This episode of The Food Professor podcast features Chef Charlotte Langley and explores GLP-1 weight loss drug research, the impact of a shipping accident in Baltimore on the food supply, surging cocoa prices, and poor working conditions in the food industry in India. It also delves into Canadian grocery spending trends and Bitcoin's influence on food inflation, and celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Poutine!
In the latest episode of The Food Professor podcast, presented by Caddle, Michael LeBlanc and Sylvain Charlebois dive into a range of pressing issues within the food industry, alongside their esteemed guest, Chef Charlotte Langley, co-founder of Scout and the visionary behind Langley Foods. This episode not only celebrates the innovation and sustainability in seafood canning but also explores the transformative journey of emerging Canadian brands through Langley's latest venture.
A significant portion of the podcast is dedicated to discussing groundbreaking Canadian research on GLP-1 weight loss drugs, presented by Caddle. This revelation is set against the backdrop of various industry challenges and evolutions, including the dramatic incident in Baltimore where a shipping liner collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, raising concerns over the immediate impact on North America's food supply chain.
As Easter approaches, the unprecedented surge in cocoa prices to over $10,000/mt US prompts a debate on whether this is a fleeting occurrence or a potential trend, and how it might affect consumers already anticipating their chocolate treats.
The episode takes a sobering turn with investigative reports shedding light on the dire working conditions in the sugar and shrimp industries in India, revealing systemic issues of exploitation and the urgent need for corporate accountability.
Moreover, the discussion on the significant reduction in Canadian grocery spending since early 2020 opens up questions on consumer behaviour shifts due to COVID-19, inflation, and the balance between grocery and foodservice spending.
Lastly, the podcast touches on the controversial topic of Bitcoin's role in the food industry, signaling a deep dive into digital currencies and their implications. The episode wraps up with a nod to poutine, celebrating its 60th year as a cherished dish, showcasing the podcast's blend of serious industry insights with cultural highlights.
Caddle's GLP-1 Research
https://www.dal.ca/sites/agri-food/research/glp1-survey.html
The Globe & Mail Article on Shrimp Production in India
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-outlaw-ocean-india-seafood-plants/
New York Times expose on Sugar Production in India for Pepsi & Coke
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/world/asia/india-sugar-cane-fields-child-labor-hysterectomies.html?searchResultPosition=2
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to The Food Professor podcast presented by Caddle, season four, episode 26. I'm Michael LeBlanc.
Sylvain Charlebois 00:11
And I'm the Food Professor, Sylvain Charlebois.
Michael LeBlanc 00:15
Our very special guest this week is the co-founder of Scout, Chef Charlotte Langley, Prince Edward Islander, giving or gave the modern home cook access to literally crafted bespoke, responsible seafood by elevating the practice of seafood canning. I love Scout.
Now, she has just moved on from Scout to a new phase of her journey, Langley Foods, an incubator that will provide emerging Canadian brands with help growing their business and she is our guest this week.
Sylvain Charlebois 00:47
Yeah, no, I, we haven't had a chef in a while, actually. So, it was nice to have her on. And yeah, it's just a really, she's-, she's a dynamo. Oh, my goodness. It's hard to keep up with her.
Michael LeBlanc 00:59
Well, it was hard to get her, it was hard to get her on the mic. We've been-, we've been asking her for a couple of years, and we just never been at the same place at the same time. So finally, the universe aligned, and we got her on. So, it's a great interview. So, we'll, of course, get to that a little later.
We gotta get right to the news, because it's-, it's been an action-packed week. I guess let's start with the shocking scenes from Baltimore, as a giant ship carrying 4,700 containers rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday morning. So, there's been talking about supply, you know, six, six lost lives, their souls and there's been some talk about?
Sylvain Charlebois 01:36
As we speak, they haven't found them yet.
Michael LeBlanc 01:38
Now, there-, now it's in a reclamation, unfortunately.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:41
I know.
Michael LeBlanc 01:42
Now it's a-, Baltimore's a big port, mostly automotive, but I think there's some sugar and other stuff. Any-, any comments on impact in the short term on this food supply chain in North America?
Sylvain Charlebois 01:51
I would say the biggest concern right now, there are two concerns, cost for transportation, they're going to go up. Obviously, if you lose a bridge like that, the detour will cost you more. So, it will certainly impact transportation costs and the other issue is when will this seaway clear up? I mean, you're basically you have a port being idle, and later in the year with harvest you need to make sure that vessels actually go through there. So that's the-, that's the number one concern right now impacting the agri-food sector.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:51
So, first of all, our thoughts are for the families affected by this tragedy. It's just awful. I mean, the first thing we saw that morning, on-, on-, on-, on Wednesday, on Tuesday morning, was this bridge collapsing, it was just surreal. Oh, my goodness, but from an ad perspective, Baltimore is ranked 29th in the country as the most important port in the US. So, it's not that big a deal and we're at the end of March. So, all seed fertilizers are in already, in fact, actually farmers in the US are already putting seeds in the ground as we speak in many parts of the country.
Michael LeBlanc 03:07
All right. Well, I know the US government is vowed to step in quickly. I mean, if they clear out the wreckage and allow the movement of boats, that's different than the rebuilding of the bridge, which is going to happen as well. It's a big commuter. I've been on that bridge myself. I spent a lot of time in Baltimore.
Sylvain Charlebois 03:22
Oh, yeah, have you, okay, I wouldn't trust that bridge at all. Seems like a very narrow bridge, eh.
Michael LeBlanc 03:26
Yeah, you know, it's-, it's like an industrial bridge. Not a-, but it's a very-, it's a very important bridge to move goods so you know, the Americans will rebuild it real quick.
Sylvain Charlebois 03:36
As you can imagine, in Halifax there's lots of talk and while we-, we are being impacted by what happened in Baltimore, the port will get busier for obvious reasons, but two-, we have two bridges. That-, that certainly would be a target for vessels that are-, that are in trouble. So-, so today, actually, I was crossing the bridge I actually did look at with another was just to make sure you know.
Michael LeBlanc 04:04
Yeah, you look twice. Anyway, so good luck to our friends in the US for sorting that out-, that out real quick. Now it's Easter Week. So, let's talk about the Easter Bunny and chocolate so I've seen numbers. I'm seeing numbers for cocoa prices, surpassing $10,000, What's the measurement MT, what's that metric ton.
Sylvain Charlebois 04:30
Not Bitcoins.
Michael LeBlanc 04:31
Not Bitcoin, we're gonna talk about bitcoin later because you've been even angling to talk about Bitcoin for three or four weeks, so we'll get to talk about bitcoin in a few weeks.
Sylvain Charlebois 04:37
Going coo coo for cocoa.
Michael LeBlanc 04:39
Yeah, like so. Um, you know, to, two big questions, I guess. One, is this a confluence of events or is this a trend, is this the environment, is this just because see, you know, it's a commodity, commodities have up down years hard years. You know, they go up and down all the time, second. Now, the timing strikes me, and I want your thoughts on this. The timing, it's hitting this today, well, the chocolate would have gone into products that are on shelves shipped to retailers six months ago.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:07
Oh yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 05:07
So is this really going to impact us for this holiday or really we're looking at something like a Christmas impact more than a-, you know, more than an Easter impact. Give me your thoughts on those two.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:18
Yeah, the rally really started in October, November. That's when we started to hear about what was going on in the Ivory Coast and Ghana and for people who don't know, the black pod, which is a fungus, is impacting production in both countries and they are and now-, and both countries represent more than 60% of cocoa's global production. So, it's really massive.
Michael LeBlanc 05:42
From disease.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:42
Yeah, exactly.
Michael LeBlanc 05:43
I see. Okay.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:44
And there is a fungus because it's super humid over there. There's, there's a lot of water and, and floods have actually impacted roads and a lot of farmers just can't get products to market and so that's the other factor going on right now and to add fuel to the fire, Asia and other emerging countries where the middle class wants some they want to cocoa there's still buying, still buying.
Sylvain Charlebois 06:17
And so, what-, right now, what you have is-, are a bunch of multinationals like Hershey, Mondelez, Nestle, they're-, they're forward buying right now, like, since October, November as much as possible and you're right. You would think that perhaps chocolate prices wouldn't be impacted by Easter, but actually, I've been looking around and prices are much higher. Cocoa is not a factor, but there are other factors making chocolate more expensive for this Easter, but if I were you, you know as you go out to buy that chocolate bunny rabbit I think about mom for Mother's Day.
Michael LeBlanc 06:56
Yeah. That's a good point, you could-, you could, you could stash it with your beef that's going up. We were-
Sylvain Charlebois 07:01
I would say so. Yeah, it's gonna be quite problematic. Yeah. So, beef, get beef and get chocolate and everyone's gonna be happy.
Michael LeBlanc 07:10
All right. I love chocolate. So good news.
Sylvain Charlebois 07:13
But here's-, here's my thoughts about what's going on with-, with cocoa's rally. At $10,000. If you're-, if you're Hershey, wouldn't you want to start thinking about producing your own cocoa? Like, seriously, you can actually produce cocoa in the lab now. It isn't possible. So at $5,000, no way, there's no I mean, just rely on Ivory Coast and because of climate change, you got to wonder how many companies out there would think of producing cocoa for themselves, you know, to make sure that they secure that supply chain for, for constant inputs and what about Canada, I mean, why not produce cocoa in Canada at some point?
Michael LeBlanc 07:55
Canada-, like, is it a, is it a weather thing, can we produce cocoa here in Canada?
Sylvain Charlebois 08:00
In a lab, you can do anything.
Michael LeBlanc 08:01
Oh, in a lab, I see. Okay.
Sylvain Charlebois 08:03
Oh, yeah, you can produce coffee in the lab now, but-, but costs are prohibitive, but like I said, the market could actually push some companies to reconsider. That's the thing.
Michael LeBlanc 08:14
Interesting. Alright, let's-, let's stay on-, on-, on the price or cost of food here. You've been and we've been talking about these breadcrumbs of data for the past, I don't know six months where it looks like Canadians are actually buying less groceries. Now you published a chart and social media on X that indicated early 2020, Canadians were spending $301.92.
Sylvain Charlebois 08:36
Yep.
Michael LeBlanc 08:36
And January-, looks like January 2024, they're spending $248.15. So that's a big difference down now, a couple of quick questions. One, is this in real dollars, which would make it worse? Like is it inflation?
Sylvain Charlebois 08:49
That's right, it is in real dollars. Yep.
Michael LeBlanc 08:51
It is in real dollars. So, it-, and then second is, does this include restaurant spending? And so, is this just food bought for from grocery stores, so those two questions? I got one more but let's you've answered one is, what are we looking at?
Sylvain Charlebois 09:08
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, the 240-, the $248 is just retail. That's just retail.
Michael LeBlanc 09:14
Okay.
Sylvain Charlebois 09:15
Actually, I did look at food service and food services are $268 for the month of January. So, you got that 41/59, 41/59 split between service and retail right now in Canada. Which-
Michael LeBlanc 09:32
Does that make sense to you, doesn't that feel super high?
Sylvain Charlebois 09:35
No.
Michael LeBlanc 09:36
Well, I mean, there's only the-, but the restaurant business is like a $91 billion business and groceries are like a couple of $100.
Sylvain Charlebois 09:45
The average split over 10 years is about 39/61. I mean, Americans are 54/46 on the other side, so 54 service ,46 retail.
Michael LeBlanc 09:57
Really?
Sylvain Charlebois 09:57
I don't think it's that much, no, absolutely not. I mean, when you look at the food economy, you kind of have to understand what that split is because that's how-, that's how you kind of-
Michael LeBlanc 10:11
That's total consumption.
Sylvain Charlebois 10:12
Exactly. It's total consumption. If it's growing, that's great. If it's not, then you got a problem and I'll be honest with you, it's not growing.
Michael LeBlanc 10:19
So, in this number, you're saying with this number, these numbers are saying I should say that-
Sylvain Charlebois 10:24
This is Canada's number, by the way, it's not mine. It's not ours at all. Just so you know.
Michael LeBlanc 10:30
Yeah.
Sylvain Charlebois 10:30
Don't shoot the messenger. A lot of people are skeptical about statistics, and I can understand why.
Michael LeBlanc 10:35
So, this comes with a couple of caveats, but on its surface, the numbers seem to-, to say people are spending less money on groceries and we just celebrated, Stats Canada released today, we're now at 41 million Canadians.
Sylvain Charlebois 10:47
That's right.
Michael LeBlanc 10:48
So, I guess that would change the index a little bit because it is a per capita thing, but what do you think people, are people buying less, they're spending less to be sharper with their money, they're-, they're using better leftovers? Is there any upside to this number or is it all, like people can't afford to buy what they used to buy?
Sylvain Charlebois 11:06
Well, I mean, in January, if you look at food service, there was a huge drop of 19% from December to January, which is obviously typical. Every year, there is a drop from December to January.
Michael LeBlanc 11:16
Sure.
Sylvain Charlebois 11:18
But January 2024, is actually stronger than January 2023. Now, if you exclude inflation, it is not, but it's actually not as bad as I thought. Now, Kelly Hutchison from Restaurants Canada last night, actually commented on my graph on X and, and we kind of both agreed that this-, the situation is not that bad. I mean, we are talking a lot about bankruptcies and closures and yes, it's not, it's not easy, but it's not that bad. People are still going out. They're just very careful. it's just on the retail side, I think it's-, it's a bit of a slugfest right now. People are exiting traditional routes, and they're going offline with-, with the Dollarama's, the Giant Tiger's and everything else.
Michael LeBlanc 12:08
Interesting, interesting and-, and the numbers that started in 2020. Do we-, do we see any impact of the COVID era, I mean, obviously, in 2020, there's a tremendous shift by necessity to consumption from retail of food. Did you detect any shift, if you looked at these numbers like 2019, would-, they would the arc be the same, do you have any sense of that?
Sylvain Charlebois 12:32
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think you raised that point, and I actually did look back at the data and writing and per capita food expenditures retail, from 2017 to 2020. It's anywhere between $280, $290 a pop. So-
Michael LeBlanc 12:51
All adjusted for real dollars, right, so these just-
Sylvain Charlebois 12:55
That's just real dollars. Yeah, just real dollars. So obviously, the dollar today is not worth the same as in 2017, but what's-, what's-, what's upsetting is that I couldn't go back. Beyond 2017 because of how the database is structured now. They just kind of erased everything. So, I can't go back beyond-, Statistics Canada, man. I don't know. Like I just, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 13:21
I don't know. Well, I guess we can just try to figure out go forward what this all means, but it sounds like it means there's less dollars being spent, which sounds to me, like more people competing for that dollars from a brand and a retail perspective and people trying alternative, as you said, alternative channels to buy their food. You and I have been talking about this for a while. I'm particularly interested in Ozempic and the GLP-1's Impact on restaurants and QSR.
Sylvain Charlebois 13:50
So fascinating.
Michael LeBlanc 13:51
Consumption. So, what did we find out, what did we learn from the survey, what do you think being taxed-, what did you learn?
Sylvain Charlebois 13:56
Caddle and us, I mean, we were frustrated because we couldn't find any Canadian data on GLP-1s, like there was nothing and there was a lot of stuff going on out of the US. We knew that 11 million people were using GLP-1s in the US, including Ozempic. We heard-, we all heard about the Oprah Winfrey exit, Weightwatchers Of course, and-, and we know that JP Morgan is estimating that per-, that perhaps 30 million Canadians will be using GLP-1s by 2030, but nothing out of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 14:31
30 million Americans, you said-, you said 30 million Canadians, but you meant 30 million-
Sylvain Charlebois 14:34
30 million American-, Americans, that's right and so we thought, we need some numbers in Canada and so-, so we got some numbers, thanks to-, to Caddle and so the actual answer is, drumroll. We estimate that between 900,000 to 1.4 million Canadians are currently using-
Michael LeBlanc 14:58
Wow.
Sylvain Charlebois 14:59
A GLP-1 drug. Now, of that sum, not all of them are using a GLP-1 drug to lose weight. 27% of them are basically using a GLP-1-, not to lose weight, but I gotta tell ya, I mean, many of them, they've-, they've-, they've cut on pop, chocolate, snacks, they're eating less, they're buying less food, they're going less to the restaurant, less alcohol, you name it and I tell you this week. I mean, I actually met some executives in the food industry, and they are absolutely paying attention to this, absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 15:43
Is it too much of a stretch to say that these numbers that we started the pod off with? If not now, I mean, a million Canadians is not nothing, cutting back their food consumption?
Sylvain Charlebois 15:54
Oh, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 15:55
I mean, maybe-
Michael LeBlanc 15:56
Sure, sure.
Sylvain Charlebois 15:56
The number of Canadians who are using GLP-1 drugs to lose weight is basically the size of the City of Halifax basically.
Sylvain Charlebois 16:00
That's a lot of people.
Michael LeBlanc 16:07
The numbers are probably underreported, because it's very hard to get those products right now and-
Sylvain Charlebois 16:12
Yeah, absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 16:13
They're not all being-
Sylvain Charlebois 16:14
Not all are losing weight. Not all have changed their buying.
Michael LeBlanc 16:17
Some have diabetes.
Sylvain Charlebois 16:19
Yeah, some of them actually have I haven't seen any changes at all and again, I do want to disclose the fact that I'm not a medical doctor, or a nutritionist, and our report is, is not about encouraging or-
Michael LeBlanc 16:36
advocating in any way
Sylvain Charlebois 16:38
Advocating the use of GLP-1s. We were just super curious to see how this phenomenon is or could impact the food industry.
Michael LeBlanc 16:50
Yeah, I think it's a-, it's a big issue for QSR first, sugary drinks, pops, impulse foods, but overall, I think it could be something, but you know, if it helps people live longer, it all balances out in the long run, I suppose.
Sylvain Charlebois 17:09
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 17:10
So let's talk about a couple more things, you've been asking-, you've been wanting to talk about Bitcoin for a couple of episodes now, how does this relate to the food industry. Now, what's on your mind about the currency for cybercrime and global larceny?
Sylvain Charlebois 17:26
I'm intrigued by that phenomenon. I'll be honest, so I don't know-, I don't own any bitcoin. I don't intend to invest money that I wish I could lose. I mean, a lot of people are talking about this digital currency. It's not really in my view is not digital currencies. It's a digital asset. That's kind of how I think about Bitcoin and the reason why I got interested in Bitcoin is because of blockchain and blockchain actually is a big-, it's a big topic in the food industry because of traceability. You want to trace and track products in real time, and, and some companies are using Blockchain like Walmart, and-, and-, and they're getting the support of IBM.
Sylvain Charlebois 18:08
So that's really interesting. I don't think about Bitcoin as a currency to buy things I look at Bitcoin as-, as a-, as a-, as an option as an alternative to our central banking system, essentially, because we've been talking about inflation for a very long time now and a lot of-, a lot of people are wondering, okay, do we still trust the system we have, do we still trust the currency that we have, are we politicizing interest rates, inflation? And the answer is, yes, we are because we're seeing more and more politicians writing letters to Governor Macklem saying you should bring down rates, you should raise rates and-, and I'm going, how did that happen, and so you're and it's not just in Canada, it's everywhere. It's in the US, It's in Europe and that's why I think there's a lot of push and of course ETFs are now-, have opened up the door in January and that's what we're seeing this rally with Bitcoin.
Sylvain Charlebois 19:12
There are more buyers that are the pool for buyers-, of buyers, I've actually as actually increase in January and, and that's why we're expecting Bitcoin to, to increase, but if you if in a perfect world, okay, you control inflation, and inflation becomes more predictable than it is now, like a lot of things can change in the food industry, for example, the quality of who we get the shrink-flation issue that we've been talking about, skim-flation.
Sylvain Charlebois 19:42
I mean, all of these things, I don't think you would eliminate, but certainly, it would actually allow companies to better prepare better jobs because right now, all we're seeing the last two years are bogus accusations against certain companies. People are upset that people are in front of grocery stores with signs and it's just really mayhem and I do wonder how life would look like if-, if more-, if the market in general embraces Bitcoin as-, as the new gold or as another gold, if you will.
Sylvain Charlebois 20:19
Dold doesn't-, gold doesn't really belong to anything. It's not controlled by anything. It's just a market. Same for Bitcoin. So that's-, that's why I got thinking about now of course you got crypt-, cryptocurrency experts that are looking at the concept of cryptocurrency, but you also have some bitcoin fanatics, those-, those guys are scary. I mean, it's because you got to talk about all the scandals and all that-, I mean, Bitcoin was created and I mean, the first document about Bitcoin was written by an unknown author. Nobody knows who the author is.
Michael LeBlanc 20:59
No one knows.
Sylvain Charlebois 20:59
It's weird, right.
Michael LeBlanc 21:01
Shrouded in secrecy.
Sylvain Charlebois 21:02
I know, and that's really what bothers a lot of people, a lot of sane people like you and I, but still, I thought of talking about this on this podcast, because I actually do think implications for the food industry could be significant over time.
Michael LeBlanc 21:16
Interesting, I didn't connect those dots. Thank you for that. That's an interesting connection.
Sylvain Charlebois 21:21
I'm not going to charge tuition for it.
Michael LeBlanc 21:25
Just before we get to our great interview with, with Charlotte, I want to talk about getting back to these numbers in a couple of pieces of news today. One is the Stats Canada releases the fact that there are now 2.67 million temporary residents doubling in two years, yet you still have associations asking, we need more temporary residents and at the same time, the Bank of Canada says we're in a crisis of productivity.
Michael LeBlanc 21:53
To me, these two things are connected. In other words, you keep bringing in cheap labor, instead of investing in technology, that number is going to get worse than better and, you know, where are these people going to live? Are they going to live in-
Sylvain Charlebois 22:05
The GDP per capita is down.
Michael LeBlanc 22:07
Now are they gonna live in the restaurant, like where are these people going to live, I don't know. So, what do you-, what do you make, what do you make of all this, am I connecting dots that shouldn't be connected, or, you know, well, what's the formula here?
Sylvain Charlebois 22:17
More people is a good thing, obviously, but you want to take care of them. You want-, well you want the economy to take care of them, and people won't alone solve your problem, your productivity problem. I mean, you need a plan. You need a plan and-, and of course, right now, what we're seeing is a private sector sitting on a sideline, not investing at all. It's just the-, the public sector is doing the heavy lifting in-, in-, in financing everywhere.
Michael LeBlanc 22:48
Or asking for more, just-, just give me more cheap labor.
Sylvain Charlebois 22:51
Exactly. And-, and so it's a concern. I mean, we're not capitalizing on the people that we actually are welcoming in this country. I don't think they're disenfranchised. A lot of people are-, are coming to Canada, and I suspect that many of them are disappointed with their experience, unfortunately.
Michael LeBlanc 23:11
Yeah. Well, if some of these temporary foreign workers could, you know, well, there may be-, frame up a house might be a little more of a closer to some kind of solution.
Sylvain Charlebois 23:20
Jeez, that's all we need, I think is-, I think it's-, it's something we need, right?
Michael LeBlanc 23:25
I guess so. Anyway, listen, as I've always said, there's three levers to pull to solve the demographic realities, it is not political, it's just numbers. It's just math if you can increase immigration, you can increase domestic programs to encourage Canadians to have bigger families, or you could put it in technology. Anybody that pulls one lever too hard is not going to win. So, in my mind it's a blend. All right, well, that's me kind of going on.
Sylvain Charlebois 23:53
No, it's a good point. Actually. It's a good-, that's a great, great topic, for sure.
Michael LeBlanc 23:57
Yeah. Let's get to our great interview with Charlotte, talk about-, a little bit about Scout but more about what she's doing today incubating helping startup folks in the food sector, but first, we're gonna hear from our good friends at Caddle.
Michael LeBlanc 24:12
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Sylvain Charlebois 25:01
Well, hello, Charlotte, welcome to our podcast.
Charlotte Langley 25:04
Thank you. I'm so thrilled and excited to be here. I'm still-, it's been a while but I'm happy to finally connect with you guys.
Sylvain Charlebois 25:11
Yeah, I know you've been traveling a lot. You've been incredibly busy. I guess for our listeners, tell us more about yourself, your story and-, and what do you do for a living?
Charlotte Langley 25:21
Well, I do lots of things for a living, which is sort of funny. It started off as being in culinary like a chef, that was my beginning of my culinary career was my career in general was being a chef. But now it's evolved with so many different interesting things and I decided through the very long story of my romantic, you know, discovery of being young cook, being in touch with my little community, my fisheries, my farmers, my distributors, etc., that I enrolled into launching a CPG brand called Scout Canning, which I've been working on for the last 10 years. So, I have the sort of Jill of all trades, kind of I guess you didn't say where I'm not just one category of operator and many categories of an operator.
Sylvain Charlebois 26:01
The journey that you've had has been incredibly impressive. You, yeah, I mean, you founded Scout to lead Langley foods now. Could you share with us what inspired you to transition from running a successful Canned Seafood brand to starting a consumer foods brand and agency?
Charlotte Langley 26:27
Absolutely. I, it was born out of the experience that I faced when I launched Scout, there are so many barriers of entry for new startups, you know, whether it be food, CPG, food / beverage, you know, pharmacy, cannabis, like the whole gamut, you want to start, you want to build your dream, you have an idea. You're an innovator, you're creative, you're passionate, barriers to entry, maybe you're just a creative person that doesn't understand how to do a financial performa or make a report.
Charlotte Langley 26:54
Maybe you have this beautiful vision of what a company could look like, but you don't know how to get there. The barriers that I faced when I started was access to funding and that was something that I had no experience with, I worked as a chef in a restaurant, no, I was a caterer, I did all those sorts of things. I never once looked at financing or finding access to any sort of funding. So, for me and going, like, you know, like, why would you like you get paid a salary and then you do your job. And, you know, you probably don't get paid overtime, but maybe if you're in a good space you do and I thought up Scout, I was going I want to-, I initially wanted to get out of the restaurant industry as in I want to expand beyond being the restaurant, I felt like I had the desire and the passion to be bigger, you know, to be big fish, small pond, I guess you could say for a pun for the seafood industry space.
Charlotte Langley 27:40
And I've got lots of weird jokes and by making it like launching a CPG product by bringing Scout to market, I was like, oh, I'll just come up with an idea. I'll make a really amazing, unique product, hopefully, also, very fortunately, the timing was really weirdly excellent for coming up with a canned food item and the biggest-, the hardest part for me was learning how to get it commercialized and get it to market like after I go with the recipes and the format of the idea, how do you actually get something to a grocery store retail, there's a lot of steps.
Charlotte Langley 28:11
So, Langley foods is inspired by one, my grandfather's Company, which was a food business in the '60s and '70s and '80s. That was-, that was acquired by Farm Boy actually, when Farm Boy was just starting up, and then he close it down, consulted for a few years and then over the last 30 or so years, as I've been growing up and becoming myself, I decided now's the time to think in a bit of a legacy project and pay some homage to my grandfather by building out a food and beverage CPG sort of trust fund a shared office concept that helps people gain access to all of the resources they need to build their own version of-, or vision of what they want to see in CPG in Canada specifically to start. So, it's helping people with what I needed help with, you know, now that I've learned, I want to help other people. That seems naturally normal to me.
Sylvain Charlebois 29:07
I want to go back to your years with Scout.
Charlotte Langley 29:10
Yes.
Sylvain Charlebois 29:11
Other than, you know, financing. What-, what are the biggest challenges that you had to face, and how did you overcome them, and what are some-, some of the most, what were the greatest accomplishments that you're proud of when you were at Scout?
Charlotte Langley 29:27
Oh gosh, I love these questions and I love thinking about the good times and the hard times too. Big challenges finding co-packers, you know, like finding somebody that-, so finding someone to work with a plant or facility a processor that all of a sudden you're going I want to can, you know, muscles and lobster and whatever and they're going "we don't do that", I'm like what do you mean, they were like we work with lobster like well, what if we tried this and brought this to market? Here's some samples that I made. I remember sitting down at the table. For the first tasting, I had products I had made at home, like my test kitchen and everybody that was worth the factory in the facility, they're like, this is gross, like, what do you mean? Like, why do you want to make this? And I was like, okay, well, it's something I just need to find a way to make it better or improve, but they had never experienced anything that was that I had made before, and they weren't used to working in this medium.
Charlotte Langley 30:21
So convincing them that this was gonna be an opportunity that's both viable for them financially, it's good for the plant is good-, for keeping the plant operational open. It took some convincing, but once we were able to convince them, I started doing R&D and some serious products devs with-, with a team, they started to understand and recognize why, the why-, they recognize the why.
Charlotte Langley 30:42
So, I think one of the biggest accomplishments in that sort of time was Scout. Which was like 2018 at this time, when I finally found a partner, I started in 2014, with the-, the dream and the idea and then by 2018, I brought in some partners and funds, and started asking for help.
Charlotte Langley 31:04
but the biggest accomplishment was working with the facility with the first co-packing partner because we didn't have the cash flow or the desire to really open up a $7 million cannery, which is large scale, was working with the people in the facility in Prince Edward Island, which is where I'm from, we were able to keep the plant open year round, increase everyone's salaries above-, above minimum wage to a living wage, which was actually very nice and the people were excited about having employment, as well as a variety in their work in their days. So, for me, I was able to bring-, so for me my base culture is sharing the success of Scout across the board across all channels in the supply chain, not just for the top-level heavies, it's for everybody.
Michael LeBlanc 31:55
And I want to take a quick step back and talk about Scout. By the way, it is my favorite, like I-, there's nothing I enjoy more than your muscles on a little bit of cream cheese and crackers. I got to you know, I'm a fan first.
Charlotte Langley 32:06
That's my favorite too, thank you very much.
Sylvain Charlebois 32:07
That's a huge compliment coming from Michael, I gotta tell you.
Charlotte Langley 32:12
I will.
Michael LeBlanc 32:14
And I've-, I've-, I-, in tune that there was a little bit of something you said, and I want to follow up on it. There was a little bit of a renaissance for canned food. I mean, I was in you, you-, you just came back from Portugal and of course there's this you know, the fantastic world of Portuguese sardine stores, right? just opened up in Times Square and of course it's many of them in Portugal, would you-, would you say that? Canned food is having a bit of a moment and particularly bespoke to canned food like yours is-, is amazing. It's not your run of the mill kind of find everywhere on a shelf, which is both, you know, so interesting, as you described and you know, so delicious, but also you know, you got to find the right place on the right shelf at the right price point, but would you would you say that you were part of a renaissance of of more bespoke can fishery foods?
Charlotte Langley 33:06
I would definitely like to say that I feel that I was, you know, I don't-, I can't take responsibility for movement requests. I can never remember the name of this was called like, the unconscious collective or the subconscious collective, where people start discovering things around the same time, you know, across the globe, whether it's like cancer research or tin fish, and it sort of became this, maybe I felt something was coming because you know, COVID started and then boom, canned foods sales rose by like 900%. So launching Scout into the market in 2020.
Charlotte Langley 33:41
We initially were trying to launch a food service business like you know, to bring product to bars and, you know, the kegs of the world and crack and go you know, save on labor. You know, it's easy to serve as a can of beer but way different and we had to move very quickly into DTC like everybody else, that all of a sudden, you know, canned food became very popular because people were hoarding canned foods in their homes, you know, like it just happened to be a weird positive time for canned food, but I think the idea is that North America's consumption of tin fish in general has primarily been the salmon and tunas of the space.
Charlotte Langley 34:20
But a lot of those things that we've consumed are quite-, well the stigma is not that great, they are associated with the lower quality, cheap food, you know, not that great and the bespoke or the artisanal or the craft cans that I brought to the table and brought to market, were meant to inspire and involve the palate of the tin fish consumer. You know, you've been to Europe. We've talked about this before you go to Portugal and Spain and eat these tins of sardines that are caught under the moonlight. You know a hand packed by beautiful, amazing skilled people known as that have been in the plant for 35/40 years. Beautiful, organic olive oil, cold pressed you know, but you know, like all the stories that go along with the Conserva culture of Europe and bringing that to North America and sharing that and getting people excited. Oh, yeah, we definitely and myself not definitely not alone have been bringing that to market quite-, I think quite well, honestly.
Michael LeBlanc 35:19
That's a great segue into the next question, which is social media and, you know, as a food entrepreneur-
Charlotte Langley 35:25
Oh girl, hot girls eat tin fish you know, like hot girls eat tin fish, hot girls like to eat sardines by the pool. That blew my mind, that blew my mind when it started happening, because I said this 1,000 times who would have thought that tinned fish would be sexy, like sexy.
Michael LeBlanc 35:43
No, but, you know, what, the, the magic of creating a program, you know, some of these things take on a life of their own, as you say, you never would have imagined someone would use your product and, and, you know, amplify it or suddenly becomes a thing on social media, but for a practical sense, it is a marketing campaign, or a component of the marketing plan of any food entrepreneur has to be social media and-, and-, and, you know, whether it's you know, tin fish date nights or whatever, like, it's very hard to construct, right, it's very hard to construct something viral, what's your advice in, you know, entrepreneurs, CPG companies about what they can do to at least have a platform on social media, and what are some of the best practices?
Charlotte Langley 36:32
I have to say, you know, now that I'm an old-, I'm an elder-millennial, this just happened yesterday for the 50th time.
Sylvain Charlebois 36:42
Boomer reminded you, is that-
Charlotte Langley 36:43
It was actually a Gen Z-er which is fine, like whatever, we all need to be categorized and put in our spaces to find ways to communicate with each other however, that was, but my best advice is what I feel like what I did, and I can only speak this, I'm not going to give you stats and data here, but it really is community outreach. You want this thing to go viral, you see somebody that is like, you know, you search tin fish on TikTok, or Instagram or Facebook, wherever you are planning on utilizing or all of them and the people that are talking about it already help amplify them, bring them on as partners collaborate with them, say, hey, I got a couple cans, would you taste them. Let me know what you think.
Charlotte Langley 37:19
Hopefully they like your product, but letting-, really embracing the community outreach. When I first started Scout, I was doing marketing and comms as well, if we had a, we didn't have a CMO or a director of marketing, you know, we had the three of-, well myself and then the three of us doing, you know, financials, operations, and then me being the communicating kind of type of girl and I just reached out to everybody, I knew that over the last, you know, 10, 15 years of my professional culinary career, I'm going to taste this, try this, let me know what you think.
Charlotte Langley 37:49
Take a video like maybe, maybe like, you know, maybe a minute, like longer version, just getting your product out there and trying lots of different channels and you look at Graza, which is an amazing olive oil brand from the States, they are collaborating with everybody in so many different unique ways a chip company to make it Graza potato olive oil chip. They're waking-, they're making funny costumes and going like the Canadian version of numbering to make door to door like selling the product but making it fun. Like there's so many unique ways to get created that don't have to be costly to build your sort of your voice in the space but community outreach, call, ask everybody to help you, send your products to everybody put it-, as I said, you know, they call it in the bar and industry or service industry like your spill, your spill tab or you spill over like you know, your-, you can pour five beers down the drain, and that's usually what you can give to your buddies. Make sure you have a I guess spill or spill tab for your friends in the marketplace because they will help you if they want to help you.
Michael LeBlanc 38:47
So, it's-, it's funny because if you and I were having this conversation 50 years ago, you'd likely have said the same thing. I mean, sampling has been around for a long time but the celebration of-, of social media, I think there's a-, there's a particular-, or a particular way to think about it. Let's-, let's cast our mind forward though, let's cast our mind forward to the kinds of trends that you're thinking about CPG trends if we want to say CPG trends but food service trends like as you sit and you know, you were at the forefront of the tin fish and you found yourself there just from a confluence of events that it just it made sense to what are the things that are making sense to you right now-, what do you-, what do you see in the future if you-, you get your crystal ball or tin ball or whatever you got?
Charlotte Langley 39:30
I'll show you my magic eight ball over here I would say-
Michael LeBlanc 39:34
Answer unclear, let's see if we can clear that answer up.
Charlotte Langley 39:37
Ask again later. What I see coming is I'm looking at how people are eating at home. You know you have to look at it from like-, zone in on how people are consuming food at home. Not going to be living dining at restaurants every day because the majority of the consumer marketplace is people that eat at home and I'm going how are they eating one? They have to work more hours or pick up another part-time job or something to afford the same amount of food they have to.
Charlotte Langley 40:00
So they're looking at their time management differently, but they also get home and they want to enjoy experiences with their family, friends partners with however the family dynamic, what that dynamic looks like when they're what they're coming home to, there still has to be a component of food service as in making something or creating something to share like that, you know, love and passion for your people and also the act and art of cooking is something that people enjoy that alongside the cost of things going up and going, what is the most delicious, nutritious, convenient food that also has a few steps to make it your own. So when COVID started, we were having fun, I was like, you know, this felicity of those big kids, like you know, here's everything in a little plastic bag, chop it up and throw the thing that you've made additions, it's crazy. It's a really super cool model, but it doesn't allow the person to really get in touch or create something that-, they're just making it like a paint by number.
Michael LeBlanc 40:55
It's like the days of adding an egg to the cake recipe like it didn't take off until it said add one egg.
Charlotte Langley 41:03
Add one egg and some water. That's it, but the scenario where I see people doing CPG, or food, food products that are convenience, but with some room for creativity, or gives them the convenience and costs or the availability to make good products like tasty well made, that you can still add your touches to, they're not fully finished. You know what I mean, like there's still like one or two more steps at the end. So, for example, maybe like a really cool microwave product that is highly nutritious, delicious, a really cool packaging that's better for the planet.
Charlotte Langley 41:34
They're looking at driving value through things like certifications that make the cost of that thing go up and make it more valuable at the grocery store, but also it carries like higher level of nutrition and protein and all those sorts of things. So, I'm seeing innovative scenarios around convenience food for people that is healthy, nutritious, and also has a touch of you know, home cooking to it, whether that may be and really championing products that give back to people and planet and to also profit, like one of my favorite lines is saving the world but also making money. You know, we can do both.
Sylvain Charlebois 42:11
Yeah, that latter part is not overly popular sometimes in Canada, for sure, but yeah, you need to make money to make your product sustainable.
Charlotte Langley 42:20
Absolutely. So, we can save the world we can do-, make great products and support, you know social and economic impacts for factories, people business, grocery retail, all those places and still make money. We still look at our structures differently.
Sylvain Charlebois 42:35
Now, I'm a big fan of Marine Stewardship Council as you are an ambassador of MSC or yourself. Tell us more about your vision for sustainability in-, in the industry. It's-, the industry has a, I'd say an interesting history, an interesting reputation. So, what are your thoughts about sustainability over all moving forward for the industry and how do you see your role as an ambassador?
Charlotte Langley 43:09
Well, I can tell you, my role is defined by the opportunity that I have to speak to consumers directly. You know, I'm not an NGO or a policy or you know, a federal operator talking to you through a TV screen or a memo. I'm out there grocery shopping next to you. I'm talking to you directly about how we can incorporate more sustainable practices into our daily diet. So what I'm seeing is basically breaking down the challenges that people face when they go to the store, retail, wherever they're shopping and they're going, I don't even know what to choose here beyond a being a price point scenario, like what's the cheapest, I still want to find a way to eat healthy and well which you know, things like 80% of consumers express interest in finding more sustainable options for home as long as they can afford him how to make it make it available.
Charlotte Langley 43:56
My job is to help those people discover-, let me do the heavy lifting for you and provide great solutions so you don't have to be too stressed or worried about it. So let's make a positive impact whether it comes down to regenerate-, regenerative seafood practices, whether aquaculture in the wild you know, interesting packaging alternatives. You know, my friend has a field less farm, they're based out of Ottawa, they grow lettuce aquaponically and they're the first company to put their packaging as cardboard that's compostable versus plastic with a plastic lid you know, like people are-, their innovation is that some of their innovations that packaging and that eliminates wastes and you know throwing your garden makes a nice little pathway for you to walk to your tomato plants on.
Charlotte Langley 44:42
So, a feature of sustainability is me and others acting as sort of like the bridge between all of the noise and clutter out there and some really great simple choices that people can make to feel confident in their purchases around you know, feeding themselves well and right and asking for people on planet. I see that certification standards roll off for you like they are held at a high standard, like the certified organic has been around for a very long time. Your MSC has been around for over 20 years, like, these things are there. Everyone's gone through issues like, no one's perfect, but these are third party alternative businesses or organizations that are doing their best to find the best options for consumers, in my opinion.
Sylvain Charlebois 45:25
So, with all of your experience and your successes, what would be your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the field?
Charlotte Langley 45:33
Well, it's funny because I-, with Langley foods, I'm talking to a lot of new entrepreneurs and it's really, really exciting and I'm loving to feel the passion of other founders. Again, like getting everyone's really excited. So, it's about their great idea and I hate it, if I ever say if I knew I was gonna say this 10 years ago, and I'm saying that'd be like, Charlotte, you're such an idiot, like, screw you for saying this. It's patience. It's friggin patience. It's being like, I want this to happen now, and it takes these things that have to happen quickly for it to be successful often, but you really have to be patient in your, in your planning, and realize it's probably going to take longer than you a want it to be a nice to take that time. A slow business growing slow equity. Growing a slow business is more sustainable than a quick, fast, overwhelming, you know, it's easy to make mistakes when you're rushing through the program, especially when you're new. Be patient with yourself and really do your diligence on your people that you want to collaborate with. You know, make sure you're protecting yourself that way.
Michael LeBlanc 46:38
Well, Charlotte, I couldn't imagine a better person to talk about. You’ve lived and breathed it, you took it from the kitchen table to shelves across the country. Like I said, I'm a huge fan of the product you created out of your creativity and-, and your diligence and your-, you know, your get to and get it done. If folks want to get in touch with you and- and learn more. How do they get in touch with you?
Charlotte Langley 47:04
I'm on direct inbox I got a nice little info@langley.inc is a really great way to get in touch with me directly if you want to talk about investing or being invested in sharing your business ideas or you want to follow along my fun culinary journey is on the old social media which I love as well, you can check me out @chefcharlottelangley on Instagram and TikTok
Michael LeBlanc 47:22
Good Chef Char-, I'm gonna-, I'm gonna-, I'm gonna connect that right, like, as soon as we're done. Well, listen, Charlotte, a long time coming but boy was it ever worth it. It's been great just to hear your voice and get your insights. I wish you; Sylvain and I wish you continued success in every path of every journey you take and thank you again for joining us on The Food Professor podcast.
Charlotte Langley 47:45
Thank you so much for having me and I look forward to chatting in another time as well.
Sylvain Charlebois 47:50
Take care, Charlotte.
Charlotte Langley 47:51
You too, talk to you soon.
Michael LeBlanc 47:53
You know, more and more bad behavior in the food service world this time both articles I think more coincidentally than on purpose out of-, coming out of India, news out of India, New York Times ripped apart the sugar business.
Sylvain Charlebois 48:06
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 48:06
Big suppliers to Pepsi and Coke who were named in the article Pepsi you know said well, yeah, we got to do better and coke said we did. They're not going to say anything because they were, you know, women getting hysterectomies to continue to work in the fields, horrible working conditions and basically brands that just look the other way. That yeah, well they told us, they told us to be good and at the same time today in The Globe & Mail again from India, terrible behavior in the shrimp industry, [inaudible], the shrimp industry and you know even your, your friends Lidl named in that report, who basically announced they're coming for an inspection, like two months in advance. So, everybody gets hidden or as all the sins get put away.
Sylvain Charlebois 48:46
Of course. Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 48:47
So, and you know, we continue to see these brands rely on third or fourth parties. Do you think-, do you think any of these brands care or are going to wake up? I guess maybe they'll care when consumers care, but it seems to be hard to connect these dots for everyone. Like when you talk about this bad behavior, you know, just watch over people-
Sylvain Charlebois 49:07
Well, if you would have asked me 20 years ago, like if you've asked me 20 years ago, if in 2024, we would have transparent, ethical, global food supply chains, I would say probably because that's what people want, but, of course, people will be upset based on things they know and global supply chains are still quite obscure and you need reporting. You need some reports like the Globe & Mail to kind of raise awareness. But let's be honest, Michael. I mean, these articles are well written, and these reports are well done. They come and they go.
Michael LeBlanc 49:48
Yeah.
Sylvain Charlebois 49:49
So does behavior change, really? Do people actually go and ask questions to these companies, you may actually have a few. They may actually ask questions, but at the end of the day people move on and they go on to buy their products, their favorite products and that's basically it. Yeah. So that's it, it's unfortunate, but that's-, that's why it's so hard to move the needle on, on international issues like this, but Canada, make no mistake.
Sylvain Charlebois 50:17
I mean, Canada is often in the middle of some of these scandals and, and because we often think, like, we learned this week that Canada Royal Milk out of Kingston just got its CFI approval to produce infant formula after two years of waiting, thank goodness, but are Canadians going to buy infant formula made from or coming from a China owned plant in Kingston, Ontario, I imagine some people have a problem with that. We often-, we often think of ourselves as being whiter than white when it comes to food safety ethics across the supply chain, but we're not always unfortunately.
Michael LeBlanc 51:03
Well, and I guess we can point at the regulators, as this article talks about, in The Globe & Mail talks about how the CFI doesn't inspect a percentage of shrimp. It's not just-, not just bad behavior. Some of the shrimp are coming in unsound for consumption, but they're not being inspected there for random inspection. So-, is there something that I mean if you CFIA folks are listening.
Sylvain Charlebois 51:28
By the way, do you have any idea how many people work at the CFI, curious to know if you know?
Michael LeBlanc 51:34
I think that-, like they're one of the biggest agencies in the government right there. 1,000s people.
Sylvain Charlebois 51:38
8,700, I believe, and the number has gone up, I believe, almost 20%. Since-, since Trudeau has been in government so it's not like it's-, there's been some cut-, under Harper there were major cuts, not under Trudeau. So, it's not a capacity issue, really.
Michael LeBlanc 51:59
All right. Well, CFIA said they monitor imports, but they don't seem to be monitoring enough by this report.
Sylvain Charlebois 52:06
Well, they do-, in defense for-, for-, for the CFI. They do work with the FDA, the USDA, because they have more capacity, more resources, and they do check, verify insitu overseas, because the CFI does not have the same resources, but at the end of the day, you do want to show up once in a while, I mean, to be sure, to be taken seriously.
Michael LeBlanc 52:28
Well, the article says they take a risk-based approach. And they randomly inspected 267 shrimp. That's a complaint based, right. What is, what is risk based?
Sylvain Charlebois 52:41
So, the risk based assessment approach is, if we think you're high risk, we're going to inspect you more often.
Michael LeBlanc 52:52
Okay.
Sylvain Charlebois 52:52
So, if you've had recalls, we know that you're wrong. You're no-, you're not ethical, we're going to be there more often. That's the risk based. That's a risk-based approach.
Michael LeBlanc 53:03
Okay. European Union checks 50%-
Sylvain Charlebois 53:05
Focus on the bad apples.
Michael LeBlanc 53:07
They're looking for antibiotics apparently in the shrimp. Well, maybe they'll-, maybe after the-, this article would pay more attention.
Sylvain Charlebois 53:14
Let's end this podcast reporting on the report from the Globe & Mail. That's-
Michael LeBlanc 53:18
Reporting on the report. That's right, exactly. Let's end on a positive note. It's a-, it's a-, it's an anniversary of sorts. It has been 60 years since the invention of poutine. Yeah, of course, you have a book on the invention of poutine. The-,
Sylvain Charlebois 53:34
Yes.
Michael LeBlanc 53:35
You like poutine because it was one of these trends that I started in-
Sylvain Charlebois 53:39
I don't like poutine. I like the history of poutine.
Michael LeBlanc 53:42
You like the history of poutine, you liked my poutine when I made it for you, but-
Sylvain Charlebois 53:45
Well, that-, that was darn good. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 53:49
But basically, you'll-
Sylvain Charlebois 53:49
Give me three days to digest, but hey.
Michael LeBlanc 53:51
Yeah, that was a bit heavy. You like the idea of a food that came from rural somewhere and went national. I mean, that's the story of poutine. Right, talking about the story of poutine for the listeners.
Sylvain Charlebois 54:03
It's a simple, very unpretentious dish that is now known around the world. I mean, the reason why I wrote Poutine Nation was to basically understand how the hell it happened, basically, because I mean, you know, you-, you, many people have dishes, and they don't get glorified as much as poutine. So, so I got to the bottom of it, and of course, I had to review its history and its history is rich with anecdotes and people behind the success of poutine and, and so, yes, poutine is 60 years old this year, because of Jean-Paul Roy, who was really the first to sell poutine and Drummondville with the three ingredients gravy, chips, fries and cheese curds because he was he was a so to say a professional sociate he got his training out of Montreal.
Sylvain Charlebois 55:04
But the origins of poutine is really in Warwick in 1957, with Fernand Lachance and, and his wife, Germaine Lachance and they were the first to really put poutine on the menu in 1957, but Lachance hated gravy, he hated it. He didn't like the idea of putting gravy on fries. So, he sold cheese curds with fries and his wife made a sauce and I was sold on the side. So that's but-, they did call it a poutine, but in 1964-, 60 years ago, that's when poutine was stolen and of course, I don't think it didn't stop there. Ashton Leblond, who founded Ashton restaurants in Quebec, 24 restaurants, he was the first to operate a chain of restaurants, glorifying, showcasing poutine forcing major chains like Harvey's, Burger King to adopt poutine on its menu in the Quebec region, and the rest as we say is history.
Michael LeBlanc 56:09
Is history. The rest is history. I remember the first time I had poutine I was working in, well born and raised in Ottawa and as I was working with some guys on a job site, and they said, let's go over to we were in the Hall or Elmer, or we cross the bridge as we used to say, and everybody's eating poutine and I'm like, what is that and I tried it-, it's delicious.
Sylvain Charlebois 56:31
It's very delicious, especially yours.
Michael LeBlanc 56:33
All right, well, that's a wrap on a very busy show. We kind of rifled through a lot of stuff, still gonna be a long episode but lots of stuff going on in the world. My good.
Sylvain Charlebois 56:41
Oh, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 56:42
For a short week, short weeklong episode. I might-
Sylvain Charlebois 56:47
You have to listen to the entire thing and don't skip any sections now.
Michael LeBlanc 56:51
That's right and I'm, who am I? I'm Michael LeBlanc. podcaster, keynote speaker, customer, consumer growth consultant, and you are?
Sylvain Charlebois 57:02
I'm your sidekick, the Food Professor, Sylvain Charlebois.
Michael LeBlanc 57:08
Alright, Sylvain, happy, happy Easter and enjoy your long weekend. Like I said, long episode, short week, but we'll be back next week. We got another great interview.
Listen alright, everybody have safe travels, and Sylvain I'll see you again soon.
Sylvain Charlebois 57:23
Take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, food, Canada, Scout, poutine, products, years, bitcoin, started, numbers, consumer, report, talk, bridge, impact, Canadians, big, CFI, good, coming