A Montrealer by choice, Restaurant Gus chef shows what out-of-province students can contribute

The Coalition Avenir Québec’s new directive to hike tuition fees for out-of-province students has missed the mark for many.

While some politicians say students from the rest of Canada only come to profit from the province’s low tuition fees, everywhere you look, there are examples of the exact opposite: people who came to study and stayed.

That includes chef and restaurant owner David Angus Ferguson.

His name is as Scottish-sounding as haggis, but we could say his heart is as Quebecois as tourtière.

His food, as generous as his laughter, charms critics all around.

“Sure, you can say that; I can’t,” he says, bursting out in that characteristic laughter.

As the owner of Gus restaurant in the Rosemont-Petite-Patrie neighbourhood, he’s taken inspiration from Quebec’s culinary culture.

“I used her pickling recipe as an inspiration to make our own pickled jalapeño sauce,” he said, referring to Jehane Benoit’s cookbook, La Cuisine Canadienne, or “Canadian cuisine.” His copy is a version full of scribbles and markings he inherited from his Quebecois “belle-maman,” or mother-in-law.

Ferguson has also fed many famous people, including Jean Béliveau, and his restaurant is a known revolving door for patrons of all political stripes.

But Ferguson’s journey to becoming a successful chef and restaurant owner wasn’t expected.

Ferguson is from Ontario.

He moved to Montreal when he was 21 to study philosophy at Concordia University and then transferred to McGill University.

He lived in the Plateau-Mont-Royal.

“I would take these long, long walks and finally I remember the day I finally found the bagels and it was St. Viateur Bagels and I sat there and I ate it and I was like, ‘Wow, this is something really special,'” Ferguson said.

Ferguson would also marvel at the food he would discover walking up and down The Main.

He would often get lost in the city exploring.

“Not to be a cliché but I sort of found myself,” the chef confessed.

He says the Montreal way of life made sense to him and he felt at home as he discovered more about Quebec’s culture.

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“One of the wonderful things of coming to study in Quebec is that when you learn the people, you sort of push the politics aside and you have better stories to go home with,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson fell in love with the stories, with Quebec and with a Quebecoise.

With his wife Hélène, he founded his first restaurant, the acclaimed Jolifou.

“Three francophone kids later and 20 years of running restaurants, I’m still here,” he said.

He also learned French, although he is very critical of his language skills.

“I think off the island of Montreal they’re like, ‘Wow, dude, what are you saying?'” he joked, shortly after speaking French with ease.

We can also say he is a fully integrated Ontarian who has left what some in Quebec would call “bad habits” behind.

“I’ve changed from a Leafs fan to a Habs fan,” he confessed.

While Ferguson chose to stay in Quebec to make his life, he says students who end up leaving also contribute to making the province shine.

“They are like our ambassadors,” he says. “They are the ones who can tell our stories. They’re the ones who can tell people what a real poutine tastes like. They’re the ones who can talk about Jean Leloup, Daniel Belanger.”

For those who stay, the proof of how well they can do is in the pudding — or, in Ferguson’s case, the whole menu.