Where good food leads me

October 16, 2014October 16, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

I know the contrast couldn’t be bigger, a few days ago I was writing about a family diner and now I’’m talking about being dressed in a tuxedo and eating at one best restaurants in Belgium aka Sea Grill (2*)… but I just go where the good food leads me 🙂 or in this case where the Belgian top sommeliers lead me ;-). Like every year this year it was time again to nominate this year Best Belgian Sommelier and for a few years now is held at the Royal Radisson Blue hotel where Yves Mattagne’s Sea Grill is located. So why go somewhere else if you have the best you can have under the same roof. To read more about the game itself and Antoine Lebehel’s victory please check my previous blogpost .

As some of you might already know at the age of 12 I started doing chef school, so seeing young upcoming talents from the chef school PIVA helping Yves Mattagne to prepare this year’s Gala dinner another success makes me nostalgic. Not that I ever worked in restaurants of this level. I mean the fact that great chefs like in this case Yves Mattagne (The piva students also often work at banquets of the Royal Family,etc…) ask PIVA to have their students help them says something about the level of school aims for their students. I wanted to mention PIVA because a good education and good guidance is very important and will lead to successful career or at least give the students the possibilities to achieve it (I didn’t always realize that when I was still in school). If you can already learn at this level while in school, I’m sure once they actually start working the sky is the limit?! And no, they didn’t only get the “shitty” jobs, they were a helping hand at all levels, from doing the ‘mise en place’, preparing plates to cleaning and doing dishes like all the other cooks working there. (FYI in the picture bellow people in white are from PIVA , people in Black from Sea grill itself). The same goes for the waiters, they were also assisted by students from PIVA. WELL DONE both the students as Lucas Delforge (and the other teachers/chefs) of PIVA !!

It wasn’t the first time I was fortunate enough to join one of the banquets at the Sea Grill and yet Yves Mattagne is always able to surprise me with both the menu as the actual pieces of flavored art we are served. The Trophy of Belgian Sommelier is just the perfect excuse for me to get to the Sea Grill again :-). This year’s menu was yet another gastronomical feast paired with some very nice wines (being the Gala from the Belgian Sommeliers I didn’t expect otherwise).

After a few very nice glasses of J.L Telmont champagne and some appetizers (didn’t have empty hands, so couldn’t take pictures :-() my appetite was bigger than ever… feast your eyes on the menu we got served (scroll over picture to see what it was). FYI in one of my next posts I’ll be talking in more detail about J.L Telmont champagne.

This dish was served with a white wine made by a Belgian winemaker (former IT consultant like me 🙂 ) in Burgundy (France). It was a 2011 Terre Blonde by Domaine de la Douaix nice round wine and soon an addition to my collection ;-). The dish itself was very nice although initially I wasn’t sure about the black pudding, but the combo worked great and the dish went well with the wine.

We are very lucky people as with the grilled marrow we were served a unique champagne that was opened specially for this occasion (Normally they don’t open them easily), a Cuvée du Centenaire by J.L Telmont. What makes this wine so special is that it is a blend from wine from 1967 until 2005. The first smell made me think it would be a very heavy taste champagne, but after the first sip it was more fruity than imagined. Once it opened up it was like an angel p…. in your mouth 🙂 Nice!

Served with a 2010 Spanish 5 Fincas 2010 Reserva by Perelada. Its smell was familiar, but couldn’t exactly tell what it reminded me. Meat cooked with perfection and served with my favorite kind of mushrooms (porcini)… so for me they couldn’t go wrong.

Served with a 2007 Portuguese wine made 100% with Touriga Nacional grapes by Quinta de lemos. Just the way I like my wines although I think the wine they served with the next dish would have also worked really well with this dish… but maybe that’s just because it is one of my favorite drinks :-). The dish itself maybe seemed a bit heavy for already being almost at the end, but I’m not a difficult person 😉

Served with one of my favorites aka a 1847 Gonzales-Byass Solera

I do also enjoy that every year BRU seems to find the perfect way to stimulate people to drink more water by having it served by very nice young ladies (I know I’m becoming a dad, but I’m not blind either 🙂 ) So I actually have to thank them for being an added value for helping me to get home safe.

A very nice meal! They serve the food the way I like it, the “simple” way , I mean not too many ingredients that make you loose the focus on what you are actually eating. This doesn’t mean the food wasn’t served and prepared in a very refined way of course!! The only thing I wasn’t too crazy about were the coffee ice-cubes that came with the dessert… but that’s a personal taste. Besides that I enjoyed my whole meal and the great company I had during this meal!! I can’t wait for next year’s gala. Yves Mattagne’s team together with the students from PIVA chef school made this year’s gala another success!!

Cheers

It is all about the experience

October 15, 2014October 15, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Life is all about experiences, basically trying things you have never tried before. My wife and I have already been together for 15 years (although every day still feels like the first) and have already had so many wonderful experience together that finding new isn’t always that easy. Last week, to celebrate our 15^th anniversary, I arranged an experience she didn’t expect at all. I’m sure you now are all thinking I took her to some posh restaurant or some trip abroad, but those are things she would have expected me to do… and I guess that the eating part is mostly my favorite part (I’m sure she prefers the gift receiving). I took her to a restaurant chain called Colmar. For you who don’t know Colmar, Colmar is a Belgian chain of family diners that recently renovated all their restaurants :-). I bet you didn’t expect I would ever take her to a restaurant like this? Like I said before life is all about experiences and this doesn’t mean places like this can’t be an experience?! For me it was a totally new experience as I never ate at Colmar restaurants and for my wife it would be nostalgic as she used to come here from time to time with her parents when she was still a child… (and for some reason only ate hard boiled eggs). The food being served fast is a bonus now my wife is pregnant and doesn’t feel like spending hours at a dinner table 🙂

Something I never doubted was the quality they serve for an honest price. There are soooo many people who eat at Colmar restaurants and every time I drive by one of their restaurants they always seem to be full. This can only indicate that the price/quality is good and you can also be sure you’ll be eating fresh food…Right? After my meal I can only confirm and agree with all those people. This is of course no top gastronomy (that is also not Colmar’s ambition), but good food for a good price and nothing wrong with that at all.

Colmar has 3 menu options (4 if you take into account the special for kids) with Express as the most ‘basic’ menu and Enjoyer as the most elaborate menu and lover just in between those 2.

Express: Main course + drinks
Lover: Main course + starter or dessert + drinks
Enjoyer: Main course + starter + dessert + drinks

My wife and I decided to take the Enjoyer formula. I was surprised though with the variety of dishes going from burgers to spare ribs to kangaroo filet to codfish, etc… to even vegetarian dishes. They have something for everybody. The starters and desserts are to be taken by yourself from the buffet, the main course you order and it prepared in the kitchen. My wife had the salmon ‘en croute’ with bearnaise sauce and french fries as main menu. I had the Gourmand burger, but like in every other restaurant it was a tough decision to make as I saw lots of dishes I wanted to try… but for some reason greasiness always wins 🙂

What I also enjoyed seeing is that every child I saw entering in the restaurant had a enormous smile of happiness. I also found out the reason why they have this smile, the waiters /personnel!! At one moment I even saw a little girl running to one of the waiters and jumping in his arms… if this doesn’t prove Colmar is a kid friendly environment I’m not sure what will?! I must also say that even for the grown-ups Colmar is a nice environment to sit, they did a great job with the renovation!

I do know it is in contrast with the restaurants I usually write about, but nevertheless I found it essential to write about this experience is an experience like any other experience I had so far. I am also sure this wasn’t our last time at one of the Colmar restaurant. FYI we ate at the Colmar Wezenberg.

Top lunch with Top sommeliers at a Top location

August 29, 2014October 16, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

It is not every day that you get a blind wine tasting lunch in the company of 11 top sommeliers and if they then add that it is at Villa Lorraine in Brussel aka one of the most historical restaurants in Belgium, one just cannot refuse. For those who don’t know Villa Lorraine, this was the first restaurant outside of France to be awarded with 3 Michelin stars in the 1970’s. In 2010 after 61 (opened in 1953) and the founder’s death, Marcel Kreusch ‘s family decided to sell the restaurant. Nowadays it is head chef Alain Bianchin taking the lead and making sure very delicious dishes leave the kitchen. Since the re-opening 4 years ago Villa Lorraine has already been awarded again with 1 Michelin star. FYI The restaurant is divided in 2 parts. One part is the “gastronomical” part and at the other side there is a brasserie, where in case you find a bit more economical or better less “complicated” but still very refined dishes on the menu than at the Michelin awarded part.

Before I continue I do want to add that for this post I chose to use the pictures taken by the professional photographer (Pascal Hermans) from that was present during the lunch as I would never be able to make such beautiful pictures myself. Just FYI in case you thought I became a great photographer over night 😉

The aim of this lunch was to learn more about and to discuss the theme wine(s) and to get to learn new products or get a new impression of ones you already knew. I also think there’s no better way to do this than amongst professionals (besides me, as I’m not a pro yet) This is why they had brought togehter 11 top sommeliers like William Wouters (previous Comme Chez soi, Villa Lorraine) Cesar Roman (Comme Chez soi), Gregory van Acker (De Jonkman), Antoine Lehebel (Villa Lorraine) Luca Gardini (Italian sommelier nominated in 2010 as World’s best sommelier) to name a few and Lorenzo Zonin (winemaker and ambassador of Zonin winery) who was also the person who to take the initiative to have this kind of lunch. To make the lunch more fun and also more open for an honest discussion he decided to make the wine tasting during the lunch a blind tasting. Due to the fact that you don’t know the wine you are actually tasting you won’t be influenced by its name or the vineyard and therefor you’ll be more honest in your responses. What basically happened during the lunch is that with every course we got 3 different wines from which (without being able to see the bottle) you had to tell if the wine was either French or Italian and from which Vintage it was 🙂 . This is where you separate the boys from the men and you get to see how the pro’s do it 🙂

It was Lorenzo Zonin himself who had picked out the wines for the blind tasting, both wines from their own estates as from French friend estates. Which shows that winemakers are also open for other wines then their own :-). Unbelievable but true, 3 people where able to guess the country and vintage of all wines… I unfortunately wasn’t one of those 3, but I was pretty happy with my result that from 95% of the wines I was already able to tell if they were French or Italian. (Proud of myself). In my defense, I don’t get to taste new wines every day like a pro :-). The problem with these kind of tasting (for me) is that lots of times the wine smells and tastes familiar, but I just can’t put my finger on which one it is or from where I know the smell. Just like with sports or with anything you want to be good at, here it is also practice that will help you to get better and good guidance by a pro (which I’m very happy to have).

I’m sure you guys are very curious on finding out which wines it were we had to guess and what we ate with it? I’m gonna tell you anyhow (even if you don’t want to know 😉 ) and I’ll be honest what the answers were that I thought they were (the ones that I can still remember that is 🙂 )

After some bubbles (Ca’bolani prosecco) to open out taste buds it was time to start our lunch and the real work. For our first course, raw and smoked salmon with a dill cream we were served the following wines:

Wine 1: 2013 White Bordeaux by Doisy-Daëne -> very floral smell, but you could immediately guess it was from Bordeaux
Wine 2: 2009 Aquilis by Ca’bolani -> I first thought this was more a Vernaccia from Monte Oliveto, but I was wrong 🙂 (but at the moment itself I wrote Vermentino, but I actually mend Vernaccia)
Wine 3: 2008 Sancerre Blance by Vincent Delaporte (from Chavignol terroir). This was the most difficult to guess from the white wines. Couldn’t immediately place it, besides it being from France.

The mean course we got served Cuckoo from ‘Malines’ with girolle mushrooms and grenaille potatoes. I glad they chose for a lighter main course. Very soft flavors and cooked “comme il faut”.

With this dish we were served the following wines

Wine 4: 2010 Rocca di Montemassi
Wine 5: 2010 Margaux by Chateau Siran For this wine Luca Gardini could even tell the vineyard it came from (#impressed 😉 )
Wine 6: 2010 Clos Floridene

What followed was some cheese. Now I’m not sure that you know this, but I’m not a cheese lover, so I just had the salad… I know, I have already tried it a lot, but most cheeses just don’t float my boat.

Wine 7: 2009 Acciaiolo by Castello d’abola: One of my favourites from the Zonin Gamma and is the best of Tuscany in a glass.
Wine 8: 2011 Château Valandraud: This what a tricky one :-).
Wine 9: 2011 Symposio by Principi di Butera: the thing with southern wines like this is that they seem aged, but in fact aren’t. The reason for this is the strength of the grapes and its alcohol percentage (thanks to the lots of sunhours year round)

One just has to end the meal in beauty, both for the food as the wine. For as far as the wines were concerned 1 I recognized immediately as it is one of my favorites and one of the best of its kind aka the Vin Santo from Castello d’albola. Like an angel peeing in your mouth….For the dessert or better desserts 🙂 Yes one cannot stand on 1 leg very long. I’m sure the pictures of the dessert say enough?

Just for the record, the wines we had with our desserts

Wine 10: 2004 Vin Santo by Castello d’albola (A must try for everybody!!!)
Wine 11: 2010 Sauterne by Doisy-Daëne

And as this was not enough I enjoyed another glass of Vin santo with some ‘friandises’

FYI, this was a tasting, so we didn’t always drink the entire glasses of wine 🙂 just a sip of every glass…

I couldn’t encourage initiatives like this more than I do know… may lots of these follow!!I had a wonderful meal and wonderful wines….

The moral of my blog post and this lunch is basically that wine is such a wonderful product and that even-though you might drink it every day, there is more in it than that… I mean so many new tastes to discover and when you think you know something 100% I’m sure one moment or the other you’ll be proven wrong. Basically a subject where the conversations about it will never stop. The outcome of this lunch is that everything we wrote down about the wines during the tasting will help wine estates like Zonin to keep making good products for everybody’s taste. So basically next time you taste a wine you’ll know that for 1 millionth I helped making that wine 🙂 🙂

I do know that not everybody will be able to have a tasting this way, but I’m sure if you go to Villa Lorraine (or any other restaurant with a good sommelier) and ask Antoine to surprise you with the wines and keep it a secret until the en… I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to take you on a journey through the wonderful world of wine!

One last special message to Gregory: I didn’t forget that you’re going on holiday to Santorini (it only took you to tell me 3 times) . The reason I’m saying this is because I asked Gregory 3 times during the lunch where he was going on holiday (I swear it was NOT the wine and I was listing to what he was telling, I sometimes just forget quickly) 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thanks again to everybody for making this such a great experience! Also a special thanks to Hasselt Millesime (especially Cathérine) for helping Lorenzo getting this organized in Belgium!!

My visit to a culinary institute

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

Celebrating a birthday is always a good reason to go to a restaurant. When it is my birthday the restaurant can be a bit better than usually 🙂 🙂 There is no restaurant that speaks more to my imagination than the restaurant I treated myself to for my birthday, the one and only “Comme chez soi”. Comme chez soi, just like Le Cinq, La Tour D’argent, Bocuse’s auberge du Pont de Collonges, are restaurants that are part of culinary history! If it weren’t for these restaurants or the chefs of these restaurants, the gastronomical world today would be totally different… Some people may say that these restaurants didn’t meet up with their expectations when they visited, obviously this depends on what your expectations were before you went?? If you expected a Noma-like restaurant (aka a lab) you indeed wouldn’t have found it at these restaurants… For me it met my expectations 100% or maybe 99% as meeting Pierre Wynants would have made it 100% 😉 You immediately feel this restaurant has a soul when walking in… you could compare it with the ‘Mona Lisa’ it is so much more than just your average portrait of a woman… but that’s my opinion of course :-). If I would have continued chef school and the restaurant business for sure Comme chez soi would have been one of the places where I would have wanted to work as to me still up to today it is one of the culinary highnesses in Belgium. (Admitted the way they work also reminded me a bit of chef school)

If you would ask 10 Belgians what “Comme chez soi” is or represents, they will all say it is absolute top of gastronomy… and everybody and I mean everybody knows “Comme chez soi” generation over generation. Just for those few who don’t know if yet let me tell you more about this piece of Belgian patrimony! The reason why Comme chez soi (or Chez Georges how it was called from 1926 – 1936) became an institute thanks to 1 man Pierre Wynants who took over the restaurant from his father in 1973 (he already worked there from 1961) already having 2 Michelin stars and getting awarded in 1979 with their 3^rd Michelin star that they kept until 2006 . The Michelin guide took away 1 Michelin when Pierre retired in 2006 and his son in law Lionel Rigolet (and his wife aka daughter from Pierre Wynants) took over the restaurant. Pierre Wynants was also given the title Dr. Honoris Causa by the “Université François-Rabelais de Tours”… yet another proof of mr. Wynants/ Comme chez soi’s greatness.

Some people say things changed when Lionel Rigolet (Pierre’s son in law) took over the restaurant from Pierre Wynants, but I’m not able to compare and I also believe it should not be done as Lionel is Lionel and Pierre was Pierre 🙂 and both have their own way of cooking and for me “Comme chez soi” will always stay the institute I imagined it would be (Although I must admit I would have loved meeting Pierre Wynants and I missed him by a hair as he just left a few minutes before I entered…).

Besides serving great food, Comme chez soi is also well known for its fabulous wine collection… people fly in from all over the world because of the beauties they have in their cellar. A Wine Walhalla!! (Believe you me 🙂 ) On their wine list they have 1600 different wines that results in 24000 bottles in the cellar (it used to be 50000). Entering in their cellar is like a candy store if you are into wines as they have wines in it that you can only find in a hand full of places… naturally the big names like Petrus, Latour, Margaux, but also from vineyards that as a non-connoisseur won’t say a thing, but for winelovers and sommeliers they are even more special than all the big names 🙂 Like the wines from Henri Jayer from before his dead or their collection of Côte Rôtie or the Chartreuse something a lot of people prefer over a glass of cognac (is comparable to Elixir )… To find you way through all these wines Comme chez soi has had a special app created to easily find back the wines you want.

An eye-catcher for me was the collection of Château d’ Yquem (one of the most famous vineyard for sweet white wine) from 1831 -> 1980 or better what is left from it after an historical tasting they did from these wines around 1980…

BUT, I was here to eat 🙂 , we took the lunch menu… why? Well we were there for lunch. After a refined appetizer we were served the following menu

Hake clear soup with star anise, sautéed black tiger shrimps with small onions and mint (FYI, they pass another time to fill your plate )

Pork fillet with carbides, mixed vegetables with mustard seeds

Macerated peaches with a reduction of old balsamic vinegar, pineapple sorbet with kirsch

Not only a treat for the eyes, also for the taste buds, all prepared how it should and topped with some of the tastiest sauces you have ever tried. You might have already noticed that I’m a big Sherry fan? So to make my visit to Comme chez soi an even better one, Cèsar (Comme Chez soi’s sommelier) had paired sherry with my menu instead of ‘regular’ wines… something I appreciated and enjoyed a lot as Sherry is so refined and yet complex… I love it. FYI, this is something every can experience if you want (and ask Cèsar)

I know it might sound to enthusiastic, but I’m a very enthusiastic person that wants to share how happy experiences like this make me :-)… My goal in life is see and make people smile and basically make them happy, but first of all keeping myself happy… living your life with a smile is so much nicer!!

Anyhow this was definitely not my last visit to Comme chez soi as Lionel and his team have giving me the taste for more… with as aim to sit at their famous kitchen table where some amazing people have enjoyed a meal before with the best view (besides if my fiancée sits across of me) over the kitchen!

Comme Chez soi

Website: http://www.commechezsoi.be

Address: Rouppeplein 23, 1000 Brussels – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)2 / 512 29 21

In the hands of Belgium’s best sommelier

February 21, 2014February 21, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I had been looking foward such a long time to have dinner at Sir Kwinten, the restaurant from the 2013 Best Belgian Sommelier (my blogpost)… but when the day was finally there I was feeling sick or rather at that moment not 100% Not that this stopped me from going. The partner in crime joining me was the one and only Bram Van der Aa (Also one of Belgium’s best sommeliers)… So 1 thing was already clear before coming here, I wasn’t going to pick the wine myself :-).

When ordering our food, I was still convinced I was able to manage it all. To open our taste buds they served us some smoked duck with young goat cheese accompanied with a glass of Argentinean sparkling wine made from 100% malbec grape (the colour was slightly pink) by Bodegas Alma Negra. I could also have taking a glass of champagne, but when they suggest something special like this I’m always keen on trying it. Anyhow this was already a good start.

As First course I choose the catshark (funny that if I would translate its name from Dutch to English it would be dog shark 🙂 ) with a parsnip cream, Thai soup and sot l’y laisse. I was a big fan of the Thai soup, it had the coconut cream/light curry taste I like. Bram took the Beef cannelloni with crab, razor shell, a cream of artichoke and wakamé. By the look of his empty plate it wasn’t a too big struggle 🙂 with this our friend Yannick paired what looked like a bottle of Matteüs wein, (but luckily wasn’t) he paired a 2012 Hans Wirsching Silvaner.

As “in-between” dish was prepared according to a authentic recipe they had learned in Bologna: Ravioli stuffed with lobster, organic vegetables served with a consommé. Here Yannick want to test us (mostly Bram I think) on serving us to wines without telling us which ones… these (at the end) seemed to be a 2010 Bon Baron (a Belgian wine of high class I must add, we never guessed it was from Belgium) and a Sauvignon Blanc by Gross

For the main course I had the Guinea fowl with sweetbreads, a cauliflower and parmesan cream and hazelnut. Bram on the otherhand took a 2 months aged Holstein with béarnaise, hand cut fries and a garden salad both paired with a 2011 Dolcetto d’Alba Giuseppe Mascarello.

Unfortunately I was only able to taste all the dishes and wines and not able to finish all of them as otherwise my way back home would have become more adventurous as a safari 🙂 We also didn’t have dessert, what we did have was a glass of Riesling (Docil) by Niepoort (which really made me feel better that evening, but didn’t cure my illness unfortunately). I’m still feeling bad for not finishing everything 😦

The above did look tempting I must say!

The fact that the food tasted good now that I was feeling sick, I’m sure if you are healthy it can only be better :-)… But just to make sure I’ll have to come back and try Sir Kwinten, again when I’m feeling 100% 🙂 😉

Restaurant Sir Kwinten

Website: www.sirkwinten.be

Address: Markt 9, 1750 Lennik – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)2 582 89 92+32 (0)2 582 89 92

Bistronomie at its best

November 26, 2013November 26, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

That I have a long restaurant wish list isn’t a secret, I literally have a spreadsheet subdivided per country and city which restaurants I want to do… you could see it as my list of how many restaurants to do before I ever die 🙂 and by the looks of it I’ll be living for eternity ;-). Anyhow a restaurant that has been on my list for a while now is restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ lead by Andy De Brouwer who is already the 4rd generation in the De Brouwer family to keep the restaurant.

Maybe it was destiny, but there was no better time to visit restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ as lots of changes happend in its scenery as after a having had Michelin star and Andy being the Best Belgian sommelier, they changed their way of working and exchanged their Michelin starred food for an affordable and more basic Bistronomie cuisine. What this basically means is that they are a ‘bistro’ serving more gastronomical dishes than in a regular bistro, but still keeping it simple. So I couldn’t have asked for a better table guest than Mr. Bistronomie himself Steve Engels 🙂

Something good to know before I go on is that ‘Les Eleveurs’ is a hotel and restaurant… so basically no excuses not to drink 🙂 that’s all I’m saying. I wanted to share this as with a top sommelier as Andy De Brouwer in the restaurant it would be a shame not to go 100% for the wines, beers and other great beverages (like Madeira or Sherry) they have.

Les Eleveurs’ Chef Nico Corbesier might be a lot younger than Sofie Dumont who used to be headchef at ‘Les Eleveurs’ (who decided to go her own way), but when it comes to experience Nico has already worked in lots of great restaurants and has been leading the kitchen upon Sofie’s maternity leave. I know it might sound cocky , but to my opinion age or where you learned how to cook or did chef school doesn’t really matter, it might influence you… you either have it in you or you don’t and I think Nico has it.

I don’t know if you guys like wild game dishes, but if you do it is worth to pass by ‘Les Eleveurs’ as they now have something called the “Wild Festival” (no, not the wet t-shirt kind). Basically they are serving different kinds of meat from wild animals (for the non-wild game lovers, they still have few other dishes on the menu). We took the tasting menu, this way we got to taste several things.

We started with an assortment of 4 pieces game pies with lettuce, red cabbage, celeriac and an authentic made remoulade sauce. With which Andy paired a white2011 Spanish El Pajara.

We continued our meal with a “vol-au-vent” of pheasant that Andy served with a Lustau Solera Reserva . A combo of one of my favorite dishes and one of my favorite drinks… so an easy score 😉

The main course of the evening was a deer loin with beetroot, pomegranate, truffle potato(purple), red onion and cherry sauce that got paired with a herby and bit stronger wine what is needed for piece of meat like deer loin (but not tooooo strong dough). It was a French Malbec, Les Escures by Mas Del perie

To finish this wonderful meal and evening we were served a nougat ice cream with quince and nuts that got served with a Gran Riserva PX by Toro Albala so basically stuff I like… because of the PX grape it is of course a sweeter drink, but a nice sweetness and not a toooo sweet drink.

Technically speaking ‘Les Eleveurs’ can be taken of my wishlist, but I think I’ll keep it on there as I’m pretty sure I’ll wanting to come back here and the experience will be as enchanting as this time!

Hope when you get to go you’ll be having the same opinion as me, but I’m sure Andy and his team will do their best that you do.

Restaurant Les Eleveurs:

Website: http://www.les-eleveurs.be

Address: Suikerkaai 1A, 1500 Halle – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 361 13 40

Music was my first love… Or was it food?

May 7, 2013May 7, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Not all of you guys might know it, but I have a bit of a music history. Around the age of 11 I started playing drums and has always been a big passion of mine. Over the years I got quit good at it (but I don’t like to brag) and I was fortunate enough to meet some of the best musicians I might even say legends that have played with the biggest names. Through the years some of these people turned into very good friends. Initially they saw me as a drummer/musician, but as more time past (and I started to enjoy food more) they saw me more as a synonym for good food (on top of the drummer/musician). It is true I could be the synonym for worse things 🙂 . It actually works in two ways whenever they are on tour and they stop in Belgium I take care of them and make sure they’ll be tasting the best Belgium has to offer, whenever I’m visiting the country or better city they live in they do the same for me. Nowadays I don’t play too much drums anymore as at a certain moment choices had to be made (but that is what life is all about I guess). What I do still enjoy is combining my passion for food and the company of some great musician friends. A top combo if you ask me.

Last week was one of these occasion I had some friends of mine from the US passing Belgium on their World Tour. The only “disadvantage”is that they were staying right in the city center of Brussels, I needed to find something not too far from their hotel (they are already enough on the road as it is)… preferably in walking distance. If it would have been in Antwerp there would have been a million places I’d know to take them, Brussels on the other hand is more difficult. Especially near the “Grote Markt” as taking them to a “tourist trap” is the last thing I want to do. Lucky me that I had Andy De Brouwer (who you might know from restaurant Les Eleveurs) to save the day. To make a long story short, we went to restaurant “La roue d’or”. La Roue d’or is a typical Belgian Brasserie serving classical Belgian dishes in the way they are supposed to be served and the way our grandparents would do it (so basically by not using light products, or my way of thinking).

Funny enough from all the types of cuisines I propose to all my friends visiting Belgium, they are always craving to eat mussels, Flemish beer stews, etc…, drink beer and have some freshly made waffles as dessert (or crème brulée). If that’s what they want, than that’s what I’ll get for them, as making people happy and making them feel home is definitely the thing I like to do most! I’m sure you can’t wait to hear what I ate, well I had the meatball stew with beer and Sirop de Liège sauce and onions ( I so love meatballs) accompanied with some great Belgian beer of course!! It must be said they were very good and tasty food! The most popular dish at the table were the Mussels with a white wine sauce… all plates were empty and I only saw smiling faces, you do the math!

If you ever have foreign friends visiting, you know where to take them now (when in the center of Brussels)!

The next day I went to see the band play in a sold out venue (aka Sportpaleis) and it might have been one of the best shows I’ve seen from them (even better than the other ones I saw). One thing is sure a band stands and falls depending of the musicians playing in it… you can have the best singer, but when the band sucks (or vice versa) it won’t be doing any good to the total picture 🙂 Alecia can consider herself very lucky she has some of the best that are around! Keep spreading the love…

I’m actually curious to know if you guys found out which band I’m talking about, maybe the below picture might help 🙂 (I did give a few tips in the text)

Thanks guys, you rock and see you in LA!

Tasting with the pro’s

April 25, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to join Belgian sommelier guild for a tasting of Colombo wines (no, not from the TV show). If you say wine, you also say food… that’s why the tasting took place at Le grill aux herbes that gets a 17/20 in the Gault Millau Guide (very high score). When it comes to wines, I’ll have to be honest that I know more about Italian wines than about French wines… but now thanks to my blog step by step I’m getting more familiar with all the great wines France has to offer, like on last year’s trip to the Loire valley. Although I also learn a lot by reading blogs from friends of mine like JDR or wine chick Miss Vicky Wine (who has a cool new website) and of course also thanks to my good friend William Wouters (Pazzo) and the Belgian Sommelier Guild. Don’t get me wrong, not that I didn’t know anything at all 🙂 🙂 I did, but Italian wines were just more present in my life.

Anyhow, back to our wine tasting. I didn’t know Colombo wines, but it was my friend William who said I really had to taste these wines as they are very good and something I shouldn’t miss… So I followed his advice 🙂

Colombo wines are the life work of Jean Luc Colombo and his wife Anne who started in 1984 making wine at their vineyard in Cornas better known as Côtes du Rhone region. Since 2010 their charming daughter Laure joined them in making the wine and I can say for a fact that she putting her own stamp on the Colombo wines. So the future of Colombo wines is guaranteed!

An important grape for their wines is the Syrah aka Shiraz grape. The Syrah grape gives you a full-bodied and powerful wine. Just think of flavors like dark chocolate, black pepper, Arabica espresso. So if you are not a fan of this grape or full-bodied wines I’m not sure you’ll like these. I had no problems with it as Syrah happens to be (next to Nebbiolo, Corvina and Merlot to name a few) one of my favorite grapes. As I mentioned in the beginning of my post I was here with some people of the Belgian Sommelier Guild which actually make the tasting more interesting as you can learn a lot from the pro’s. I also ran into an old classmate who I haven’t seen in at least 10 years….

We tasted the whole Colombo gamma and I was surprised about the variety Colombo has. The only way was up, we started with their white “table” wine (maybe this is an understatement) and only went crescendo from that point to end with the top of the bill their “les ruchets”. I could start defining the taste from each and every wine, but there were just too many we tried and not being a wine blogger I’m not sure if I could put it in as good writing as my friend wine bloggers could do it… what I do know is what I like and what I don’t like and I definitely liked every single wine I tasted from Colombo What I can suggest you to do is check the Colombo website and see the technical specs, buy some Colombo and see if the tastes match and try to recognize them:-)At least that’s how I would do it (every excuse to buy wine is good enough). BTW if you want to have more info on where to buy Colombo wines, please check with Mampaey wines and spirits. This tasting has also learned me that from time to time have an expensive taste, eventhough I loved all wines, it must be said that the last two we tasted the les ruchets 2009 and 2010 were everything I look for in wine.

It might surprise you that I didn’t start talking about the food yet, but this time I just wanted to share something about the wines. But I’ll let the pictures from our food speak for itself. I could indeed suggest that if you are ever around Brussels, you might want to stop at Le grill aux herbes for lunch or dinner. You won’t regret it! My compliments to Chef Evan Triantopoulos.

I’m sure it won’t be too long before I’ll be visiting the Colombo vineyards (I even have a few wine partners in crime in mind to join me 🙂 )

Thanks to Laure and Evan (and all my table guests) for this wonderful tasting!

Bistronomie 2013

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 9 Comments

Yesterday the new Bistronomie guide for the year 2013 got introduced right in the heart of my favorite city in Belgium (Antwerp), namely at the “De Koninck” Brewery. For you who don’t know Bistronomie , Bistronomie is a guide of restaurants spread all over Flanders and Brussels that serve affordable gastronomy… (mostly also hidden treasures) What is not to like about that? Good food for a correct price?

I can also say for a fact that there are some real beauties in the Guide like L’épiceriedu cirque, Barta vin, àl’improviste, Veranda, BistrotMi’ró and JEF to name a few I’ve been to! Although there are still lots of them to try (my wishlist is getting inhumanly proportions). So I can really advice to go and get this guide or look on their website for more info! Hope you guys will like as much as I do!

BTW, I got a taste of my own medicine, you remember that in my previous blogpost I mentioned about ”gastronomical heart of Europe” that I was trying to make my fiancé curious about her birthday? Well now she will be using the Bistronomie for my birthday and I have no clue where she’ll be taking me 🙂 🙂 (Checkmate, that how they call that I think ;-))

I do hope one day Bistronomie will expand their guide with some great spots abroad (keeping my fingers crossed)

I would like to thank Johannes Denis and Steve Engels(founders Bistronomie) for showing and teaching everybody Gastronomy doesn’t have to be expensive!

WY, because it is just right

January 23, 2013January 23, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

My restaurant wish list is getting longer every day, so this time I decided to have a lunch at one of the restaurants on my list. ( hopefully this way I finish my list quicker) This time it brought me to the Mercedes House in Brussels, to restaurant WY by Bart De Poorter. For my readers who don’t know Bart De Poorter, he is the chef and owner of the 2 Michelin star awarded restaurant “De Pastorale”. So the fact that this restaurant was from Bart De Poorter was the first reason to try it, the second reason was that the executive chef of this restaurant is nobody less than Wouter Van der Vieren who is a Michelin star awarded chef who used to have his own restaurant. It just had to be good, although I must admit that after my last famous chef side project experience I had my doubts… But I can confirm that this was a well thought through and coordinated project with a very professional staff that can work fine even with Wouter Van der Vieren’s absence.

The restaurants itself has of course a Mercedes Benz touch to it (as it is the Mercedes House), but it is not too much… it has modern interior with only 3 (very nice looking) cars on the restaurant floor. I like the very open kitchen, because there are big screens that you can follow exactly what the chefs are doing in the kitchen. I wouldn’t call it the coziest restaurant I have ever been to, but it surely didn’t disturb me. The acoustics on the other hand are very good, so you can come here with a group and understand each other.

This time my partners in crime weren’t just any friends, but foodie friends :-). Foodie friends know as Thomas (Chef and owner of 12 Place du marché and former classmate from me) and Gianluca (Sommelier and son from Spiga d’oro owner)

Food glorious food, this was after spending time with friends the reason for this lunch 🙂 Choosing what we wanted to eat wasn’t easy as the 3 course and 5 course menu had different dishes that I all wanted to try, but to make it even more difficult the ‘à la carte’ menu was also different from the tasting menus with again so many things I wanted to try (A true luxury problem)… but at the end we decided to go for the five course menu, which was (when looking back) a great choice. Not only did all of the dishes taste well, they also looked like little paintings…

The only dishes that didn’t really blow us off our feed was the first dish from the menu: Mackerel with beetroot (prepared in different ways) and oyster snow, it just missed a bit of assiduity. Don’t get me wrong, the dish was good, but I (we) think that with a touch of assiduity it would even be better. Besides that all great combinations, with a bullet for dessert 🙂 this were actually filled white chocolate balls (for some reason when writing this I think of Jerome “Chef” McElroy from south park). I also enjoyed the bouillabaisse sauce with the seabream (the smell from this sauce was soooooo good as well)

I wouldn’t be able to say which was my favorite dish. We first also wanted to try the Wouter van der Vieren signature dish, but as I didn’t see him in the kitchen… it wouldn’t be the same trying it without him being there. We did get to see him as he arrived a bit later, but I think the fact Jeroen Meus was eating at the table next to us had something to do with it 🙂 But nevertheless Wouter did a good job training his team, he can be proud of them!

I was lucky enough to have a sommelier at my table to pick the wines and he really did a good job. Gianluca picked a white Italian wine a Gaja Rossj-Bass Langhe. The red wine however was a wine suggested by the sommelier from WY, he picked a 2007 red Italian Barbaresco by Serafino which was also a very nice choice.(with 2 Italians at the table you can’t go wrong with Italian wine 🙂 ) So if you add all these comments up I can only say that this was a nice restaurant with you get true value for your money and brought to you by very professional people and I was lucky enough to also have great company at my table 🙂 and on top of that I got to see Wouter van der Vieren AND Jeroen Meus… wow what a lunch 😉

FYI: for the car lovers, you’ll find lots of great cars when you go downstairs 🙂

Restaurant WY:

Website: http://www.wybrussels.be/

Address: Bodenbroekstraat 22-24/ Grote zavel, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 400 42 63

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