Haitian Montrealer chef Paul Toussaint opens fifth restaurant

Montreal’s Marché Jean-Talon is where world-class restaurateur Paul Toussaint is lighting up the Montreal food scene with his newest venture, Trois-Pierres-Un-Feu.

This marks the fifth addition to chef Toussaint’s growing portfolio. The restaurant brings together the fiery talents of Texan chef Damien M. Brockway, fusing Haitian, Afro-Caribbean Texan and Quebecois flavours into a bold, soulful barbecue experience.

Chef Toussaint describes his multicultural love of food as “a Caribbean girl who met a Haitian man in Montreal.”

“You make your roots travel to where you are. Like you know, I’m in Montreal now, it’s my life, it’s what I want to do.”

Food holds a very special place in the talented chef’s heart. “Cooking is not only feeding people,” he said. “It’s like sharing passion, sharing love for what you want and also sharing knowledge, sharing like culture.”

Toussaint has made a name for himself in Montreal, though he still remains humble.

“There’s plenty of big chefs  in town. They still give me that chance. Like you know, a young man starting in Haiti, coming here and having that chance to create what I love, create it the way I want it to. It’s not like working under someone in France. It’s like I can share my passion, share my culture.”

Chef Toussaint started his journey in the kitchen from humble beginnings. “I have the chance to have my nanny, Sonia, who gave me that chance to tell me how you need to learn or to cook because I’m not going to be there for you every day.”

He was seven or eight years old at the time and eating “those Caribbean foods, like, you know, nice fusion,” made him very happy.

As for the location of his newest restaurant? It could not be more perfect. It’s nestled in the Jean Talon market, directly in front of the main entrance.

Toussaint describes it as “the best experience ever.”

“The market is like my vegetable fridge. I don’t order vegetables. We don’t have a fridge for vegetables because you say we have the best thing and the morning we come, we buy what we want. We start to do the prep. Before the market closes at five or six (o’clock), we go again. We choose whatever you want for the night that we serve only fresh.”

He considers himself so fortunate “because I feel I got a best opportunity to show people what the farmer’s market is.”

Chef Toussaint shares that when he grew up in Haiti, there were only farmer’s markets and the fridges were kept for soft drinks, not vegetables, he says. “Every morning we go to the market, we buy our vegetables and we eat it. This is our life.”

As for his single most favourite food? “I love cooking rice. Rice is the best thing for me. Like I can wake up eating rice and I can, before I go to bed, I can have some rice.”