CABARET | A couple from Quebec started making cheese curds and cheese curds smoked meat in the Dominican Republic, to the delight of snowbirds who love these typical flavors of our country.
Illustration Journal de Montreal
Sylvain Croteau and Carole Larichellière have long harbored the dream of spending their retirement under the Dominican sun and two years ago founded a company on this Caribbean island, where they worked for six months with the aim of eventually being able to “make a living from it”. and never leave again, they say.
For a year now, her company, Quebec Smoked Meat, has enjoyed growing success, already supplying around twenty restaurants from the north to the south of the island, in addition to five large supermarkets where the curds are delivered. three times per week.
Sylvain Croteau prepares the cheese curds using the same steps as in Quebec, while his partner Carole Larichellière and Johanne Boisjoli prepare cooked Quebec dishes.
Elisa Cloutier-
The Quebec Smoked Meat company imports Angus beef directly from the United States to produce its smoked meats in Cabarete.
Elisa Cloutier-
Carole Larichelière cooks a variety of Quebec prepared meals and desserts, such as sugar tarts, egg tarts and baked beans.
Elisa Cloutier-
Sylvain Croteau and Carole Larichelière from Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures founded the Québec Smoked Meat company in Cabarete.
Elisa Cloutier-
Sylvain Croteau prepares his “smoked meat” and requires several hours of cooking time.
Elisa Cloutier-
Sylvain Croteau prepares the cheese curds using the same steps as in Quebec, while his partner Carole Larichellière and Johanne Boisjoli prepare cooked Quebec dishes.
Elisa Cloutier-
The Quebec Smoked Meat company imports Angus beef directly from the United States to produce its smoked meats in Cabarete.
Elisa Cloutier-
Carole Larichelière cooks a variety of Quebec prepared meals and desserts, such as sugar tarts, egg tarts and baked beans.
Elisa Cloutier-
Sylvain Croteau and Carole Larichelière from Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures founded the Québec Smoked Meat company in Cabarete.
Elisa Cloutier-
Sylvain Croteau prepares his “smoked meat” and requires several hours of cooking time.
Elisa Cloutier-
An ever-evolving market that Mr. Croteau continues to develop by knocking on doors himself.
“In the beginning we wanted to taste our products in restaurants, the world went crazy! For me, there are just doors to overcome here,” he says with a smile, even though he works almost twelve hours a day.
In total, the couple invested more than $40,000 in their “dream” of bringing a little piece of Quebec to the Caribbean.
- Listen to the interview with Elisa Cloutier, journalist at the Journal de Québec and one of the recipients of the QMI grant on Alexandre Dubé's show QUB radio :
Putin, please!
Therefore, it is not surprising that Putin or smoked meat sandwiches can be found in several restaurants, both in Punta Cana and Puerto Plata.
The wildly popular Putin served at Le Petit François restaurant attracts many Quebecers looking for a taste of home. To find the “winning recipe” for his sauce, the owner, Jean-François Baulne, claims to have undertaken several trials and errors. Elisa Cloutier
To meet demand this winter, Mr. Croteau hired three drivers to ensure the smooth running of his increasingly popular deliveries to all corners of the country.
Sugar cake and baked beans
The couple, pioneers to say the least, also whip up several cooked dishes that snowbirds love.
“When they come here to buy our products, they are very happy, they want us to stay here all year round!” says Ms. Larichellière, a resident of Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures.
Carole Larichellière is responsible for preparing prepared meals, stocking her commercial refrigerator with spaghetti sauces, lasagna, baked beans and sugar tarts, to name just a few. Then snowbirds come in large numbers to stock up there. Elisa Cloutier
When you enter the brand new production facility in Cabarete, you can't help but be enveloped by the scents of baked beans, meat pies, sugar tarts and spaghetti sauce wafting there.
Cheese like at home
In the middle of the premises sits a huge stainless steel vat – custom-made in Quebec – where more than 30 kilos of curds are made every day, following the same steps as good old Squick Squick Cheese, says Mr Croteau.
To achieve this, he says he spent almost a year learning the basics of the craft in a cheese factory in Quebec.
“Quebecians who buy it often ask us how we managed to get it here!” says Mr. Croteau, laughing.
Back in Quebec, they work as food guards in a retirement home during the summer.
- This report was produced thanks to the International Reporting Grant from the QMI Agency