A short walk from the garden: Belgian chef Gert De Mangeleer is succeeding in self-sufficiency: During the mild months of early summer, the garden at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Hertog Jan — located 20 minutes outside of the Belgian city of Bruges — is in full bloom. The pale orange outlines of butternut squash peek out from beneath a thick cover of wide, flat leaves. Radishes grow in neat rows along one edge, while golden nasturtium flowers sprout in another corner. But Hertog Jan’s garden functions as more than fancy landscape design: it is an experiment in self-sufficiency. Michelin-star chef Richard Ekkebus and his intense relationship with time: Recognised as one of Asia’s top chefs, Richard Ekkebus, director of food and beverage at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, which includes two Michelin-star, fine-dining restaurant Amber, understands how precision can lead to success. “Cooking is about precise timing – timing between the restaurants, the service staff and … [Read more...]
The crazy and magical experience at the GELINAZ! Brussels Headquarters at Bon Bon
Something magical happens when you bring 20 of the world's creative chefs to cook together in a restaurant kitchen. Creativity flows, collaboration and sharing of knowledge is in evidence, as is the joy to watch so many talented people cooking, joking, sharing a good time and helping each other out. As a guest, you do not want this moment to end even if there are time constraints because in the space of 15 hours there will be four sittings (with just an hour in between each service to clean the restaurant and prepare for the next sitting). At the same time, you are in awe because these are dishes which you will never see or try again. There are dishes that push boundaries, some that you might not expect to find in a top restaurant and others which will remain etched in your memory, which is what dining is all about. Then you stop to think about the idea and you start to wonder where could this creativity stop. Because what happened yesterday was a unique … [Read more...]
Preparations for Gelinaz! Headquarters event in Brussels nearly ready
20 chefs prepare to cook non-stop for at least 15 hours The kitchens of Bon Bon Restaurant and the Hotel Amigo in Brussels were the centre of long preparations on 9 November as 20 chefs from across Europe arrived in the Belgian capital between Tuesday 8 November and Wednesday 9 November to prepare for the Gelinaz! Brussels Headquarters event taking place on 10 November. While most of the chefs were carrying out their preparations for the ambitious consecutive 15 hour service at Christophe Hardiquest's Bon Bon restaurant in Woluwe Saint Pierre, Italian Fulvio Pierangelini one of the chefs taking part in the event, hosted Clare Smyth, Belgian Gert De Mangeleer and Peter Nilsson. The Italian chef is consultant of the Rocco Forte chain of hotels which includes the Hotel Amigo among its portfolios. The chefs were welcomed by Fulvio Pierangelini to a dinner at the Ristorante Bocconi on Tuesday evening. Belgian chef Christophe Hardiquest hosted the chefs to a dinner at his … [Read more...]
Q&A with Christophe Hardiquest (Bon Bon)
Christophe Hardiquest, chef of Brussels 2 Michelin star restaurant Bon Bon will this week be hosting 19 chefs from across Europe from Albert Adria to Fulvio Pierangelini, Davide Scabin to Enrico Crippa, Mauro Colagreco to Magnus Ek. Following our extensive interview which you can read here, this is a question and answer interview from our series where we get to know a bit more about the chefs we interview. Who would you consider to be your mentors? Alain Passard. He is a good friend of mine. I would describe him as a genius of simplicity. I love his power. He works with contrast. I really like him and his personality. I also like Pierre Gagnaire. He is a real artist, a crazy artist. His career is crazy. When you read his book and where he is coming from, you can understand his story. Your best meal ever? Alain Passard. With several simple things. Who are the new chefs to watch in Belgium I would mention three young chefs from the Flemish part of Belgium. Tim … [Read more...]
Tim Boury is Gault & Millau 2017 chef of the year for Belgium
Tim Boury, the chef of restaurant Boury is the chef of the year for the Belgian and Luxembourg Gault & Millau 2017 guide which is released this week. Boury's restaurant is in Roeselare. The Belgian chef had been young chef of the year a few years ago and Philippe Limbourg, director of the guide said "We made no mistake. He has continued to evolve." He takes the title from Sang Hoon Degeimbre who was last year's chef of the year for Gault & Millau. Mélanie Englebin of restaurant Cécila in Brussels was the young chef of the year together with Thomas Troupin (La Menuiserie - Waimes in Wallonia) and Maarten Bouckaert (Castor - Beveren-Leie in Flanders). The latter, the former sous-chef of Peter Goossens at Hof Van Cleve scored 16 out of 20. The two top restaurants in Belgium according to Gault and Millau remain Hof Van Cleve and Restaurant Bon Bon in Brussels both with 19.5 points. Hertog Jan moves closer this year with 19 points while The … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #95
Truffles: The Mozart of Mushrooms: The truffle has been prized for millennia, lauded by those lucky enough to encounter the rare and capricious jewel. The Roman philosopher and historian Pliny wrote how they were ‘born spontaneously and live without roots, in an aura of mystery’. His fellow Italian, the composer Rossini, called them ‘The Mozart of mushrooms’ 1800 years later, while the English Romantic poet Lord Byron seemingly had one sit on his desk as the unique, musky perfume inspired his creativity. Rosanna Marziale: the queen of mozzarella: Pasta and pizza are two Italian dishes that many chefs strive to master over decades of their careers. Discovering how to make that perfect crust or knowing just the right amount of pasta water to add to a sauce so it emulsifies to give it the perfect consistency are skills reserved for only the highest level of chefs. But for the Michelin-starred chef Rosanna Marziale, it’s not specific dishes she’s dedicated her life to, but a specific … [Read more...]
‘A chef is an artist with sensibility’ – Christophe Hardiquest
When Christophe Hardiquest moved his restaurant from Uccle to Woluwe Saint Pierre in Brussels six years ago, little did he know the difficulty he would face in the first few months to replicate the cuisine that clients were accustomed to at his old restaurant. That story still gives him goosebumps though he has benefitted from that experience. Today, six years later, the Belgian chef is embarking on a new approach to his cuisine with the aim of restoring the identity of Brussels cuisine, of rebuilding the tastes and flavours that are synonymous with the Belgian capital city, while reinventing them as you would expect from the chef of a high-end restaurant. “I started to think that we had lost our identity but it is now coming back. I do not want to offer a Parisian cuisine in Brussels just because we are close to Paris. I don’t want to do this anymore,” Christophe told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview. Like many others, Christophe realised that the more you travel and the … [Read more...]
In De Wulf restaurant put up for sale
In De Wulf, the world famous restaurant in Dranouter, Belgium that will close its doors in December has been put up for sale. Kobe Desramaults, the chef of the restaurant had announced last year that the restaurant would be closing this year. On Sunday, on the Facebook page of the restaurant, the Flemish chef put up a post that the multifunctional building which is completely renovated is for sale. The post says that the building can be run as a restaurant, a holiday house or a bed and breakfast with 10 rooms having all amenities. Although the sale of the restaurant does not come as a surprise as Kobe Desramaults had told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview earlier this year that he had reached a point where he needed to decide whether to buy the property from his mother or not when he took the decision to close the restaurant, seeing it officially does have a certain effect on those who have followed Kobe's rise over the past years. The Flemish chef (and In De Wulf) rose … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #94
The worst mistake everybody makes when cooking steak, according to Anthony Bourdain: World-famous food guy Anthony Bourdain has a new book out called "Appetites," and he recently appeared on the Marc Maron "WTF" podcastto talk about it. During his conversation with Maron, Bourdain talks about how a lot of people just don't know how to cook, and he offers some tips. At one point he describes how people get cooking steak all wrong. "No one knows how to grill a backyard steak in this country," Bourdain says. A foodie tour of Iran: it's poetry on a plate: Imagine a verdant, landscape filled with rice paddies, tea plantations and olive groves. A land where you can hike up mountains in the thick mist of the morning and picnic by waterfalls on sun-weathered rocks in the afternoon. A land filled with golden apricots that taste like honey, peaches so succulent you barely notice the sweet juice that runs down your chin, and small black figs, firm and velvety to the touch, that erupt with jammy … [Read more...]
New edition of Dispensa published
The sixth edition of Dispensa, a biannual independent bookazine that was created in 2013 by Martina Liverani has just been published. This edition of the bilingual bookazine (in Italian and English) has as its main theme music and features articles on Food for Soul, the foundation set up by Italian chef Massimo Bottura, an article about Sangue Na Guelra, an event in Portugal aimed at bringing together food and music as well as Portuguese and international chefs and another about Basque music (and food) written by Italian journalist Gabriele Zanatta. The visuals in the bookazine are great as is the writing. Dispensa is the first independent Italian bookazine that narrates the world of food through stories of people and stories of food. It is printed on paper made from food waste and contains no advertising: just original texts and great photography. It is a collectors item. The biannual addresses a different theme each time. You will not find recipes or reviews but stories … [Read more...]