Pleasantly surprised by GaultMillau Belgium 2017 where we saw seriously accrued interest and appreciation for young, talented chefs who focus on delivering delicious food made with quality ingredients, often sourced locally. Inspired by what Michelin has done in the UK, where pubs get stars these days and even more inspired by some Asian Michelin editions where streetfood was awarded a star, we very much look forward to what Michelin will hold in store for us coming Monday when the new Red Bible of fine dining will be revealed for Belgium and Luxembourg.
The restaurant environment in Belgium, even across Europe, is changing. Chefs find themselves confronted to several challenges:

• finding good staff is difficult, staff loyalty tends to disappear

• fiscal changes (witte kassa) are pushing chefs to rethink their business model, even more so for young chefs trying to open their own place

• the profile of the clients is changing, expectations are being altered, clients choose food quality over formal details, creativity over classical cooking, value over nametag for wines…

• tv shows, blogs, social media, Tripadvisor, cooking and opinions about restaurants are everywhere, this creates constant pressure on chefs to perform, to push their limits. The world is watching…day after day

Another important conclusion after the release of the Belgian GaultMillau guide 2017 is also that a lot of the chefs who got promoted have not recently changed their cooking style in order to obtain this or that award. They are passionate about their job, determined to achieve their goals, keen to bring plates to the table that are the perfect expression of their cooking philosophy, their vision. Quite often these chefs have adapted quite well to all the limitations mentioned above, working with small teams, often focussing on relatively limited à la carte choices and one or two set menus.

So what do we expect from Michelin 2017 for Belgium and Luxembourg? We hope for recognition of the chefs described above, they are the future of fine dining. Of course, the ultimate top, the Champion’s league of eating will always be the 3* restaurants but here also, we see that in this segment, creativity is coming under pressure. Dishes stay on the menu for quite a long time and/or come back on a seasonal basis. First of all, because the plates that come out of this type of kitchens are the result of a long and intense creative process. Also, they are often very technical and labour-intense so chefs are almost forced to keep them on their menus. Secondly, the pressure of a 3* status has an undeniable influence on creativity. The risks and consequences of losing that precious 3rd one are so immense that (un)consciously creating new dishes creates pressure. A last observation is that 3* restaurants become more and more destination restaurants, where you go for a total concept, built around recognisable creations, expressing the well-known style of the chef. The ultimate example of this is, of course, the restaurant of Monsieur Paul near Lyon.

This being said, the future does lie with the upcoming generation of chefs who trade in formalism for an open mind, tablecloths for locally sourced produce, expensive winelists for craft beers and upcoming winemakers… In order to achieve this ‘renewal’ it might also be time to re-evaluate the exisiting list of restaurants with a star. If you remember from last edition over 11% of the featured restaurants in the 2016 guide have at least one star, this is immense. As such, this is not necessarily a problem but if you take a good look at the list, then the proverbial eyebrow could be raised quite a few times. In fact, the only restaurants that lost their star did so because they closed or because their chef left.

Let’s not forget that Michelin stars, or any other awards for that matter, should be about the food and nothing but the food… Food as the ultimate expression of the chef, his vision, his terroir…

Geographically, and we’re not being chauvinist here, we hope that West-Flanders get’s some well-deserved attention this year as the previous edition was a bit of a disappointment for this part of the country. Luxembourg is also something to watch as with Ma Langue Sourit and Mosconi two restaurants are more than ready to bring home two stars after a long period of absence of 2* places in the Grand Duchy. And finally, will Brussels get a new 3*?

Bon appétit and see you tomorrow for Michelin Belux 2017!

Culinary yours, 

Where to Eat and Sleep….

Wild guesses for Michelin BELUX 2017 this Monday, based on my visits and ‘expert’ opinions from my network 😂😂😂 (have no idea for Wallonia, sorry):
3* 

Bon Bon (Stéphanie Christophe Hardiquest)
2* 

Boury (Tim Boury)

Table d’Amis (Beudaert Matthieu)

Vrijmoed (Michaël Vrijmoed)

La Paix (David Martin LA Paix)
1*

Castor 

Willem Hiele

Bruut (Bruno Timperman)

Souvenir (Vilhjalmur Sigurdarson)

Oak (Marcelo Ballard)
This is totally unreliable and unimportant but soooo much fun…. Let’s hear what you guys think….

Second stay at this beautiful Starwood property in the center of Milano, Lombardia, Italy. Conveniently located next to Milano’s central railway station it benefits from a straightforward connection to Milano’s touristic and shopping city center, either by underground or by foot. 

Great design and immaculate conception of this 5 * property, offering all services and amenities you may expect at this level. Swimming pool, spa, rooftop bar and restaurant, excellent concierge and front of house staff. Close collaboration with Maserati adds a very special touch to the experience. 

Modern, spacious rooms with large bathrooms. State of the art electronic equipment and perfectly quiet. 

Delicious and varied breakfast buffet with a possibility to make tailor made juices. Love it!!!!
My favorite when traveling to Milano. Will be back. 

website

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/sep/01/10-best-rural-retreats-france-foodies

Resté modeste comme dans ses tout premiers jours, Emmanuel Renaut est néanmoins devenu sans aucun doute un des meilleurs cuisiniers d’Europe, voir du monde. Dans un esprit des plus pur et avec une approche simple en apparence, mais en réalité très technique, il arrive a sublimer les meilleurs ingrédients, venus de préférence des alentours de son magnifique restaurant en des plats non seulement succulent mais aussi visuellement très attractifs. Avec ses créations il vous emmène pour une délicieuse balade en montagne, il vous fait sentir le sous bois avec ses plats magiques autour du champignon comme il vous fait déguster les meilleurs poissons des lacs…Et les desserts…..aahhhhhh quel régal!!!! Service décontracté, avec le sourire, mais à tout moment très professionnel….Sommelière compétente et avec une valeur ajoutée incontestable….en résumé….INOUBLIABLE et à (re)découvrir sans tarder…

This is the textbook example of a hotel that you MUST visit. When it opened in 2005 it immediately created a huge buzz…Indeed, the turnaround from an abandoned former monastery into a design hotel is impressive…The very clever transformation of the former church of the monastery into a combination of lobby, bar and reading room was made complete by the introduction of a floating level hosting the dining room/breakfast area…The rooms, situated around an inner court now serving as a terrace are all designed in a way as to offer guests modern comfort with respect for the historical value of the building. Staff are very friendly and professional and give you a good impression of the level of service expected by the man behind this, and a few other chateaux hotels, Camille Oostwegel. Because of the way they are designed (under the roof) some rooms are not entirely dust free. The noise isolation of the doors towards the corridors can be perfected and the TV’s are a bit outdated and could be replaced by newer versions (with an USB port)…Other than that, this property is very very good. Ideally situated near the main shopping AND nightlife parts of Maastricht, the hotel manages to offer you a relatively calm and relaxing experience. My top pic in this beautiful city.
TOP: Building, design, location, staff, breakfast

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Multimedia and WiFi. Noise from the corridors 

Un restaurant tout à fait remarquable dans le 18ième arrondissement. Halte idéale après un voyage en TGV vu sa situation à qqs minutes en taxi des Gares de l’Est et du Nord. Cuisine sur base de produits de saison, associations bien réfléchis de saveurs et textures. Belles profondeur et complexité maîtrisée. Chef sympa, sans prétention et possédant une vision très claire sur son parcours culinaire. Les créations du chef Geoffroy me font par moment penser à la cuisine de Sanghoon Degeimbre de l’Air du Temps à Liernu en Belgique, 2* mais sans pour autant être des copies. Bien au contraire. Par contre, ce qui est identique entre les deux, c’est leur gentillesse et leur modestie exemplaire. Service de salle attentionné et carte de vins très réussi. Déco sobre mais élégant, à la hauteur de la classe de l’établissement. Vaut certainement une visite si vous êtes de passage à Paris…

It’s an extremely exciting time for chef Sanghoon Segeimbre, his main restaurant is now more beautiful and successful than ever after three years at the new location, SAN in Bruxelles is doing very well and is seen a welcome new concept in food land, a pop up on the roof of a building in Brussels and more exciting projects to come up. 

The chef is on a roll and it shows in his plates too. Once again, a stunning lunch… Once again, completely new dishes and two ever changing interpretations of chef’s signature dishes of lobster and, of course, the vegetables from the garden with the lactofermented juice. Today’s meal was flawless. Perfect balance, technically perfect, beautiful flavors. Top. 

The vegetables, herbs and flowers from his own garden, carefully looked after by the ‘incountournable’ Ben, the gardener are always a top feature of this place. Today though, it was even more special as chef had set me up a very pleasant surprise, a tête à tête with Irène Braas, a motivated young lady whom I met in London whilst visiting Hedone where she was part of Mikael’s kitchen team. Now, many years later, I arranged her a stage here and after two weeks of hard work in the garden, Irène was offered a lunch by chef to actually taste the creations made with all the beautiful things from the garden, before starting the kitchen part of her stage. Lunch with a surprise guest…me 😉 So it was really cool to hear the stories from the garden.

Service was superb like always and the wine and juice pairing, another top feature of this restaurant, was spot on. It always me how stable the team here is and how well informed they are about the ingredients and preparations. 

No wonder that over the coming months a series of four hand dinners will be announced to celebrate the 20 years of L’Air du Temps, be prepared…the names will be totally awesome. 

Definitely one of Belgium AND Europe’s finest… 

Website

This was the restaurant I really did not want to go to, for years and years I tried to resist fearing the unpleasant confrontation with a cooking style I qualified as outdated, a culture of over flattered adoration of a chef well passed his ‘use by date’, formal front of house staff with no sense of humor and a dining room full of Asian tourists… 

But then came today, invited by a friend who, knowing my passion for fine dining, insisted on me visiting the legendary restaurant of Paul Bocuse. An institute of French gastronomy, honored with 3 Michelin stars for over 40 years (since 1965), a truly impressive performance in itself. 

As a newcomer, I was warmly recommended to take the tasting menu, a collection of signature dishes of the chef, some dating all the way back to 1975 like the epic ‘soupe aux truffes VGE’

What I had the privilege of tasting was really amazing. Classic French cooking hardly gets better than this. Yes, you are surrounded by people who are almost all eating the same menu, giving it a bit of a theme park dimension but boy is this food good!!!

Service is flawless and the wines are fabulous, with a choice out of over 20.000 bottles (not references). 

I’ll let you enjoy the pictures that speak pretty much for themselves. No regrets about today’s visit. I will be back!

Respect to you Monsieur Bocuse!