Bon Bon, the two Michelin star restaurant in Brussels of chef Christophe Hardiquest is set to join 12 other Belgian restaurants in the 'Les Grandes Tables du Monde' list, Pierre Wynants, the vice president of the association announced when he was speaking during a discussion on a recent book he co-authored on Belgium's culinary future earlier this week. Christophe Hardiquest will join the other Belgian chefs who are part of 167 restaurants in 24 countries worldwide. It will be the fifth Brussels based restaurant on the list following Jean-Pierre Bruneau (Bruneau), Laurence and Lionet Rigolet (Comme Chez Soi), Pascal Devalkeneer (Chalet De la Foret) and Yves Mattagne (Sea Grill). Brussels lacks a three Michelin star restaurant after Comme Chez Soi lost the third star upon the retirement of Pierre Wynants. Gault Millau awarded Bon Bon 19.5 out of 20 in its latest guide for Belgium and Luxembourg. This year, Belgian chef Sang-hoon Degeimbre (L'Air du Temps) joined the list … [Read more...]
Maxime Colin (Villa Lorraine): Bringing the best out of top quality ingredients
Maxime Colin, 27, is full of passion for top quality ingredients and you can see it in his face when he proudly displays a piece of Kobe beef. He speaks passionately about what makes Kobe beef so special, explaining the attention to detail the Japanese give to raising the cattle for what is considered the best meat you can buy. We met Maxime in the kitchen of Villa Lorraine which serves as the kitchen for both La Villa and La Brasserie. The Villa Lorraine, on the edge of the Bois de la Cambre in Brussels, houses two restaurants owned by Serge Litvine who purchased the restaurants in 2010 and is working to make it shine again. Villa Lorraine is a Brussels and Belgian institution having been the first restaurant outside France to get the coveted 3 Michelin stars in 1972. Maxime Colin has been head chef there since August 2014 and retained the 1 Michelin star that had been previously awarded to La Villa under Alain Bianchin in November 2013. He explained the philosophy behind … [Read more...]
Gordon Ramsay hated Noma but was nice about it – Redzepi on Reddit Q&A
Gordon Ramsay had visited Noma and hated it according to the award winning chef René Redzepi who was answering a question and answer session he organsied on Reddit called Ask Me Anything. "But he was nice about it," Redzepi said with a smiley. The AMA (as Ask Me Anything is called on Reddit) is full of incredible insights from one of the best chefs in the world. Here are some of the highlights, but if you are interested you might want to check out the whole session here. Redzepi is a chef from Denmark and the son of an Albanian Muslim immigrant and a Danish mother. He trained in many restaurants around the world before returning to Copenhagen and opening Noma in 2003. The restaurant celebrates the Nordic region's ingredients and aims to present a kind of cooking that expresses its location and the seasons, drawing on a local network of farmers, foragers and purveyors. Noma has held 2 Michelin stars since 2007 and was voted best Restaurant in the world in 2010, 2011, 2012 and … [Read more...]
L’Air de Rien: a voyage of discovery
There is something playful about the choice of the name of the restaurant L'Air de Rien, in Fontin in the province of Liege. When I ask chef Stéphane Diffels what it means he smiled and told me that sometimes you might feel the air blowing from behind you, you turn and there is nothing, 'rien'. There are other times when you just sit, relax and let time go by. The name of the restaurant may come from a play on words but there is also something playful going on in the kitchen. The cuisine is inventive, avant-garde but relaxed at the same time. The chef has created a style that manages to showcase the produce of the area using different techniques and textures to create a unique set of emotions when you are eating. The restaurant recently launched their new website and for the occasion they held a bloggers' lunch which we unfortunately had to miss. Nevertheless, an invitation came to visit the restaurant and given the logistics (it's around 120 kilometres away from Brussels) … [Read more...]
Gramm restaurant: A French-Japanese cuisine worth discovering
Very few days pass without me being asked what is our favourite restaurant in Brussels, given it is the city we know best. But as simple as it may sound, this question is not that easy to answer. In our books, there is no such thing as a favourite or a best restaurant. There are so many good restaurants that it is difficult to pinpoint one. Many times it depends on the occasion, the atmosphere, the quality of the food but also the mood you find yourself in. Obviously the top restaurants, of which Brussels has many, are stable and always reliable. But then there are many gastronomic restaurants, many by young chefs who are pushing the boundaries with their cuisine and who are worth discovering because they clearly represent the future. Some gastronomic restaurants in Brussels are now serving set menus in the evening. Chef Erwan Kenzo Nakata of Gramm Restaurant is one of them. In the evening he serves a six course menu which changes every week depending on the seasons and also what … [Read more...]
L.E.S.S. by Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens (Hertog Jan)
L.E.S.S. the bistro by Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens of three-Michelin starred Belgian restaurant Hertog Jan is a relatively new restaurant in the idyllic city of Bruges. It was opened in the place which was previously Hertog Jan before they moved to their new premises in Zedelgem in July 2014. It stands for Love, Eat, Share and Smile and the idea is for friends or family to gather in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. When I visited Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens a few days ago, I asked what they aimed to achieve with L.E.S.S. and how it complements their three Michelin star restaurant Hertog Jan, "It was quite hard to distance ourselves from the old location because for us it was like our baby," Gert said. "We took it over as a brasserie and we worked very hard for five/six years to gain three stars. I started alone working in that kitchen and there were days when I was baking my bread at 6am in the morning and I was still doing mis-en-place at 1am or 2am." But … [Read more...]
L’air du temps: Four hands dinner with San Degeimbre and Bo Bech
Bo Bech, the Danish chef of restaurant Geist in Copenhagen was the first to inaugurate this year's series of four hands dinners with two Michelin star chef Sang-hoon Degeimbre at L'Air du Temps in Liernu, and what a great evening it turned out to be. When I had interviewed San in November, he had mentioned Geist as one of his favourite restaurants in the world, so I was incredibly curious to experience what the Danish chef and San could combine together. Bo Bech needs no introduction in Denmark. He is well known for having closed a Michelin star restaurant to open Geist, which is more like a brasserie. The cuisine is still impeccable but he wanted a less formal ambience. In Copenhagen, he was also well known for having a bakery without a name which made only one type of bread, and for many years he was a television personality who presented the Danish version of 'Kitchen nightmares'. When you meet Bo, you can actually feel his energy. We were invited to experience this … [Read more...]
A few pinches of salt and the loss of a third Michelin star
Michelin has a lot of power despite the fact that reviews of restaurants are a few sentences long. Amid the many announcements of new classifications in France on 2 February 2015, came a decision which surprised many on Twitter. It was Michelin's decision to downgrade the Côte Saint Jacques from its 3 Stars in the next edition of the Michelin 2015. Many were asking why the restaurant had lost its third Michelin star. It seems a few pinches of salt (some flaws in seasoning) may have been the reason. Chef Jean-Michel Lorain left a statement on the hotel's Facebook page which we feel should be highlighted because it illustrates the pressure that chefs face on a daily basis. By the time of writing this post, his comment had received over 800 likes and shared more than 200 times. There were also many comments all encouraging the French chef to continue his great work. Lorain noted that during the last meeting with the director of the Michelin guide in November, he was told that … [Read more...]
Michel Roux Jr: Quality produce is core to my cooking
For many years, Michel Roux Jr was the face of one of the most popular culinary programmes on the BBC. Television, in particular Masterchef, was a significant part of his life but now he is focusing on other projects and on his restaurants. In Britain, the surname Roux is synonymous with the qualities of French haute cuisine. It all started with his father and uncle in 1967 who opened Le Gavroche. Since then, the restaurant has been a London institution marking a revolution of restaurants in London. An award-winning chef, Michel Roux is known for his deep respect for the classical foundations of French cooking. He loves simplicity and classic combinations. He now has three restaurants in London. Le Gavroche, which he took over in 1991 from his father, is classic French with a lighter modern twist and his two recent openings are Roux at Parliament Square and Roux at the Landau. A Frenchman in the UK. You have successfully followed in your father’s footsteps and not only, you … [Read more...]
De Librije opens its doors in new location in Zwolle
De Librije, the three Michelin starred restaurant of Jonnie and Therese Boer in Zwolle, has opened the doors in its new location within the Librije's hotel today, 20 January 2015. Jonnie and Therese Boer told Food and Wine Gazette that after more than 28 years, in their restaurant they wanted to change. "We wanted to get new energy and new inspiration. Moreover the building which housed the old De Librije was old and required major changes. So instead we opted to change the restaurant and move it to De Librije's hotel which is an old prison from the 1700s," said Therese Boer, who leads the front of house and is a trained viticulturist and wine specialist. The Dutch chef is known for putting the Netherlands on the culinary landscape with his love of ingredients and his consciousness for food waste. After his presentation at Chef Sache in Cologne I ask him how he finds inspiration and comes up with new ideas. He told me that a lot of inspiration comes from experience and … [Read more...]