Pro Chef Reacts to Cooking With Jack’s Poutine
A professional chef reacts to Cooking With Jack’s take on poutine, breaking down what works, what doesn’t, and why.
In this video, I analyse a viral poutine from Cook With Jack from a real chef’s perspective, technique, ingredients, and overall execution. #poutine
Jacks video: https://youtu.be/fI3sGmzse-Q
We talk technique, cheese melt, gravy balance, and where things go right (or very wrong). This is commentary, education, and reaction — not a reupload.
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40 Comments
Would you eat this? And if not, what would you change?
God we gotta find the first video. Cause if that the redo how bad is the first one? Cause I mean it fries, cheese and gravy shouldn't be that hard to me.
Early in my cooking journey, I thought of using a bath towel to save on paper towels to clean up cooking oil. That was a mistake. It took a lot of washes and I forget if I was successful. I remember the Swedish Chef going "pew-teen", and I heard someone from Canada pronounce it that way.
Cheese curds are hard to find, but Aldi's here has it
The cheese needs to be squishy and 'fresh' (as in, never refrigerate the cheese), and has to be confused within a few days. The cheese is not supposed to melt whatsoever. Curds are a non negotiable in my opinion (as a Quebeccer) but I will only speak for myself here. The fries need to be made with Russet Potatoes. Dark and crispy on the outside, pillowy and soft on the inside. Gravy ideally would be gravy sauce made with a mix of beef and poultry.
Needless to say, this video upset me beyond belief (and his first one is indeed much, much worse).
So yeah, if you guys want poutine, please come by in Quebec. (protip: the best poutine is not in Montreal)
There are Dog Psychiatrists all over…Heard of them here in NY as well. That Towel was gross….Yeah, don't mix bathroom and kitchen objects together.
The correct pronunciation in Quebec (where Poutine is from), is Pou-tin.
But the majority of Canada (i.e., every other province), knows that a Canadian tradition is not giving Quebec any attention and by default, we ignore their feelings and call it Pou-teen.
Hi! I'm from California, and you can definitely get white cheese curds here! Jack just wasn't looking very hard, oi vey,
Can’t get cheese curds in the place with the whole Cali milk campaign about happy cows? There are even cheese curds sold at stores like Aldi (Happy farms brand) along with regular stores selling Beecher’s, Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery, Face Rock, Hennings, and just loose ones stores like Sprouts offer that they buy in bulk… And that is for a relatively small city in Orange County and a tiny one surrounded by farms outside of Sacramento. Unless he is filming from Alcatraz (would explain some things, but their kitchen is no doubt much bigger), nowhere in Cali can you NOT get curds locally if you shop at a store that sells local goods instead of a Target kind of store with only a few brands besides their own limited collections.
We can buy towel type dish towels in Australia. A bath towel though? 😮.🤔
Knowing that towel has probably been used to dry Jack's ass made me super queasy… Also, isn't poutine supposed to use a really dark roast meat gravy? His gravy looks only marginally darker than KFC gravy.
I'm an actual Quebecers… And it's an actual crime here to put shredded mozzarella on poutine… Worst come to worst you can cube cheddar cheese if you need a fix at 3am and it's the only thing available… But the real thing is made with fresh cheese that where never refrigerated…
He didn't make french fries and made soggy ass chips from the UK.😂😂
I would say that in your intro you nailed the word Poutine pretty good
Quebec native here. I swear, the towel is not a traditional technique 😂
Looks like the poutines you'd find in really bad restaurants.
Poutine is pronounced Punteeen.
But for absolute starters.. Poutine shouldnt be made with fries.. it's made with English-Style Chips
.. What the heck, what's the point if there's not any cheese curds? ugh
And that gravy looked gross too!
We got gooch sweat Poutine before GTA6 😭
I'm not from Quebec, but I have spent much time there and in Northern Ontario and I will tell you any French Canadian who see's this will loudly say Tabernac!!!
James,
The site of that towel was bad enough but your description and speculation of its “travels” almost made me vomit.
You’re better than this guy.
I know your having fun but don’t waste your time with this nonsense.
Best Poutine recipe (imho) : Cook chips (not fries – they need to be thick cut UK style) in duck fat. Gravy should be duck gravy (imho – i like duck). Cheese Curds (obviously). Done. It's not hard. If you want to be posh, fry an egg (in duck fat) and stick it on the top.
Please don’t go back and review how the gravy was made.
Some things better left alone.
Jack "is" trolling?
Surely???
i vomited looking that video. anything other than curds is not acceptable. PLUS, his fries looked like they were anemic… PLUS, his gravy looked nothing like a pass in my book… too thick, too gray-ish instead of brown…it looks like KFC's gravy…
This guy should work with Jamie Oliver. Whos doing the worst food competion 😀
How's your back feeling? Is it healthy enough now for someone who calls themself Chef James Makinson… To cook something?
Why would a Chef not make a cooking video? Can't be spineless forever.
I have to say, that is the most dangerous looking fry cutter I've every seen. You'll be better off just using a good knife. The fry cutter I've used has a lea=ver, you drop in a potato, press the lever down and out comes cut fries. Don't need any towel or anything else.
5 minutes for fries? he is out of his mind. fresh potatoes should be cooked in 375 for about 10-12 mins. bath towel? gross
Best part of his video belong to "Hee hee hee"
I'm not here to debate the pronunciation. I'm here to debate Jack's legitimacy. Canadian, born and raised, and frankly NON. Or no, nein, nada. Take your pick. 😂
That is not a poutine. Shredded Mozzerella?! Non, non, non. Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que ça? Authentic poutine must have fresh, white cheddar cheese curds. How do you know if it is the right cheese curd? Well, you're reading French on the packaging, and a proper curd has the distinctive "squeak" when bitten into. Poutine is the perfect late night meal after an evening at the bars or pubs, so I know you'd get beaten-up for that culinary faux pas, Jack.
In Britain we call it chips, cheese and gravy
I think I'm actually offended that he used that bath towel…
That there is Newfoundland poutine. "Ain't no cheese curds my son, douce abitta' white cheese on 'der luh!" Except people and Newfoundland know how to cook their fries, and make good gravy! They reduce all of their food!
I could have sliced all the potatoes with a knife on a cutting board in the time it took him to use whatever it was he was using to slice the potatoes.
I'm Québécois. I would NOT eat that. Everything you said is, obviously, correct, but also NO GRATED CHEESE ON A POUTINE, it's a sin (rhyme intended). Speaking of sin, that's how you pronounce poutine with a French Canadian accent: poot-sin.
I'm not sure the fryer is the problem, I think jack just overfilled the reservoir. The top of the basket is probably submerged by about the same amount the bottom of the basket is hanging down in the oil.
As for the poutine, is this how Italian people feel when they see cream in carbonara? I'm sure the gravy is warm, you can see the cheese kind of melt but it's definitely not piping hot. Nice cheese pull, but poutine isn't about cheese pulls and I agree that he probably nuked it. Cheese curd also isn't hard to find so I'm calling BS on that. Then on top of that the fries are whiter than me.
Not Quebecois but I've been to poutineries in Quebec City and Montreal and had some phenomenal poutine. French Canadians please cover your ears for this, the best poutine I ever had came from a poutinerie in Kelowna. Or maybe they just got enough bonus points for letting us bring our dog onto the patio and even gave him water and treats, good service makes everything tastier.
That wouldn't even be fit for a small town Albertan bar. There's only 3 things in poutine, fries gravy and cheese curd and he somehow managed to screw up all 3 of them. It's kind of impressive because it's a dish that's actually hard to screw up, a 14 year old should be able to cook it properly if they have the ingredients.
5:17–5:30 hahaha. God I hate to even think.
in french the T doesn't always sound the same, think of the T being halfway like an S, kinda making both sound at the same time, like how japanese can have their R sound halfway like an L
if you don't have cheese curd, don't bother making a poutine video, it's like making a a mac&cheese with ramen noodle, i mean it can be good, but it's just too far off
Why the towel….just why