President Poutine: French restaurants mistaken focus of Ukraine war protests

House of Poutine: In France the Russian Premiere and Quebecoise dish share the same name.Photo / Mikhail Svetlov, Getty Images

A French restaurant has sought to clear its name and calm angry patrons, confused by the eatery's exotic name.

'Maison de la Poutine', which has premises in Paris and Toulouse, says that it has been bombarded with abuse from French speaking customers over its signature dish.

On Friday the diner said it had received "insults and even threats" from angry mobs who had mistakenly translated their name as "House of Putin".

This weekend the restaurateurs issued a statement explaining that "Poutine" - a staple of Quebecoise cuisine 'Chips with cheese gravy' - had nothing to do with the Russian president who ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

It was apparently "necessary for us to explain that 'La Maison de la Poutine' is unrelated to the Russian administration and its leader," said the restaurant.

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— La Maison de la Poutine (@MaisonPoutine) March 3, 2022

Although the restaurant could not narrow down the origin of the name, the restaurant said the French-Canadian delicacy was invented at some point in the 1950s.

Last week, legendary chef Le Roy Jucep who holds the Canadian patent for the dish said he was removing the dish from his menus to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chef Jucep is one of many cooks who claims to be the originator of the dish. He explained he saw the confusion, which isn't quite as obvious to Anglophones.

In French it's the same spelling, the same pronunciation.

"As of now, we're the inventor of the fries cheese gravy," he said.

There are many stories surrounding the dish of carbs and cheese curd. Some say it was named for a short order cook named 'Ti-Pout', others that it sounds a bit like a borrowing of the word 'Pudding'.

The earliest menu recorded with the chips and gravy dish was discovered in 1957 at a restaurant in Warwick, Canada. Presumably it was not the namesake of an unremarkable five-year-old, who had never left Petrograd.