ZEELAND: Dutch star chef Syrco Bakker and coffee specialist Rob Clarijs have joined forces to create Oostenwind, a sublime coffee in which you can taste their ambition, authenticity, pride and passion. The coffee has been available from 11 November at Pure C and selected outlets in the Netherlands. See here for details. Syrco Bakker earned his second Michelin star for restaurant Pure C in Cadzand in December 2018 and Rob Clarijs won the famous coffee Masters international coffee competition in London in April 2019. They have been at the highest level in their field for a number of years. In addition to being a chef, Syrco is the founder of Hierbas de Las Dunas, a herbal liqueur made from local Zeeland herbs. A few years ago Rob founded his coffee brand De Zeeuwse Branding, which focuses on the higher segment of the hospitality industry in Zeeland. The two have one thing in common: Zeeland. “Syrco sets high standards in terms of quality, experience and taste in the … [Read more...]
Teddington: the new Brussels bar and bistro with a ‘hockey theme’
BRUSSELS: Hockey is big in Belgium. After all the Red Lions, as the Hockey team is called are the current World Champions. A brand new address in Brussels that has just opened just off Place St Job in Uccle by Olivier and Catherine Lust, the owners of a gastronomic restaurant in Lasne called La Ligne Rouge. Teddington is housed inside a former printing press just off Place St Job, Uccle. The square in Uccle is at the crossroads of four of the commune's four hockey clubs and just a few 100 metres away from Royal Racing Club Brussels. Olivier has played hockey for more than 40 years. He and his wife have decided to call the restaurant Teddington, reminiscent of the English city where the foundations of hockey were created. In addition to the name of the new bar and bistro, the atmosphere of the old printing press has been maintained with the combination of wood, metal and old bricks and this is enhanced by black and white photographs of the main players of the Belgian national … [Read more...]
Bert Meewis is Gault & Millau chef of the year 2020 in Belgium
Bert Meewis, chef of Restaurant Slagmolen in Oudsbergen in the province of Limbourg is the Belgian chef of the year for Gault & Millau. Top performers in the guide this year are Boury, Le Coq aux Champs and La Paix who all scored 17.5, Bozar and Vrijmoed with 17 points and Kano, t’Korennaer, Schatteman, Sir Kwinten and Willem Hiele, all with 16 points. The two restaurants Hof Van Cleve and Bon Bon kept their top score of 19.5 out of a maximum 20. Hof Van Cleve clinched the 5 golden chef hats this year. Among the young chefs of the year are Glenn Verhasselt (Sir Kwinten - Lennik) for Flanders, Jean Vrijdaghs and Sébastien Hankard (Le Gastronome - Paliseul) for Wallonia and Grégoire Gillard (Barge - Brussels) for the Brussels region. The thematic results for 2020 were as follows Front of house of the Year: Anca Petrescu (Alexandre - Brussels) Italian Chef of the Year: Eros Tomassetti (Diverso - Westerlo) Asian restaurant of the Year: Dim Dining (Antwerp) Best … [Read more...]
Pauly convinces Dionisio to cook his first ever four hands at Le Coq aux Champs
SOHEIT TINLOT: It is a Tuesday evening and for the first time ever, Alexandre Dionisio, chef of La Villa in the Sky, a two Michelin star restaurant with a breathtaking view of Brussels, is cooking outside his kitchen at a four hands dinner. Christophe Pauly, chef of Le Coq aux Champs, managed to convince him to leave the Brussels tower where the restaurant is housed to cook together. "We had travelled together, got to know each other and we promised each other we cook together. I really enjoyed it and I don't think it is going to be the last four hands dinner," Alexandre Dionisio told Food and Wine Gazette. This is the second season of what chef Pauly calls a round trip in which he invites Belgian chefs to cook with him at his restaurant and then visits them at their restaurants a few months later. "Apart from inviting chefs who I admire, I try to invite people who I get on well with and who have a similar vision. It does not have to be the same vision but it has to be … [Read more...]
Passerini in Paris named best Italian restaurant outside Italy by 50 Top Italy
Passerini, an Italian restaurant owned by Roman chef Giovanni Passerini, is the top Italian restaurant outside of Italy according to 50 Top Italy, a list created from a project of LSDM (a gourmet cooking congress that has been held in Paestum since 2008) which is curated by the creators Barbara Guerra and Albert Sapere in collaboration with the journalist Luciano Pignataro. The second spot went to Don Alfonso 1890 in Toronto with the third spot going to Heinz Beck in Tokyo. These restaurants are managed by two of the most important names in the Italian restaurant sector, the Iaccarino family who revolutionised the concept of Mediterranean cooking from Sant’Agata sui Due Golfi and Heinz Beck, a German who set his roots in Rome and created La Pergola, a temple of gastronomy. The fourth and fifth positions go to Acquarello in Munich, and 8 ½ Bombana, in Hong Kong, restaurants led by two Italian chefs living abroad for some time now, Mario Gamba and Umberto Bombana. The top 50 is … [Read more...]
Round trip four hands dinners by Christophe Pauly to resume
One says never change a winning formula. Belgian chef Christophe Pauly of restaurant Coq aux Champs has decided to organise a second edition of the 'round trip'. These round-trips are the occasion for the chef to invite colleagues to his restaurant and then to go back and cook with them inside their kitchens. This enhances the collaboration between the chefs and also gives the opportunity for guests to see the evolution. Alexandre Dionisio, chef of Brussels two Michelin star restaurant La Villa in the Sky will be cooking at Coq aux Champs in the Ardennes on 22 October. In November, Christophe Pauly will visit the Chateau de Bourglinster to cook together with René Mathieu, chef of La Distillerie. The lunch will take place on Sunday 17 November. This will be the opportunity for Christophe to return after a visit of Mathieu at Coq aux Champs in October last year. For information and reservations: Restaurant Le Coq aux Champs: 71, Rue du Montys, 4557 Soheit-Tinlot … [Read more...]
Inside a war bunker: today turned into Hubert Stockner’s cheese bunker
BRUNICO: It is a warm summer day in the hills of Alto Adige but we are warned to take the warmest clothes we can get. We are set to visit a wartime bunker in the hills on the outskirts of this buzzing town in South Tyrol. This bunker is today called the Genuss Bunker (literally translated as pleasure bunker). As you walk into a narrow door, a strong whiff of cheese greets you. The first room is the tasting area, a small space with a long table which can take up to 20 people. Walk past this room and you are in Ali Baba's cave for cheese lovers. for Hubert Stockner has converted a war bunker in this border region in Italy into the perfect spot where to age cheese. The perfect conditions of the bunker make his cheese extremely special. Inside the nearly 300 metre cave, the humidity is nearly 100% and the temperature is constantly at 10C making this the ideal natural conditions for the ageing of cheese. The result is something special. Hubert Stockner’s passion is cheese. … [Read more...]
Under the circus tent at Al Meni in Rimini
The heavens opened at around 3pm on Saturday a few hours after the official opening of the Al Meni, an annual event organised in Rimini under a giant coloured circus tent sent between the sea and the Grand Hotel that evokes a great master of world cinema, Federico Fellini. Heavy rain, thunderstorms welcomed the opening day of the seventh edition of Al Meni, a festival that is organised annually in the Emilia Romagna city of Rimini in June. “In a world where walls are being built, and in a place where we were surrounded with walls 1,000 years ago, we want to break the walls and say to everyone tat you are welcome here. We love to have you here, we love to host you here, come and enjoy yourself. This is what Al Meni is about,” Massimo Bottura said at the opening of the event before flying to Singapore for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. The Italian chef was not there for the evening session where a thunderstorm and torrential rain forced the street market to close … [Read more...]
Two brothers from another sea: Kobus van der Merwe cooks in Willem Hiele’s ‘magical world’
Thousands of kilometres separate South Africa from Belgium. But South African Kobus Van der Merwe, chef of Wolfgat and Belgian Willem Hiele, chef of the restaurant by the same name in Belgium have something that connects them to each other. It was therefore no wonder that Alexandra Sweden, who brought them together and introduced them through social media, termed them ‘Brothers from another sea’. Until a few months ago, the two chefs had not met despite a similar passion for the sea and ocean, for the people of their territory and their approach to cooking. Willem visited Kobus on a holiday earlier this year and there was instant chemistry. On Saturday, they cooked together for the first time at Willem Hiele’s restaurant in the Flemish seaside resort Koksijde. Kobus, whose restaurant, Wolfgat was recently awarded as ‘Restaurant of the Year’ and ‘Off-Map destination’ restaurant at the World Restaurant awards came to Belgium together with Margot Janse, a chef whose made a name … [Read more...]
Travel to Italy this summer with Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure
Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure is the story of Jacoby Pines, a disheartened American who arrives in Italy on holiday, and decides he never wants to leave. What follows is a wine-soaked, food-filled, travel-laden adventure about one man’s quest for an antiquated existence in the modern world. This is the third novel by Andrew Cotto, an award-winning author whose regularly contributed to The New York Times and has written for Parade, Men's Journal, Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post and Conde Nast Traveller among others. The story takes you through the villages of Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche. You will read about the wines of the various regions and meals of fried calamari, shrimp, bream and whole anchovies, steamed prawns, pasta with pesto and clams, a mixed roast of lamb, sausage, rabbit and pasta with black truffles not to mention the bistecca fiorentina (t-bone steak) or the uccellini in brodo (white beans with tomatoes in borth) among others. What follows … [Read more...]