In one of my previous posts, I talked about my examples of Italian cuisine. I also want to share with you some of my other examples outside the Italian cuisine. Some of you might know that I did chef-school and learned a lot about the classical French kitchen with Auguste Escoffier ‘s cooking methods as a guideline. I’ve never regretted having done chef-school, as it has given me a great basic knowledge of cooking to build on.

Having the classical French cuisine as base, I really admire great chefs that try to continue Escoffier’s work. A great example of someone a person like th is is Paul Bocuse who has always been seen as Escoffier’s successor continuing his life work.

Chefs  that also can be seen (according to me) as successors are people like  Johan Segers (from  restaurant ‘t Fornuis in Antwerp). Seeing him cook gives me the feeling of a child in a candyshop. The same goes for Marc Paesbrugghe, a chef who actually gave back the 2 Michelin stars awarded to his restaurant “Sir Anthony Van Dijck” as he wanted to change his concept and not be part of the French guides anymore…. But you can still see the classical French cuisine in his dishes. One of my favorite Johan Segers dishes would be the caramelized ham with carrot puree (link is in Dutch, but if you want the translation, let me know and I’ll provide it to you)

Rick Stein  is also somebody who fits the profile. With the only difference that for him it is not necessarily the classic French cuisine, but more every country’s landmark/classical dishes. Like a Good shepherd’s pie, fish & chips and traditional English dishes. But he also always tries to find new tastes and the origin of some tastes during odyssey through Asia or Southern Europe . You should try the “Escalopes of Salmon Troisgros” recipe. I’m sure you’ll like it! Let me know…

1 thing they (and me) have all in common, is having respect for your products and keeping it “simple”.

Obviously there are a lot of other great chefs who base their cooking on classical methods, but I would be too difficult to list them all.

Who would your examples or great classical chefs be?