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 “I like good food, and I know what good food is,“ Chef Oleg Popov of C’est Cheese & Meats said on a quiet Wednesday afternoon.

Popov has been running his own butcher shop alongside his wife at the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre for the last five years. Popov runs this butcher shop, but also happens to be Certified Chef de Cuisine, which is the highest professional culinary recognition in Canada.

He’s charming, as is his butcher shop. He runs every aspect of his shop, from ordering his foods, to washing dishes and floors at the end of each day.  The door opens and a bell rings as a customer walks into his store. As he serves a sandwich to one of his regular customers, he was asked whether he is a professional chef, or butcher. That question he claims is unfair.

“It’s beneficial to start from the butchery because you have to know the food in order to cook it,” Chef Popov said. “I think you have to know the roots of food and right now lots of people are going to back to the basics. Our plan is to not only sell dry aged food and good quality beef, but to bring organic food to Oakville as well.”

The specialty at C’est Cheese & Meats is dry aged beef, a process that has now become less common in butcher shops across Ontario. Chef Popov will dry age meat by request for customers in Oakville. The process take can take up to eight weeks, and is the natural decomposition of prime cuts of beef. The final product is cuts of meat that are far superior in flavour and texture to wet aged beef found in supermarkets.

“It used to be like this in the old days when people ate real food and good meat,” he said.

Other specialties at C’est Cheese & Meats include hand made pastas, cheese, sauces and sausages. He also serves a wide array of different sandwiches and fresh pastas and soups for lunch to the customers that visit his shop.

As customers stream in and out of his shop on a cloudy afternoon, he explains the importance of connecting with the customers that come to his store.

“I give customers good quality products and customer service. Those are my two cornerstones,” Chef Popov said. “I have customers I’ve known for five years, and I’ve had customers that have died already and I was deeply disappointed. A lot of customer I’ve had, we’ve become friends. When you lose customers you lose friends.”

“If you go to Metro, you don’t want to tell your stories to a clerk. People come here and tell all their stories and share their life. That’s different,” he said. “It’s very personal. We treat our customers as friends and guests.”

Chef Popov will go the extra mile for his customers to ensure that they are happy with the high quality products he serves to the city of Oakville. He offers cooking classes upon request, and has a passion for being a chef, and running his butcher shop.

“We will always give you the best quality product at a reasonable price with excellent customer service,” he said.

“I will cook a piece of dry aged beef for a customer, and there’s a chance they will buy it the next time they come in. There’s also a chance that they wont, but this is the part about being in this business, you have to take chances,” Chef Popov said.

“You have to give people things to try to let them know what they are missing. We have to go with customer preferences, what they ask I provide them.”

“Right now, I have inspiration from my customers.”

C’est Cheese & Meats is open seven days a week at the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre on 1011 Upper Middle Road East. Stop in, say hi and see what you’re missing out on. Or visit www.oakvillemeats.ca for more information.

06/14/2011 – This Article posted by Oakville Real Estate agent Ryan Crane, who works throughout the GTA and specializes in the Milton, Burlington, Mississauga, and Oakville Real Estate markets. You can find him at www.oakvillerealestate4sale.ca

Source - Michael Burton - Oakville.com

Oakville Real Estate Agents website provides full access to all of the Oakville MLS Listings for Oakville Homes for Sale including the Oakville Sold Properties.

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