Peter Goossens, Sergio Herman, Heston Blumenthal , Massimo Bottura, Anne-Sophie Pic’s … all chefs of the 15 best restaurants in the world (from the list of 50 best restaurants). When seeing these people create a dish, it  is like watching Michelangelo  paint the Sistine chapel ceiling. They really  create pieces of art … and a whole different level of cooking.  I hope one day to be able to try these restaurants (another reason to play the lottery), for the moment my limit is 2 Michelin Stars.

Talking about 2 Michelin stars, a young talent that I admire is Thierry Theys (from restaurant  Nuance), he is 26 and already has 2 Michelin stars and I’m sure the 3^rd will follow very soon. I’m really excited that I’ll be going there in October as everybody who has been there agrees with the magnificent food price/quantity/quality. 

A restaurant that I have enjoyed several times was Wouter Keersmaekers’  “Schone van Boskoop”

When I hear chefs  like Wouter Keersmeakers, Peter Goossens, Peter Coucquyt etc…. talk or see them cook, I feel the same experience as I had when seeing the Foodpairing workshop.It is really fascinates me how they can match science and cooking in a harmonious way and always try to find new things. (these chefs sometimes try to create new things together with Foodpairing)

An example why they are the best of the best:

Peter Goossens wrote a new cookbook (related to a program he had), where he makes a dish in the classical way and afterwards he makes a dish with the same main ingredients, but in a gastronomical (3 Michelin Star) way.

Steak with french Fries

These chefs prove that if you want to be and give the best, that passion is the best way to achieve it.

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?

I love Belgium, France, Thailand etc… as well as their gastronomy. But Italian cooking and basically everything (or most) things Italy has to offer, is closer to my heart (big surprise) and will always stay my nr 1 (mmm, maybe to chauvinistic?)

 When it comes to Italian cooking I have 2 big examples (ok, 3 if you count my dad). My biggest example is without any doubt my “Zia Livia” (my Italian aunt), who I will introduce in one of my next posts , as I will be cooking with her in Italy very soon.

The other big example and/or person I learned from a lot is Antonio Carluccio…. (But I presume he’s an example for  a lot of people). Since I was a young child, I always used to watch Mr. Carluccio on BBC. Even though back then my English wasn’t that great, I could still follow as lucky for me he also spoke Italian in his shows + the look in his eyes and the food spoke for itself J.  You can just see that he enjoys the cooking so much. The only time I think even Mr. Carluccio was 100% convinced eating, was when he had got to try the Sardinian cheese “Casu Marzu”. He now recently was on tv with his longtime friend  Gennaro Contaldo, who’s also a great chef. When watching them I immediately think of the Italian version of Statler and Waldorf (muppet show), judge for yourself in this footage from the two greedy Italians . Watching a show from Mr. Carluccio is like being in Italy, sitting next to him and enjoying the trip together.

Three recipes that I want to share with you, that for me are absolute Master dishes are “Fiori di Zucchini Ripieni” or the “Linguine alla Mollica” or the ‘Trofie al pesto’, you will find the recipies on Mr. Carluccio’s website. The simplicity of this dish shows what italian cooking is all about (but if I should really give all his recipes I love, the list would be endless). Try the 3 recipes I shared and I’m sure you’ll agree and get Carluccionized J.

Not that I don’t like other Italian cooks, but he’s just Antonio Carluccio! The only thing I regret is that I won’t be able to enjoy their cooking, as I believe neither Antonio nor Gennaro have a restaurant anymore (if I’m not mistaking)

Thank you!