up poutine as early as 1957. At this time, their bag of hot fries were served with cheese curds per the request of a customer by the name of Eddy Lanaisse. In response to the man’s ask, the restaurant owner yelled “Ça va te faire une maudite poutine!” which translates to “That will make a damned mess!”

The second restaurant is Le Roy Jucep, who now serves up 23 versions of poutine in present day. They were known as the first to not only combine fries with cheese curds, but also to top it all off with gravy, or in Québécois terms – sauce brune. One thing that cannot be contested, though, was that Le Roy Jucep was certainly the first to put the word “poutine” on their menu – a name they allegedly got from a combination of the regional slang for “pudding” and the name of one of their cooks (Ti-Pout).

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