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ANDREW COPPOLINO andrewcoppolino@gmail.com CHEZ L’BOULANGER’S WORLD OF BREAD AND OTHER GOODS cases and you’ll discover Swedish meatballs and chicken à la King as well as humbler chili and veggie quiches. Lasagna as a ready-made meal for busy young families is extremely popular as is the chicken pot pie, says Charbonneau.
starting in 2003 with an existing bakery she took over with a partner, a professional baker, in Carleton Place. They had the location for about three years before deciding they wanted to move to a Francophone region. Most of the foods – Charbonneau says 90 per cent – are made from scratch in-house and there easily several dozen products, from cookies to tourtière. She says they pull back on the salt and use no preservatives in their cooking and baking. Building variety, however, was incremental: her first customers said there wasn’t enough choice, so the business model shifted again, she says. “We needed to make more variety of goods but be able do it fast. Now we have lots of variety including breads and pizza doughs, but we also need lots more staff. That makes it difficult.” She adds that being a baker, often with a very early morning rising, is a tough, physical job. “There’s heavy lifting, and it is hard work. That’s not for everyone,” Charbonneau says. The Old Fashioned is, it seems, for everyone, but it also represented a shift in demand: finding there wasn’t a strong custo- mer preference for whole wheat bread, they added a rye-based multigrain bread to their repertoire, though it has a bit of white flour too. “We made both for a while, but people seemed to prefer the rye. It’s a unique bread, made with organic flour, that you can’t gene- rally find around here,” she says. “It has become very popular.” If rye breads tend to be a bit drier, the Old Fashioned is quite moist yet toasts beautifully
crisp and holds butter deliciously. Grown primarily in the European Union, Germany and Poland, rye is a member of the grass family and is one of few grains that can make leavened bread. Despite the fact we’re famous for our rye whisky, Canada only grows only about two per cent of the world’s rye production but as a hardy cereal crop for harsh weather, it thrives in colder climates like Canada’s. The rye flour Charbonneau bakes with comes through Montreal from Germany (the world’s second largest rye cereal producer), but during Covid sourcing the flour was difficult – and customers were disappointed when the Old Fashioned was on Chez L'Boulanger’s shelves less frequently. In terms of nutrition, breads made with whole rye are a good source of dietary fibre, though the unique flavour and crunchy snap of texture are important qualities of the Old Fashioned. “Once you try this bread, you don’t go to any other bread,” says Charbonneau, noting that a batch of 25 loaves will sell out in a day. For anticipated busier days, she instructs her bakers to make 30 loaves, but they will be prepared with the passion for food and baking that defines Chez L’Boulanger. “We bake home-made goods for our cus- tomers,” Charbonneau says. “How I bake for my kids is how I bake here at the bakery.” Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram at @ andrewcoppolino.
The world of bread is a diverse one. That includes Nepalese paratha made with whole-wheat atta dough, properly fermented San Francisco sourdough with an “ear” baked crunchy from a measured and expert slash with a razor blade, or thin-crusted Afghan bolani stuffed with potatoes and leeks and served with yogurt. At the other end of the spectrum are simple sliced sandwich loaves, often the best for grilled cheese or a classic PB & J snack – both for kids of all ages. In this part of the world, and perhaps somewhere in between the artisanal variety and the mundane is a unique bread that Chez L’Boulanger bakes daily and calls “Old Fashioned.” According to owner and baker Julie Char- bonneau, the loaf is among the bakery’s best selling products in what is a wide range of baked goods and ready-made foods. The name reflects an appeal to old-ti- mey, comfort-food goodness, according to Charbonneau. “It’s called Old Fashioned because it’s home-made and grand-maman-style,” she says. Founded more than a decade ago by Char- bonneau and a partner, Chez L’Boulanger, located on Laurier Street, prepares fresh baked goods like the Old Fashioned bread, frozen meals, lunch boxes and special-occa- sion meals. Peer into their chest freezers and cooler
In terms of sweets, there’s cookies and Danish, but the bakery also makes pouding Chômeur, a depression-era “poor man’s cake” with maple syrup that you find at a sugar shack. The majority of Chez L’Boulanger’s busi- ness comes from catering, however. Lots of catering. “This summer is booked with several weddings,” she says, adding that they are busy catering for funerals as well. Catering, in fact, determined the trajectory that her business followed, re-routing her original vision to have a shop, perhaps like an M&M Food Market, but focussed on healthier foods. They started out serving fresh-brewed coffee and they had a sandwich bar, but the business model soon changed. “Catering became very popular, so we switched to that when we couldn’t do both,” says Charbonneau. It’s a clear case of going where the busi- ness was rather than fighting to fit into a pre-determined shape. That too is a business reality. “In catering, there’s little loss. You get an order to feed 100, you cook for 100 and you’re paid for 100. There’s no waste.” A passion for fresh, healthy food still lies beneath that pragmatic approach. Charbonneau says that she has always just loved to cook. She learned the baker’s trade
Notre principale collecte de fonds annuel Souper de homards encore une fois un franc succès grâce à votre participation ! Merci! 47 e Merci à nos commanditaires et collaborateurs / Thank you to our sponsors and collaborators.
Commanditaires / Sponsors E.M. Gervais Clinique d’esthétique Louyze Rockland Ford Jean Coutu Vitrerie Glass & Mirror +++Inc. La Cuisine Gimy Ltée Lave Auto Lucas Car Wash Clinique dentaire Dr. Pommainville Dental Clinic Luc Filion – Consilio Financial Planning GAB’S Resto-Bar Co-operators/Ass. Daniel Lebrun Insurance Inc. Bélanger Automobile Simard & Associés/Associates - Avocat/notaires Gestion Pom Management Inc. Blanchette Déneigement Centennial Construction Rockland Ltée/Ltd Maison funéraire Théo. Brunet & fils Meubles Raymond Lalonde Inc. – Accent Furnace Dr. Heating & Cooling Inc. André Villeneuve Heating Inc. Roch Drouin Auto Repair St-Hubert Rockland Stéphane Poupart Development Ltd Home Hardware - Joseph Lafrenière Centre du Jardin Bergeron Garden Center Salon Modelo Rockland Marine Julie Rosche, Ass. Canadian Tire Rockland
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Commanditaires Argent 2 500 $ plus Silver Sponsors
Merci spécial aux groupes de jeunes et leurs parents qui aide aux diverse tâches de l’activité : • L’Escadron de Cadets de l’air 832 Twillick Clarence-Rockland • Le Regroupement scout francophone 64 e de Clarence-Rockland • L’Association hockey Lightning Clarence-Rockland • Groupe école secondaire catholique L’Escale Our prime annual fund-raising event, Lobsterfest, once again a great success because of your participation! Thank you! Special thanks to the youth groups and their parents for their help with various task for the event : • The 832 Twillick Clarence-Rockland Air Cadet Squadron • Le Regroupement scout francophone 64 e de Clarence-Rockland • Clarence-Rockland Ligthning Hockey Association • Groupe école secondaire catholique L’Escale
Commanditaires Bronze 1000 $
Bronze Sponsors Lamarche Électrique
Mr. Puffs, Rockland Rockland Wheels Houle Landscaping Potvin Construction Bel Ortie D.B. Lawncare – Denis Bertrand Stéphane Sarazin, député provincial
Collaborateurs/Contributors Ben’s Mechanical Brauwerks Hoffman Canadian Tire Rockland Chayer Électrique Cité Clarence Rockland Cuisine Gimy Miller Waste Systems Rehan’s Your Independant Grocer
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