Those of you who have attended the annual Saltscapes Expo at Exhibition Park, in Halifax, may be familiar with the cooking demonstrations and conviviality of Alain Bossé, the kite-flying, kilted chef, sometimes seen with his Portuguese rooster in tow. While the kite flying is done for relaxation in off hours, the rooster isn't real and the kilt is adopted (Alain is proudly French Canadian), he is otherwise true to his trade as food and beverage manager.
Judging by Alain's long dossier, there isn't much this energetic culinary professional hasn't done during his 25 years in the hospitality industry. From chef to his recent position as general manager of Pictou Lodge Resort, in Pictou, NS, he is a leader in both professional and volunteer endeavours.
He laughs when he talks about his early job as a cook in a strip club, saying but of course he was there to prepare food – not to watch. One might say it was a shaky beginning to his culinary career; he says it was the only job he could get after almost burning down the local pizza place.
Forgive him. He was young. And most of what he cooked back then he learned from an old scoutmaster. "I went around teaching scouts how to cook with aluminum foil and a wire hanger," he says, chuckling.
Older now, and wiser, he has been president of Taste of Nova Scotia since 2003, and in this volunteer capacity has promoted Nova Scotia's fine restaurants, its foods and beverages. Alain is proud of the relationships he has developed with regional producers-the local doctor who supplies the first cuts of asparagus, the goat farm where hand milking turns out "fantastic cheese and yogurt," the pork farm that produces double-smoked country-style bacon. These and other suppliers are important to the man who passionately believes in eating locally grown products.
Alain, who finds reading pleasure in the pages of Larousse Gastronomique rather than in novels, says he also loves foods of different cultures, and to experiment with new ideas.
"I love to work with natural ingredients-to open the fridge door and see what's in there, then turn something out that's interesting and good eating," he says.
It's doubtful, though, that he'll experiment with the traditional holiday foods he shares with us in this issue of Saltscapes. Every year he goes home to Edmundston, NB, where he, his mother and his three siblings, their children and grandchildren, gather in celebration. After gifts have been exchanged on Christmas Eve, the family goes to midnight mass, then it's home for the much-loved gastronomic event, réveillon. Eventually they sleep well into Christmas day.
You will soon get to know this man better. Alain Bossé is now wearing his chef's hat-or toque blanche-at Saltscapes: as of the March/April 2009 issue he becomes the new food editor. And I'll bet my head for a doughnut that he will provide a recipe for Ployes, the buckwheat pancakes he grew up on and still adores.
As for me, I plan to set aside my own copy of Larousse Gastronomique and occasionally indulge in a novel. Good luck to you Alain, and my thanks to all the chefs I've come to know through this column. To my readers: it's been fun. Just like any other old tart, I'll pop up once in awhile.
God bless you all.