AIRrepublic, the restaurant and terrace café created by Sergio Herman in Cadzand, Zeeland Netherlands will open in Spring 2017. The restaurant announced on its Facebook page that it was recruiting staff for the opening of the much awaited project in Cadzand. Earlier this year, Herman said "Air Republic is coming between Belgium and Holland. You feel it...the air and the vibe is always different! Every single day." Herman is one of the most talented chefs in the world. He decided to stop cooking full time in 2013. He has, however, not rested on his laurels created the successful The Jane with Nick Bril in Antwerp and Pure C in Cadzand with Syrco Bakker. After the success of his two restaurants, he set sights on opening this new harbour restaurant, pavillion and takeaway in the beach town on the North Sea. The seaside resort in the Netherlands was partially made popular by his restaurant Pure C. Sergio Herman is the former 3 Michelin star chef of Oud Sluis. He decided … [Read more...]
Dierendonck opens online store for Christmas, Brussels butcher shop to open in January
Hendrik Dierendonck, one of the most famous butchers in Belgium is opening a pop-up online store for the Christmas festivities to reach out to his growing fan base which for the time being has had to take the trip to the West Coast of Belgium to buy his renowned meat. Dierendonck, who is set to open a shop in the Belgian capital city, Brussels, has seen the opening of the shop delayed so he has decided to set up the pop-up webshop instead. Dierendonck told Food and Wine Gazette that they will be opening the webshop for the holidays "to offer a very select and pure variety of products which I will select. I also want to explore the potential of this market. We want to get in touch with people who cannot make the trip to the West Coast of Belgium. We have been receiving a lot of questions from people who do not live nearly as to whether they deliver their meet." The Belgian butcher said that since he was getting the feeling that their would be a delay with the construction of his … [Read more...]
Alain Passard is Chef’s choice for the list of top 100 chefs 2017
French chef Alain Passard was voted as the chef of the year by his peers in a list of 100 top chefs published by the magazine Le Chef. The list, in its third edition, was compiled taking into account the opinion of 534 chefs that have 2 or 3 stars around the world who had to answer the following question. "Who are the five international chefs that represent the values of the profession, have a unique cuisine and is worth visiting?" The first choices the previous year were Pierre Gagnaire and Michel Bras. This year, its the chef of L'Arpege, Alain Passard who is top of the list. There are only two women in the list, Anne Sofie Pic and Nadia Santini. Among the main chefs missing from last year's list are Joel Robuchon, Heston Blumenthal, Davide Scabin and Elena and Juan Mari Arzak, Guy Savoy and Corey Lee. The full list is the following: Alain Passard, L'Arpege, France Martin Berasategui, Rest. Martin Berasategui, Spain Pierre Gagnaire, Pierre Gagnaire, France … [Read more...]
The questions Michelin refuses to answer
Michelin is at the centre of criticism for its decisions relating to the publication of the Michelin guide in Belgium and Luxembourg. But, given the opportunity to set the record straight, it has refused to answer questions put by Food and Wine Gazette. Questions addressed to the company that publishes the Michelin Guide were left unanswered with Samuelle Dorol, the PR manager responsible for the Michelin Guides worldwide saying "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to react to your article but I have to decline. You are free to express your opinion regarding the selection which is something we fully respect." The questions sent to Michelin were not aimed at contesting the selections but rather at setting the record straight and giving the opportunity to Michelin, to give its side of the story and explain its policies on transparency, restaurant visits, how many inspectors it has, and whether it is true that some cities and countries pay for a guide to be published among … [Read more...]
Third edition of Vini, Birre, Ribelli in Brussels this weekend
The third edition of Vini, Birre, Ribelli takes place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the prestigious garage Citroen Yser in Brussels. The event brings together over 160 wine makers, 25 brewers, 13 Slow Food restaurants with the collaboration of Slow Food France and 12 ethical and other stands. The winemakers in attendance hail mainly from France and Italy with six wine makers from other countries. As for the first two editions of the event, the exhibition will be exclusively craft, sustainable, organic and mostly natural products. It brings together in a single location the better and wine's alternative worlds and food that is good, clean and fair. Last year, the event welcomed 3,200 visitors. This year, the organisers aim to have 4,500 visitors attending the Citroen Yser building which was recently acquired by the city of Brussels to become the Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition opens on Saturday and Sunday at … [Read more...]
No new two or three Michelin stars in Belgium
There were no new two or three Michelin star restaurants in Belgium when Michelin released its new Michelin guide for 2017. This means that Belgium's number of three Michelin star restaurants has gone down from 3 to 2 with the closure of De Karmeliet in Bruges in the past few weeks. The two restaurants that have three stars are Gert de Mangeleer's Hertog Jan in Zedelgem and Peter Goossens Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem. On the other hand, nine new restaurants have been awarded a Michelin star. The three new Michelin star restaurants in Brussels are Bozar Brasserie, La Villa Emily (owned by Serge Litvine of La Villa in the Sky and Villa Lorraine among others), and Wine in the City. (See full list of new one star restaurants below). Pundits during the past week had been speculating that Bon Bon in Brussels and L'Air du Temps in Liernu could receive the coveted 3 stars. Brussels will have to wait at least another year to see whether it will eventually get a three star restaurant. … [Read more...]
Rene Redzepi announces noma will go to Mexico in 2017
Rene Redzepi, the chef of world famous Copenhagen restaurant noma announced that they will be travelling to Mexico to open a pop-up restaurant before they open their new restaurant in Copenhagen. This will be the third consecutive year that the full team of noma travel to a different country and open a restaurant there. After the success of the pop-up restaurants in Japan and Australia, Redzepi said that the Mexico location was a very special one for him. "I consider it to be my adopted home, one filled with almost a decade of cherished memories from vacations with my family. The place that I dream about. Home to one of the most exciting cuisines I have ever tasted: as old as time and yet so relevant. Full of ingredients I never knew existed. This cooking inspires the team and I constantly here in Copenhagen. It is safe to say that there is already a touch of influence from Mexico in the food at noma," he wrote on the restaurant website. 2017 will see an addition to their … [Read more...]
No new 3 Michelin star restaurants in Italy
There were no new three Michelin star restaurants in Italy when Michelin announced its list for 2017. The eight 3 Michelin star restaurants have all retained their stars. While there were 5 new 2 Michelin star restaurants announced, the number of new entries in the one star category was 27 bringing the total of starred restaurants in Italy to 343 in total.There are now 41 two star restaurants in Italy and 294 one-star restaurants. Rome did particularly well in the one star category with five new restaurants. These are The Corner, Magnolia, Bistrot 64, Per Me Giulia Terrinoni and Assaje. The three Michelin star restaurants in Italy are Piazza Duomo(Enrico Crippa), Da Vittorio (Vittorio Cerea), Reale (Niko Romito), Dal Pescatore (Nadia Santini), Enoteca Pinchiorri (Annie Deolde, Italo Bassi and Riccardo Monco), Osteria Francescana (Massimo Bottura), Le Calandre (Massimiliano Ajamo) and La Pergola (Heinz Beck). The list of newly awarded restaurants is the following: New … [Read more...]
Ants on a Shrimp to premiere in Brussels on November 28
Fine Food Fanatics is organising the Belgian première of Ants on a Shrimp, a documentary film on Rene Redzepi's Noma adventure in Japan in Brussels on 28 November at the UGC Cinema complex. Film director Maurice Dekkers will be present for the screening of the documentary. The event is followed by a gastronomic night and party at Humphrey's restaurant which is within walking distance of the cinema. The event costs €55 and includes the ticket to watch the documentary, 1 cocktail, 1 beer, 1 wine and three fine finger foods prepared by the chef of Humphrey's Yannick Van Aeken, formerly sous-chef at Noma. Humphrey's was the place which hosted the after party of the Gelinaz! Headquarters event that took place at Bon Bon last week. It has become the place to be in Brussels. Chef van Aeken with his business partner Glen Ramaekers have created a casual restaurant away from the constraints that a fine dining experience may create. Van Aeken has adopted what he has learnt as … [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...]