4 Levels of Poutine: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

We challenged chefs of three different skill levels - amateur Emily, home cook Lorenzo, and professional chef instructor Chris Arturo from The Institute of Culinary Education - to make us a satisfying serving of poutine, a Canadian delicacy of french fries loaded with cheese curds and gravy. Once each level of chef had presented and tasted their gooey creations, we asked expert food scientist Rose to explain the choices each made along the way - both good and bad. Which level looks best to you?


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[yamomwasthebomb]

Asking Lorenzo, "What do you think about using packet gravy?" and then not asking Emily, "How do you feel about adding ketchup to gravy?" is a giant missed opportunity.

[frankiebee]

Emily: “COULD I make my own fries. Sure . . . WOULD I make my own fries. Probably Not”

And there you have it. Emily is TOTALLY capable of Level 2 - but her spirit lies within Level 1.

[eivind]

I like that Emily is doing a classic, casual version. I love her honest attitude of "I know it could be fancier, but this is how I would actually do it at home".

[aw]

Just when I worried Emily was getting too good she came back and better then ever in *peak* level 1 form today- I approve.

[PhiNickGaming]

I love how Emily is basically a level 1.5 at this point but was just like "screw it, Thursday night poutine." Gotta respect it.

[SleepyWolvy]

This was incredible! All chefs did amazing but as a Canadian, Emily really made us proud as she made poutine the way many Canadians make it at home for a comfort food meal. It truly is the best homemade poutine that comes together very quickly. Emily is a true champion for doing it that way lol

[ProtoCookswithChefFrank]

Three amazing people on this I was privileged to have worked with Chef Chris at ICE.

[simashakeri]

Poutine imo is such a working class dish that Emily's felt the most accurate to the real poutine experience hahahah but I would love to try the other dishes as well. They look delicious!

[EmilyDuncan]

Eee, I love how this one turned out!! It was such a pleasure getting to work with all you awesome folks (and represent my homeland, of course!). Poutine rocks!

[melbell]

Lorenzo, you didn’t get the “squeak” because your cheese was aged: you only get that squeak with very fresh cheese.

[chrissymorin]

Quebecer here, standing and cheering in Emily's corner. This is exactly how i'd make it on a Thursday night. <3

[MissRnH]

Honestly, Emily hit the nail on the head with her simple, down to the basics rendition of poutine.

[poom]

I would say, Emily's poutine probably the best out of these. Poutine don't need to be fancy, just simply and delicious.

[DoktorFrankenstein]

I grew up (and currently live) in rural Quebec, I can confirm that Emily is making traditional homemade poutine here. It's trashy comfort food, so it's meant to be made following the trashiest of methods. A traditional Quebec chip stand will also pretty much just push the potato through a slicer and immediately dunk it into the deep fryer.

Lorenzo's poutine resembles what you'd find at a pub-style sit-down place that tries to flex its poutine game. It's good, it hits different, and yeah, their curds are rarely fresh.

Chris... well, I love duck demi-glace, so what can I say. The only big mistake there was that the curds are traditionally a topping and not mixed in the fries (the whole dish is kinda layered, really), so that was quite a deviation from the norm. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to try his recipe.

[chickenjail]

Great video! At this point, Emily could have made her own gravy and fries, but just chose shortcuts to save time and effort. And I too was hoping for Frank, but he's probably still growing his own Canada. Happy Monday!

[layanalrahmani]

All Canadians coming on here saying Emily's is the best. Yes, as a Canadian, I agree! Poutine is a nostalgic comfort food. For me, it should taste like the 1990s mall food court poutine.

[willemponikvar]

As a Canadian, Emily has my vote. Don’t overcomplicate a comfort food. Plus the second layer of cheese curds would certainly be a welcome surprise.

[alexander.tahtadjian]

I'm a Canadian and I gotta say...I ABSOLUTLY LOVED THIS EPISODE. Poutine is by far one of the greatest culinary creations to ever exist and it was nice to see all three levels of a dish that is very near and dear to my heart. Im also happy that you got Emily to be in this since it only made sense (also I really loved her version since its very nostalgic...plus Id usually do her version when I don't have time to do everything from scratch, so I'm with you Emily).

[lucrainville]

Bonjour 👋, je suis du Québec et c’est avec plaisir de voir la poutine au menu . Ici nous avons de la poutine pour tout les goûts, homard sauce béarnaise et fromage bleu, saveur pizza, poulet et pois vert, au bacon etc ! Emiily à fait la version rapide, mais c’est celle qui est le plus authentique. Les trois version sont très acceptable en fait . Pour faire le fromage, Christopher aurai dû ajouter du chlorure de calcium pour rendre son caillé beaucoup plus ferme ... et en fesant bouillir le petit lait, Christopher aurais pus faire du très bon ricotta ! Merci beaucoup super travail à tous 😀

[lauzinnnn]

I’m from Quebec and I’m sooo happy you talked about THE SQUEAK!! The most important thing in a poutine tbh