It is a tradition in Saguenay – Lac-St-Jean, THE famous tourtière, this recipe is passed down from generation to generation and is now offered throughout Quebec. The regional company Viandomax has been marketing its product on most major banners since Thursday and has none other than Michel Barrette as its spokesperson.
For the company’s managing director, after years of work, it is a dream come true to market his cake on a large scale.
“The goal was to cross Laurentides Park. I teach people from Quebec, Montreal and the surrounding areas, educate them about Tourtière and explain to them what the actual dish is,” said Pierre-Yves Lévesque.
And who is better suited as a speaker than the local comedian Michel Barrette?
“It is exactly the tourtière of my mother, my grandmother, that we pass on from generation to generation. We find it from Gatineau to Sept-Îles to Sherbrooke, from Sherbrooke to Val-d’Or. “People will finally understand that Tourtière is not a meat pie,” he said happily.
Viandomax has been selling its Tourtière for 14 years. It has been available at Costco for eight years, but it took several years before the company was able to market it at other major chains.
“I tried a lot to get it into the IGA, Metro and Maxi chains. They’re people from Montreal who are less familiar with it. For them, it is a product that we only eat during the holidays. With Michel as an ambassador, it made the chains want to try the product,” confided Mr. Lévesque.
The regional tourtière is now available in most major grocery stores such as IGA, Metro, Costco. Its special feature? It is offered at any time of the year.
“We need to stop thinking it’s just the holiday season. When I was little, my mother baked cakes in the trunk. She said we were going to Saint-Gédéon and I baked a cake. Put it in the trunk of the tank, a blanket over it, we arrived at the beach, she screamed cake in the trunk! People came closer, ate the cake,” said the comedian.
In March, Viandomax will begin construction of a new factory for this production.
“In our Viandomax offices in Chicoutimi we are building a 4.5 to 5 million factory that will be dedicated exclusively to Tourtière. It will be a federal facility that can be shipped to Ontario or the rest of Canada.
We will go far with this product. To try it is to adopt it!” exclaimed Pierre-Yves Lévesque.