How 2 like-minded chefs are celebrating Chinese diasporic gastronomy in Montreal

In just two years, Christophe Yu Jiulong went from speaking no French to graduating from a French programme at the largest culinary school in Canada after moving from his hometown in Chongqing, China to Montreal. Fast forward another two years and the 30-year-old is now dedicated to Flying Tables, a collective he started with 24-year-old Nora Lou Yueyue. Together in Montreal, they create gastronomic experiences that celebrate Chinese gastronomy through pop-up events. “I always feel eating food is so fulfilling, so comforting and I feel it’s a common language,” Yu explains. “A table is always fixed, but what we eat always changes, and people change, move. I wish to create a platform, or a community, where people can enjoy food and socialise without boundaries.” Although Yu and Lou were born and raised in China, their aim is not to present traditional Chinese cooking. Instead, they explore culinary influences from regions where Chinese people have migrated, using local ingredients and cooking techniques. Previous pop-up menus have featured dishes such as deep-fried chicken with sai oua (a punchy Thai sausage), jasmine rice wine ice cream with sticky and crispy rice, spring onion croissants, and pandan mooncakes. How burnout led to cooking Before graduating with a degree in business English from Heilongjiang University in Harbin in 2018, Yu was recruited as a junior consultant by an IT company. He was quickly plunged into a routine of long working hours. “It was more than 996,” he recalls, referring to the popular Chinese term for a gruelling 9am to 9pm, six-days-a-week work schedule. After a year and feeling burnt out, he took a year off to travel around Southeast Asia. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he stayed at an Airbnb hosted by a Belgian university professor who also shared his love of food. “He was always showing me around those fresh markets where I tried to learn a little bit about the local ingredients, and then we’d come back home and make dishes, and that’s how I started to cook,” Yu recalls. He returned home to Chongqing inspired to dive deeper into cooking, a skill he first learned from his parents. However, upon finding out that entry-level cook positions were badly paid, he decided to learn more about hospitality through retail, working as an assistant manager at American clothing brand Hollister in 2020. Later that year, he moved to Shanghai to work at athletic leisurewear brand Lululemon. But when Covid-19 spread rapidly, the government enforced a strict lockdown. It was then that Yu decided to leave China. Encouraged by a friend who was already living in Montreal, he moved there in the summer of 2022. “My parents thought I was crazy; they didn’t understand why I wanted a career change to be a cook,” Yu says. “It’s my choice; I believe cooking will be my career, and I have the passion for this industry. I want to learn, to better express myself.” Learning French and falling in love with Asian cuisine Initially, he studied at an English-language culinary school, but quit after about four months as he felt it was not for him. He applied to the English programme for international students at the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hotellerie du Quebec (ITHQ), the largest culinary school in Canada. However, a month before the courses began, the school notified Yu that there were not enough English-language students enrolled and that he had to learn French to take the entrance exam, which he did. “[The teachers] had to speak French in class, but I always had problems understanding,” Yu says. “So at the end of the class, I asked them a lot of questions. It was really hard.” He graduated in 2024, completing internships at Cafe Boulud at Four Seasons Toronto and at the Four Seasons Montreal. While he enjoyed learning French and Italian cooking, Yu realised that he wanted to cook Asian cuisines. “In school, I learned a lot of techniques and got a lot of information,” he says. “But when I was at the Four Seasons Montreal, all of a sudden I didn’t know why I was there and felt very stressed.” Yu pivoted to work at Pichai, a highly rated Thai restaurant in Montreal, followed by a stint at Sichuan noodle shop J’ai Feng, where he worked until its closure in July. Meeting a fellow foodie During his time at ITHQ, Yu filmed vlogs that he posted on Chinese social media platform RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu. One of his followers, Nora Lou, was interested in retracing his culinary footsteps and reached out. Originally from Guangzhou, Lou had just graduated from Cornell University in nutrition – a compromise for her parents who wanted her to have a degree, even though she wanted to attend culinary school. With her degree in hand, Lou was keen to learn more cooking techniques and the French language, and promptly moved to Montreal. When the two met up over coffee, Yu quickly discovered Lou – who went to Paris twice during her school breaks to attend intensive cooking and pastry classes – was serious about food. Yu and Lou got along so well that they decided to collaborate on a pop-up event. “We are both so passionate about cooking and food, and also culture and history,” Lou says, adding that Yu also took courses in sociology, anthropology and linguistics in university. “Whenever we’re together, we can’t stop talking about ideas.” Creating pop-ups together Lou recalls they held their first pop-up a week before her French entrance exam. As the duo had not considered a theme, they made dishes such as savoury tofu fa, spicy fried chicken, grilled aubergine and peppers. For dessert, Lou made a sesame fig cake that was not Chinese at all. It was a menu that left their diners puzzled. Despite this, the pair were energised by their experience, and they have since held more than half a dozen pop-ups, collaborating with, among others, a bakery, a chocolatier and Chinese-inspired noodle and dumpling shop. For each event, the pair conduct research to find culinary connections. For a recent pop-up that combined Sichuan and northern Vietnamese cuisines, Yu used mountain peppers and smoked chilli. “Smoky, charred chilli flavours are found in both these cuisines, although they are used in different ways,” he explains. “Sichuan has a long tradition of smoked foods. In northwestern Vietnam, smoky flavours are common in grilled dishes and dipping sauces. I felt these ingredients naturally complemented each other.” He stuffed chicken wings with Quebec pork, seasoning them with smoked chilli flakes, Sichuan peppercorns and lime leaves to impart a herbal aroma. “At that pop-up, there were some Vietnamese customers, and they said [the dish] reminded them of their grandma’s cooking,” he says. “I was so grateful, I was so happy because I want to make my cooking more like telling a story about migration.”

How 2 like-minded chefs are celebrating Chinese diasporic gastronomy in Montreal

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Christophe Yu and Nora Lou craft innovative pop-up feasts that blend migration stories, local ingredients and bold flavours

Christophe Yu and Nora Lou craft innovative pop-up feasts that blend migration stories, local ingredients and bold flavours