Huibrecht Berends and Hoa Truong, the duo behind Bun Vietnamese Street Food, the popular food bar in Antwerp have announced new plans to expand their business and bring more authentic Vietnamese food to the Flemish city of Antwerp. Their current Bun Vietnamese Street Food restaurant which is on Sint Jorispoort will be turned into a Vietnamese noodle shop from 12 June 2018. Hoa Truong and Huibrecht Berends have announced that they will also be opening a new bar and restaurant in summer on Volkstraat in Antwerp. Hoa and Huibrecht told Food and Wine Gazette that the Bun Bar and Restaurant in Volkstraat will open in August and will have 35 covers in the restaurant and 20 at the bar. "The restaurant will have an open kitchen, we will be serving the same style cuisine but they will no longer serve big bowls of noodles at the restaurant. Our idea is to have more smaller dishes and main courses to share. Our new restaurant will enable reservations and have all the comfort of a … [Read more...]

The third edition of the Flavour Fair organised by Big Green Egg Belgium and Luxembourg will be held at Kruitfabriek in Vilvorde on the outskirts of Brussels on Sunday 10 June, 2018. The Flavour fair offers an interesting list of chefs who will use their culinary talents to cook on the Big Green Egg. Among the chefs taking part are San Degeimbre of L'Air du Temps, Bart de Pooter of Pastorale, David Martin (La Paix and Ateliers de la Mer), patissier Joost Arijs, North Sea Chefs Broes Tavernier, Piet de Vos of Arto, Nicolas Decloedt of Humus Botanical GastronomyBruno Timperman of Bruut, Karen Torosyan of Bozar RestaurantJohan Yon and Olivier de Vinck of Kommilfoo, Sander Van de Walle of Sel Gris among others. Apart from the chefs who will cook for the guests taking part in the event, there will be a number of demonstrations as well as courses on different themes. Through tips from experts and chefs, guests will be able to improve their knowledge of cooking using the Green … [Read more...]

René Mathieu, chef of Luxembourg restaurant La Distillerie has clinched the restaurant philosophy award at the Gault & Millau Culinary Innovators awards 2018 for Benelux that were announced on Monday evening at the beautiful premises of the Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke. The chef is known for his use of nature in his cuisine and has recently launched a unique augmented reality book Vegetal. The focus of the awards was on sustainability, reasonable consumption and how we can all be more conscious about what we eat and how we handle food. Among the winners were Eatmosphere which emphasis the need to reduce food waste (Sustainability Award); the Institution award went to North Sea Chefs the collective of chefs created by 2 Michelin star chef Filip Claeys who has sought to raise awareness on the need to cook with more sustainable fish even at top end restaurants and is also raising awareness on the problem of plastics in the ocean. The product award went to Disposables.bio, a … [Read more...]

Gert de Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens, the co-owners of three Michelin star restaurant Hertog Jan in Zedelgem, Bruges, Belgium have told Flemish newspaper Het Niewsblad they plan to open a second bistro L.E.S.S. in Ghent either next year or the following. At the beginning of this year they announced that they would be closing their 3 Michelin star restaurant Hertog Jan on 22 December 2018. Originally, they had planned to sell the property when they announced that they would close the restaurant. They no longer have plans to sell the building. They told the newspaper that soon after the announcement a serious candidate emerged but a month and a half ago that ended. "Finding a buyer is not easy. We thought about it and suddenly we saw the benefits of keeping it. It is a beautiful building with large spaces, a beautiful garden, a well equipped kitchen." The venue will be used for seminars, product presentations, baby showers, weddings and also to cook for themselves. They intend … [Read more...]

Christophe Hardiquest, the chef of two Michelin star Brussels restaurant Bon Bon has signed a deal with the new chairman of one of Belgium's top football clubs RSC Anderlecht to cook at a flagship restaurant that the Brussels team will operate during the club's home matches. In a bid to boost the club's finances, Marc Coucke, the Anderlecht chairman is focusing a lot of his efforts on offering football supporters a culinary offering. Apart from signing Christophe Hardiquest, who has a 19.5/20 score in Gault & Mlllau and who will be cooking at the flagship restaurant, Anderlecht have announced that there will be various food outlets at the Anderlecht stadium. "We will give a great deal of importance to food. After all we live in Belgium," Coucke said. While Anderlecht will be playing in the Europa League next season, the club president joked that from a culinary point of view they will be already playing in the Champions League. There will be a total of six different … [Read more...]

Three youngsters from Ghent with a passion for natural wines are organising the second alternative wine fair in the old docks of the Belgian city of Ghent on June 2 and 3. PURR (with additional emphasis on the final 'r' as pronounced in the Ghentian dialect) was founded by Jason Zappa Janse, Stijn Demeulemeester and Tristan Lybaert. Starting off as a 'wine fair' it has evolved into an informative, socio-cultural and culinary concept, immersed in a relaxing atmosphere. The passion for natural wine of the founders has led them to create an event for what is commonly known as natural wine. The term “natural” was coined by winemakers who wanted to distinguish themselves from conventional viticulture. These winemakers work according to the principles of organic or biodynamic agriculture – often recognizable by labels such as AB, Demeter, Ecocert or Biodyvin – and produce their wines with a lot of respect for both man and nature. Consequently, the use of chemicals or artificial … [Read more...]

Maxime Maziers, the 29-year-old chef of the one Michelin star Brussels restaurant L'Ecailler du Palais Royal has announced today that he will be taking over the legendary Brussels restaurant Bruneau. The young Belgian chef had been sous-chef at Restaurant Bruneau and worked under Jean-Pierre Bruneau for five years before moving on to clinch a star for L'Ecailler du Palais Royal. Maziers announced that he will become the chef-patron of Bruneau and will retain the name of the restaurant of previous chef who retired and closed the restaurant earlier this year on 22 January. Bruneau had said when he closed the restaurant due to retirement that he hoped that the person who took over the would be a 'chef-patron' and not just an investor looking to place a chef in the restaurant. "Today's trend, if you look at the top restaurants is that they are owned by investors who put a chef to work there. What I wanted was not an investor but someone who was passionate to start with. I am extremely … [Read more...]

Mélanie Englebin, chef of former Brussels restaurant Cécila which closed its doors in summer last year will be touring Belgium in what she is calling 'Cécila' on tour. The Brussels Gault & Millau young chef of the year 2017 has teamed up with Philippe Limbourg, former director of Gault & Millau to organise a series of events around Belgium. The first event will take place at Brussels gourmet supermarket ROB on Friday 1 June and Saturday 2 June at 8pm. Melanie Englebin will also be cooking in the Belgian province of Namur and Luxembourg as well as in Flanders during the summer months. The young chef became famous in Brussels for sending out a Brussels politician from her restaurant when the pedestrian zone threatened to kill many businesses in central Brussels. Last year she closed her restaurant not only because of the pedestrianisation of the Brussels centre but also because the kitchen was small and placed constraints on her. She told Food and Wine Gazette that … [Read more...]

Francesco Oppido in Bologna, known for his contemporary pizza and his quality beers is set to open a new pizzeria in Bologna but Italian food magazine Gambero Rosso has announced that he is currently working on his first ever project outside Italy. The team at Moeder Lambic have recently signed a deal with the new owners of a hotel, A la Grande Cloche, that was built in 1840. The owner of the hotel will be completely restoring the hotel while the restaurant will be in the hands of Francesco Oppido, in partnership with Moeder Lambic. Pasta Madre will be a pizzeria which will open in the beginning of 2019, Jean Hummler of Moeder Lambic told Food and Wine Gazette. It will also have a small kitchen which will accompany the pizza oven. Oppido is known for his doughs (he comes from a family of pizzaioli though he started his career as a pastry chef).Originally from Crotone, he has become famous in Bologna for his restaurants that are focused on his two passions, pizza and artisanal … [Read more...]