J.C. Poirier

Coming Up

That grounding shows in a style that is exacting without losing a personal edge, with discipline carrying the weight and the emotion of the work. Since 2017, Poirier has held the roles of executive chef and owner of St. Lawrence and chef of Soft Power, a pair of positions that mark both continuity and movement within the same craft framework.

Where They Are Now

At St. Lawrence, the Vancouver restaurant where J.C. Poirier serves as executive chef and owner, the point of view is most legible in the food itself. Onion soup is one of the hearty Quebec recipes associated with the restaurant and often referred to as his famous onion soup. It reads as a dish built for comfort and weight, but also for control. Venison tourtière, named in both his cookbook and restaurant repertoire, extends that same line of thinking: a traditional form, handled as a live part of service rather than as a fixed citation. In both cases, the work keeps technique and feeling in the same frame. The coherence comes from the details that are already on the page: the dishes, the year St. Lawrence opened, and a cooking style rooted in French and Québécois foundations. That clarity is what gives the work its force. At St. Lawrence, the cuisine stays grounded and deliberate, shaped by training and by the pull of home.

Signature

J.C.'s signature dishes include Onion soup and venison tourtière. These are the dishes that most clearly sketch his culinary identity: sturdy, evocative, and anchored in a tradition he has made distinctly his own.

In Their Words “I had to leave before I could truly come back home again.”

Honors

J.C.'s honors include Michelin star and Chef of the Year. They sit alongside a body of work that reads as earned through repetition, discipline, and a clear sense of lineage: not decorative, but rooted in the demands of the kitchen and the standards of the trade.