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Foreign restaurants or valued national cuisine

CHRISTINE HÉBERT / March 31, 2016

Foreign restaurants are an important, but how? In us based on scientific studies (and a home survey), we tried to trace the origins of foreign restaurants in Quebec and do an update on research conducted in the 1990s, but before, as in any study, we have to agree on a definition of "foreign restaurant."
What is a foreign restaurant?
Define the foreign restaurant, also called ethnic restaurant can be difficult. After all, a French or Italian restaurant should it be considered a foreign restaurant, even if the food we are not so foreign? If we rely on the definition given by Laurier Turgeon, professor in the Department of Historical Sciences from Laval University, it is rather simple. Indeed, in his book Heritages mestizo. colonial and postcolonial contexts, it defines "foreign restaurant like any restaurant whose sign or advertising clearly announces a foreign national or regional cuisine. "By this definition, a French or Italian restaurant can be stranger if he values ??above all a national cuisine.
The origins of foreign restaurants
Historians Marc Lafrance and Yvon Desloges, there were, in Quebec the 19th century, three types of restaurants: the English type, the American type and that of the French type. The Hotel de France, located in Montreal, was one of those French restaurants, distinguished by its cuisine and its wine list.
Joined by telephone, the author Jean-Pierre Lemasson confirms the presence of French restaurants in Quebec, particularly in the 1930s At the time, the province put the food value to attract American tourists. It will take against by waiting until the end of the 1960s to see the diversification of foreign restaurants.
"Expo 67 was an opportunity for many Quebecers to discover ways to eat around the world, says Lemasson. Following the Expo, there are a lot of restaurant owners, who had even come here temporarily, that stayed and opened restaurants you could say ethnic. "
Since then, the number of foreign restaurants has been increasing. In a research conducted by Mr. Turgeon in the metropolitan area of ??Québec, it was noted that there were only eight restaurants offering local Cuisine in 1951. In 1971, this figure rose to 80 restaurants. In 1995, we found 200, or 18% of restaurants, making Quebec the city with the highest rate of foreign restaurants while Montreal has the lowest rate (12%). Another interesting fact: it is the French restaurants that are most represented in Quebec City, forming over a third (36%) of foreign restaurants.
And today?
To get an idea of ??the evolution of foreign restaurants in Quebec since Mr. Turgeon study, we consulted three websites offering a restaurant search engine: RestoQuébec, Guides and Resto See tonresto. Excluding the Canadian and American cuisine, such websites have respectively a rate of foreign restaurants 41%, 50% and 48% for the region of Quebec. As for French restaurants, they represent 8%, 19% and 11% of foreign restaurants. To explain these differences, we must consider the criteria found in the search engines, but also the number of restaurants per search engine. It is interesting to note against the diversity of cuisines, whether Lebanese, Indian, Caribbean, Mexican or Irish.
In conclusion, although we have noticed a growing number of foreign restaurants, Chantale Dube recalls in his thesis on the restoration in the region of Quebec, it is the fast food outlets that have experienced the most growth during the second half of the 20th century. Considering this growth as well as that of foreign restaurants, it makes a lot of choices for consumers. To learn more, please read the article "Are there too many restaurants in Quebec? "Released in October 2015.