You Oughta Know: Hugue Dufour

Hugue Dufour and Sara Obraitis (Photo: Chris Abraham)

You Oughta Know is a regular feature here on SA where we introduce you to different personalities from the world of food.  Chefs, writers, farmers, ice cream men.  These are people you otherwise may not be aware of who are doing awesome things with all things edible.  We think you oughta know: Hugue Dufour

Who are we talking about ? Hugue Dufour, the chef at hibernating M. Wells diner in Long Island City, Queens.

Whats with the funny name? Say it with me: “Eeeewwwwwggggggggg”. Origin: French Canadian.

What’s so special about a diner in Queens? Dufour is an alumnus of Montreal’s venerable Au Pied de Cochon and has been the longtime right-hand man of Martin Picard.  A quirky guy to begin with, Dufour settled on an old dining car in Long Island City for his first solo venture and turned M. Wells into the beacon of Québécois cuisine in America.

(Photo: Patrick Siggins)

“Québécois” is a cuisine now? Yea. A pretty awesome one.  Spearheaded by the aforementioned Picard and fueled by chefs like Frederic Morin and David McMillan at Joe Beef, Québécois cuisine is pork-centric, offal filled, unapologetic, and may contribute to early heart failure.  Butter is everywhere. Portion sizes? Forget about dainty porcelain Asian spoons, cooking vessels do double duty here.  Where would you find flatware to hold a whole suckling pig anyway? Québécois cooking is counter-revolutionary. Almost sensual to eat, it’s food you want to eat for the pleasure of eating.  Craftmanship over creation. 

Brisket, Chicken, and Foie Gras Meat Pie (lawandfood)

Sweetbread Sandwich (mightysweet.com)

Grilled Cheese (ultraclay)

 

Back to to the diner in Queens, please. M. Wells is certainly a diner; the menu is on your place mat, there are burgers (albeit 24 ounces and impaled with a knife supporting bangle sized onion rings) and the requisite glass pastry display, but on the same place mat you can find escargot stuffed bone marrow and foie gras. Lots and lots and lots of foie gras. Request it as a side. Put it on your pancakes. It’s nestled in the grilled cheese.  It’s everywhere! Beyond the gluttony, M. Wells and this type of cooking is as honest and real as you will find anywhere in America.  We all have seen the French Canadian classic poutine (fries, cheese curd, and gravy) on “creative” bar menus near and far, but no place in the US has embraced and executed this type of food the way Dufour has at M.Wells. M.Wells as we knew it closed after some lease issues this fall, but Dufour promises a new incarnation of M.Wells soon. We don’t know if it will be another dining car, but as long as he brings caviar and foie gras by the lobe-full, it can’t be bad. You agree, eh?

 

 

 

Pickled Pork Tongue (ultraclay)

 

Escargot stuffed Bone Marrow (mightysweet.com)

 

Mussel Hash (gourmetpigs)

 

M. Wells Burger (ediblecommunities.com)