Life, the Universe, and Everything
Post about whatever comes to our mind and are not easily categorized
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Restaurant #Taste #Beer #Spirits #Wine #Consultant
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Short Introduction
I have been deeply involved with food since my childhood. I remember, when I was 4-5 years old, sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen while she was cooking, and helping her in making cookies and other treats. Our family was from a small village on the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal, Quebec, and, as with any good French family, food was an important part of our lives. I lived in Montreal with my parents and every weekend we would take the trip “Up-North” to my grandparent’s house and stay with them. You could get in the house, via the kitchen, at any hour of the day or night, and there would be something cooking on the stove or in the oven, and some industrial quantities of freshly prepared food in the refrigerator. I remember, when I was in my late teens, stopping at their place in the middle of the night after the clubs closed, and there was always a freshly baked ham in the refrigerator or some thick stew or soup slowly simmering on the stove. We would dig-in without waking up anyone and fill ourselves with great food before going out again for more revelry.
After my early childhood in my grandmother’s kitchen, my interest for cooking became more formal. In my early teens my mother was taking cooking lessons from one of the best French chefs in Montreal, and when she was returning home I would pour over her lessons and prepare the newly-learned recipes with her. By the time I was at university I was taking regular night classes in various forms of cooking, including many years of traditional Chinese cooking. From then on cooking and later wine became my passions and I have been involved professionally as a food consultant and wine buyer since the mid-eighties as one of my many business endeavors.
I lived in Quebec through my early twenties until I graduated from university, I then moved to Northern Ontario where I worked in private practice. I was involved with 3 careers through the eighties, first as a dentist, second as a food and wine consultant, and third as a computer consultant. By the early nineties I abandoned the first career completely to dedicate myself primarily to the computer business. I have been involved with numerous IT startups since then, and also consulting on IT and the food/wine business. All of this while traveling the world for both pleasure and business.
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Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Restaurant #Taste #Beer #Spirits #Wine #Consultant
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Where did all the taste go?
We just got up from the table after a late breakfast and something dawned on me. Where did the taste go in most commercial food products? Recently I bemoaned the lack of taste in high production commercial cheeses that tastes more of plastic than of milk products, but why is this happening with most mass-market food products? I know that according to modern corporate practices and the search for the holy bottom line, large corporations tend to homogenize their products and go for the least common denominator, but is there a universal ingredient called “Flavor” that is so expensive in the future market that most corporations shy away from using it in their products?
This morning we opened a new package of margarine, as well as new packages of “Spreadable” cream cheese and peanut butter. All were supposedly “New And Improved” and were definitely more “Spreadable’ than older formulations, but all were lacking taste. In the quest for “Spreadability” the core of the product flavor was forgotten. The margarine was bland and tasted of nothing, the cream cheese could have been bland thick cream as there was no hint of the slight sourness that is normally associated with the product, and you would have been confronted with a difficult task in trying to decide what was put in your mouth if you had tasted the peanut butter blind. The peanut taste was so light that you had to double the normal amount used to get any hint of it.
Maybe that’s what they are trying to make happen… All of those products were not “Light” versions of the regular brand, so that was not the problem. I looked into it a bit and found out that all the brands we had opened this morning were brands from the same mega-food conglomerate, so this might be a problem that is more specific to them, but I have noticed the trend in recent years in a variety of other brands. Has anybody out there found the same thing recently? Come on big food conglomerates; let’s put the taste back in your products…
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Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Restaurant #Language #Beer #Spirits #Wine #Consultant
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Language
From experience the only real solution is to practice and practice and practice with a native or very fluent speaker. I am a French Canadian from Québec, though now I think in English because that language has been my work language all of my adult life. It is also the language I use at home as my wife is Mexican and we met years ago when she did not know French and I did no know Spanish.
I am currently living in Mexico, but immersion is not sufficient to actually speak the language very fluently unless you are forced to speak it. After almost 13 years living here I am fluent enough for doing business negotiations in Spanish as I do not have much chance speaking it in that context. I understand everything and watch TV daily in Spanish, but since I never had any grammar classes I still have problems with the verbs as I tend to only speak in the present tense which get to be a pain. The main reason for this is that I work from home and communicate almost entirely in English, when we go out together I got in the habit years ago to let my wife handle most of the general conversations as I did not understand at all in those days, and most business I do locally is normally handled in English. I guess that it is sheer laziness on my part as when I am forced to be on my own for a few days the fluency increases tremendously as I am forced to use the language.
From past research that I did some years back while writing some English as a second language software for my wife to use in some English classes she was giving locally, I found the following:
- 1. Most word game software are very helpful to build vocabulary, but you eventually hit a wall after a while unless the games also teaches you how to build and structure phrases.
- 2. The quickest way to gain a working knowledge of a language is to use or take a conversation course where you are forced to use the language.
- 3. To reinforce your conversation skills you also need to study the grammar as without knowing the rules you cannot logically construct meaningful phrases.
How to make that fun is very different from person to person, and it all depends on the use of the language you will have. To start interaction course can be fun as they help you build vocabulary in a fun way, but they are not enough to really learn a language. Taking a conversation class after some preliminary vocabulary building is probably the most productive and would give you the most rewards as you can interact in the language very quickly. Then, if you want to deepen your knowledge you will need to learn the grammar as without that knowledge you cannot really use the language properly. Of course after learning the basics immersion especially while traveling can be the most fun as it can bring fantastic experiences.
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Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Wine #Beer #Spirits #FoodDrinkIndustry #FoodIndustry #DrinkIndustry #Recipe #Consultant
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Over a period of 39 years various investors wanted Luc to open some restaurants in England and Canada, but since he wanted to keep his independent status and creative control of the process, the negotiations with those various groups fell through. To this day Luc still has some plans along those lines, but in a simpler way based on the “Private Kitchen” concept that is popular in Honk Kong. In this way he will be able to concentrate on his restaurant due to the nature of the concept and also have time for his other interests. He is currently looking for the proper place worldwide to settle down and open both a new cooking and wine school and run his “Private Kitchen” restaurant.
For more than 35 years Luc has been organizing events related to food and wine, giving classes, tastings and seminars to professional and the general public alike, designed technological solutions for the industry, offered his services as a professional consultant, gave motivational and other types of conferences, and generally participated in the food and wine business at many levels.
To this day food and wine form an important part of his life and he dedicates himself to teach people the joys of cooking, fine wines and other important pleasures of life. His informal style, great communication skills and passion for the subjects he teaches makes him an outstanding and entertaining lecturer that makes complex and foreboding subjects appear uncomplicated for the casual learner.
Luc describes himself as a “Gourmand” and has owned and managed a web site under the name www.igourmand.com for over 17 years. A “Gourmand” is a person that takes great pleasures with food and drinks. Different than the “Gourmet” who has a sophisticate palate, the “Gourmand” enjoys the pleasures given by great food and drinks, without the complications normally associated with the “Gourmet” world. Of course one does not excludes the other, but to Luc the pleasure part is the most important one.
Private Kitchen
In the fall of 2023-2024 we plan to open a restaurant base on the “Private Kitchen” concept that is popular in Honk Kong, but with a twist…
The private kitchens first started opening when amateur chefs decided to give restaurants a run for their money. Many operate out of office blocks or residential buildings and have little or no signage, you often only find the specific address when you make a booking. A Private Kitchen, sometimes known as a supper club or closed door restaurant, is a social dining restaurant operated out of someone’s home, generally bypassing local zoning and health-code regulations. They are usually advertised by word of mouth or unwanted advertising. Depending on the area’s law, the establishments may be illegal, even though they have been around for decades. They are becoming increasingly popular in the internationally.
Appeal
The attraction of the Private Kitchen for the customer varies. In some cases, it is the opportunity to sample new food, often at low cost outside the traditional restaurant experience. Guests of the Private Kitchen also cite one of the biggest reasons for enjoying the experience is the social interaction with strangers over food, something this would generally be frowned upon in a traditional restaurant setting. Private Kitchen have been described as “anti-restaurants” for the host, the benefit is to make money and experiment with cooking without being required to invest in restaurant property.
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Curriculum Vitae 2021
J. Luc Paquin 2021 – English & Español
Luc Paquin
Languages Spoken and Written: French, English and Spanish.
Citizenship: Canadian
Luc Paquin
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/luc/
English
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPFoodWineCV2021Mk1c.pdf
Español
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPComidaVinosCVMk2021b.pdf
Web: https://www.igourmand.com/
Web: https://www.jlpconsultants.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neosteam.labs.9/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5eRjrGn1CqkkGfZy0jxEdA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/labs_steam
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/NeoSteamLabs/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luc.paquin/
Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Wine #Beer #Spirits #FoodDrinkIndustry #FoodIndustry #DrinkIndustry #Recipe #Consultant
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Since Luc also had a profound interest in technology, he started studying the field of computer graphics that was in its infancy at the time. He invested heavily in computer hardware and software and was part of the beta testers of the first version of CorelDraw in 1988. At the time he became involved with clients worldwide as a professional designer of wine labels.
At the end of the eighties he was part of the negotiating that closed major wine production and exportation contracts with a large state run agricultural company in Yugoslavia (Agrokombinat “13. Jul” Titograd – Yugoslavia).
After many negotiation trips to Yugoslavia he was all packed up to go manage a huge vineyard (60,000 hectares) in Montenegro, then part of the old Yugoslavia, when the war broke in that part of the world. Luckily this happened before he had moved over there.
In 1990 Luc went to work in the south of England in a renowned vineyard that was famous for its white and sparkling wines (Carr-Taylor Vineyards, Hastings, United Kingdom). He learned a lot about vineyard management, viticulture, vinification and elaboration of fine wines.
When he returned to Canada Luc started to produce his own wines using frozen grape juice concentrate imported from various areas of France and later with fresh grapes. He continued producing his own wines until 2000. He was looking forward to the day that he could settle somewhere and manage his own vineyard, and produce his own wine.
In 1992 Luc was again ready to leave his country to spend over a year in South Africa working at various vineyards. He wanted to deepen his knowledge of winemaking, and the wine industry in general. As with his previous attempt to move to an area of the world that was politically unstable, the trip was cancelled at the last minute due to his sponsor’s concerns about his security as South Africa was in the last throws of Apartheid. Instead Luc spent the next many years traveling the world on short trips to various wine-producing regions to learn more about the wine business.
Since the mid-eighties Luc had been attending various prestigious wine events all over the world including the “Wine Spectator” events in New York and San Francisco. He continued doing so until the late 1990’s. Combined with his constant traveling all over the wine producing areas of the world, this permitted him to deepen his long list of contacts in the wine world.
In the first few years of the nineties Luc took a certification course in restaurant and hotel management. Over the years he has continued to be involved with both the professional and the ludic side of the food, beer and wine business. He also designed and programmed technological solutions for these industries. These includes point of sales solutions, eCommerce solutions, wine cellar management solutions, restaurant management solutions, point of profits solutions, food, beer and wine matching engines and databases, professional and consumer software, education kiosks, and much more.
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Curriculum Vitae 2021
J. Luc Paquin 2021 – English & Español
Luc Paquin
Languages Spoken and Written: French, English and Spanish.
Citizenship: Canadian
Luc Paquin
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/luc/
English
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPFoodWineCV2021Mk1c.pdf
Español
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPComidaVinosCVMk2021b.pdf
Web: https://www.igourmand.com/
Web: https://www.jlpconsultants.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neosteam.labs.9/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5eRjrGn1CqkkGfZy0jxEdA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/labs_steam
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/NeoSteamLabs/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luc.paquin/
Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #LucPaquin #Food #Wine #Beer #Spirits #FoodDrinkIndustry #FoodIndustry #DrinkIndustry #Recipe #Consultant
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Luc was born as the only child of a middle-class family of French descent in a small village famous for its ski resort north of Montréal, Québec, Canada. He has nurtured a lifelong interest in cooking that he developed since early childhood at the side of his mother and his grandmother who were consummate cooks. At an early age he studied French cooking with his mother while she was taking classes with one of the most renowned teachers in Montreal, “Professeur Bernard”
In the late 1970’s while studying at university he developed a great interest in wines. One day he decided to start learning more about wine and like everything else he does in his life he had to do it in great depth. Armed with a series of wine encyclopedias, he started to buy wines from all over the world and learned all that he could about them. By the mid-eighties he was a professional wine consultant and had amassed a collection of close to 5000 bottles of wine.
During that same period in the evenings after university he was taking Chinese cooking and painting classes with Dick Chen at the Chen School of Art. This lasted for over 4 years.
Later he was involved in the professional side of the wine and food business both as a consultant and a buyer for a variety of private concerns during the 1980’s and 1990’s. It permitted him to travel the world extensively.
A renowned British wine merchant was his business partner at the time, and he sponsored many of Luc’s business trips during that period and through various contacts in the wine business in Europe and other parts of the world Luc learned a lot about the wine industry in general and wine as an investment in particular.
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Curriculum Vitae 2021
J. Luc Paquin 2021 – English & Español
Luc Paquin
Languages Spoken and Written: French, English and Spanish.
Citizenship: Canadian
Luc Paquin
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/luc/
English
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPFoodWineCV2021Mk1c.pdf
Español
https://www.jlpconsultants.com/JLPComidaVinosCVMk2021b.pdf
Web: https://www.igourmand.com/
Web: https://www.jlpconsultants.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neosteam.labs.9/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5eRjrGn1CqkkGfZy0jxEdA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/labs_steam
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/NeoSteamLabs/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luc.paquin/
Lucito
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#iGourmand #Lucito #Announcements #Art #Beer #Wine #Spirits #FoodDrinkIndustry #Books #Jewelry #Microcontrollers #Courses #Consultant #Zoom #VideoBlog
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General Store
A general store is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general goods. The store carries routine stock and obtains special orders from warehouses. General stores often sell staple food items such as milk and bread, and various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies.
Luc’s grandfather had a general store in Canada. That general store sold beans, cigarette, tobacco, chips, candy, household, home appliance, clothing, shoes, tools, hardware, electrical, paints, fishings, sports equipment, firearms, etc…
Business Concept
This document is to outline a business concept that has been in the back of my mind for many years. The main reason that it is still in the back of my mind is that the project requires substantial commitments and financing and that I was always waiting to find a place where I wanted to settle down and for other projects to move forward to be able to start this one.
After postponing it for a couple of decades, I think that it is a good idea to bring it to the forefront and actually work on making it come through as the time seems right. This document is not a business plan, but a way to put all the ideas that have been turning in my head for so many years. I plan to present it to various people to see if the project makes sense and is worth investing substantial efforts in preparing a formal business plan and finding proper financing.
Lucito: Canadian
Normita: Mexican
Lucito & Normita General Store
- -Books
- -Graphic Design
- -Jewelry
- -Painting
- -Prints
- -Digital Prints
- -Drawing
- -Illustration
- -Sculpture
- -Fruit Preserves
- -Bread
- -Chocolate
- -Candy
- -Cheese
- -Ham
- -Coffee
- -Tea
- -Sauces
- -Herbes
- -Home Appliance
- -Electronic
- -Cabinetry
- -Furniture
- -Microcontrollers
- -Robotics
- -Essences
- -Incenses
- -Candles
- -Clothing
- -Cooking Courses
- -Beer Courses
- -Wine Courses
- -Jewelry Courses
- -Painting Courses
- -English and Spanish Courses
- -Electronic, Microcontrollers, Robotics Courses
- -Tutoring
- -Computer-Based Tutoring
- -Webinars
- -Etc…
Phase Investment
- -Mexico or Canada
- -Requirement Analysis
- -Investors
- -Internationally
- -Opening Costs
- -Moving
- -Kitchen Equipment
- -Kitchen Table and Chairs
- -Refrigerators
- -Range
- -Incidentals
- -Rent
- -Electricity
- -Gaz
- -Water
- -Internet
- -Web Hosting
- -Telephone
- -Cellulars
- -Accountant
- -Lawyer
- -Transportation
- -Marketing
- -Etc…
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Curriculum Vitae 2021
English
https://www.igourmand.com/cv/JLPFoodWineCV2021Mk1c.pdf
Español
https://www.igourmand.com/cv/JLPComidaVinosCVMk2021b.pdf
Web: https://www.igourmand.com/
Web: http://www.jlpconsultants.com/
Web: https://zoom.us/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neosteam.labs.9/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5eRjrGn1CqkkGfZy0jxEdA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/labs_steam
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/NeoSteamLabs/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luc.paquin/
Lucito
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#Lucito #iGourmand #Speaking #Vlog #Aphasia
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Montreal, Canada – 2002
Mexico City, Mexico – 2010
Mexico City, Mexico – 2012
Aphasia – 2018
Aphasia – 2019
Aphasia – 2020
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Lucito
His passion for food and wine
Lucito
Story of my Friends
Lucito