Wednesday, August 2, marked the stunning opening of the 26th edition of Les Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy fireworks competition. Hundreds of people poured in through a (literal) misty gate at the festival’s entrance into the Canadian Museum of History grounds. Spanning a vast swath of space, the family-friendly festival features an entire playing area for kids with spinning attractions, tents, and a s’mores station!
Photo by Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy on Facebook.
Costumed actors in stunning fire and wolf animatronics light-up outfits posed for photos.
Photo by Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy on Facebook.
Food trucks, including Brett’s Ice-Cream, Le BBQ Shop from Gatineau and Mobile Kitchen by My Catering Group, joined the local line-up near the museum. Multiple drink stations kept the adults hydrated. The festival grounds feature many Instagram-friendly photo opportunities and art installations.
Photo by Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy on Facebook.
Waterfront grounds offer plenty of grass for chairs or good ol’ fashioned on-the-ground seating to view the 25-minute fireworks show launched from a boat on the Ottawa River, with the perfect backdrop of the lit-up Parliament buildings complex. Every fireworks show is set to an accompanying environment. On the opening night, a troupe of fire breathers and dancers warmed up the audience on the main stage.
Photo by Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy on Facebook.
But one of the biggest attractions of the opening night was L’Incandescent BBQ restaurant pop-up, tucked in closer to the Alexandra Bridge. A creation by Chef Romain Riva, whom you might know as the owner and mastermind behind Les Vilains Garçons in Gatineau, this culinary experience features a collaboration between twelve local chefs. We spoke with the chef to get a behind-the-scenes scoop.
Chef Romain Riva. Photo from Riva’s LinkedIn.
From Saint-Emilion, France, Riva moved to Quebec when he was 16. Since then, he’s owned multiple restaurants with his friends, including a successful, now-closed Les Vilains Garcons in Gatineau, its side project La Boucherie des Vilains, and a hybrid food truck Le Vilain Camion which served the team well during the COVID lockdowns.
This summer, Riva turned his attention to organizing a delicious culinary experience at Les Grands Feux, his second year participating. Last year, the festival ran six different restaurants on the six nights of programming, which was a feat to organize logistically. This year, with many kitchens short-staffed everywhere, Riva decided to call together twelve local chefs instead who’d take shifts managing one restaurant, L’Incandescent. The menu stays the same, with a different team running the pop-up every night.
“We create the menu of twelve dishes, everybody brings an idea to the table and teaches the other eleven on how to create the dish,” explains Riva. “We are all friends here. We all know each other from the restaurant industry and worked together at some point. Everybody knows everybody, and it was easy to build the chef roster. It’s fun to be back together!”
With vast French cuisine and fine dining experience, Riva enjoys the challenge of BBQ and making something different. Using the same high-quality ingredients as all the chefs are accustomed to, the dishes are all prepared with fire and smoke and served in a fun new way. “You can’t control fire the same way you can gas,” adds Riva. “But I ran a food truck for three years, so it’s easy for me to serve good food in a different way.”
Coming together with a superstar roster of chefs, the final menu features five sides, five mains, and desserts, featuring worldwide influences, from Middle Eastern to Korean. The chef team features:
- Yannick La Salle, executive chef of the Supreme Court of Canada
- Jean-Philippe Cloutier, independent chef
- Maxime Delmont, executive sous-chef, Fairmont Château Montebello
- Marie-Ève Gingras chef, Moulin de Wakefield
- Romain Riva, independent chef
- Daniel Lalonde chef, Pub Chelsea
- Gyno Lefrançois, independent chef
- Christopher Mulder, independent chef
- Étienne Cuerrier, chef/owner of MeatPress
- Simon Beaudry, sous-chef of Les Fougères restaurant
- Samuel Lavergne-Fournier, independent chef
- Cass David, chef of l’Ardoise at Four Points by Sheraton Ottawa-Gatineau
Photo by Sonya Gankina.
Chef Yannick La Salle. Photo by Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy on Facebook.
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The official event site of Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy is the Museum of History. Tickets are available online and include free transit on STO buses. Those watching outside the official site can listen live to the accompanying musical soundtrack. Visit the public notices site to learn more about street and pathway closures. There is free supervised bike parking at Maison du Citoyen.
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