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NIEUW CULINAIR EVENEMENT ‘VOORSMAAK’ IN DE MAGDALENAKERK
Wie niet kan wachten tot Kookeet in oktober, krijgt er een alternatief bij in Brugge. Het culinair weekend Voorsmaak is een nieuwkomer op de kalender. Twaalf Brugse chefs koken op 8 en 9 april in de Magdalenakerk gerechtjes als holy crab, engelenhaar of katholieke kazen. “De locatie is uniek”, zegt chef Jürgen Aerts van Kok au Vin.
Brugge krijgt er dus (nog) een culinair evenement bij op de kalender. Voorsmaak lijkt qua idee een beetje op Kookeet: twaalf chefs serveren één gerechtje, gebaseerd op de locatie. Dat is de Magdalenakerk in hartje Brugge, naast het Astridpark.
De organisatoren zijn de broers Pieter en Wannes Loosveldt en Laurens Fiaert. Ze werkten in het verleden samen in het URB EGG-café, het tijdelijke café aan de pakhuizen en de Gentpoort. Dit jaar kiezen ze voor een culinair evenement. “Natuurlijk heb je Kookeet in het najaar, maar we hadden het idee dat er ook in het voorjaar nog ruimte was om iets op poten te zetten rond lekker eten. De Belg is nu eenmaal een Bourgondiër en culinaire weekends zijn trendy”, zegt Pieter Loosveldt.
Sint-Jakobsvruchten
Er is gekozen voor het weekend van 8 en 9 april. Twaalf chefs serveren dan een gerechtje, op basis van ‘het katholieke geloof’. “Ik serveer holy crab”, zegt Kristof Deprez van De Mangerie. “Het is een verwijzing naar de schelpen die je her en der in Brugge op de straten ziet als knipoog naar de weg naar bedevaartsoord Compostela. Het gerechtje bestaat uit Sint-Jakobsvruchten met krab.” Chef Jürgen Aerts van Kok au Vin in de Ezelstraat kiest voor een lekkere hostie: de ‘virgin crunchy hos T’. “Het wordt een krokante hostie met een maagdelijk witte vulling. Ik was meteen gewonnen voor dit nieuwe evenement, omdat het origineel is en we onze creativiteit de vrije loop kunnen laten. De locatie biedt heel wat perspectieven voor Brugge in de toekomst.”
Subsidie
Ook onder meer Karen Keygnaert, die jarenlang in de potten van sterrenkeuken A’Qi roerde, restaurant Guillaume en De Republiek zetten mee hun schouders onder Voorsmaak. “We hebben de chefs zelf gekozen”, zegt Pieter Loosveldt. “We willen van Voorsmaak een jaarlijks weekend maken, maar dan telkens op een andere unieke locatie in Brugge.” De dienst Lokale Economie van de stad Brugge verleent een subsidie voor deze nieuwkomer. “Ik denk dat er zeker nog ruimte was voor een extra culinaire publiekstrekker”, zegt schepen Hilde Decleer (CD&V). “Deze organisatoren hebben in het verleden bewezen dat ze goede ideeën hebben. De locatie toont meteen aan dat er op termijn mogelijkheden zijn met leegstaande kerken.”
Meer info vind je binnenkort op de Facebookpagina van Voorsmaak.

Kerk wordt (even) restaurant, hosties zijn twee dagen topgastronomie

Tien Brugse restaurants boren hun communiezieltje aan om gerechten te serveren in de Magdalenakerk.

Brugge is alweer een culinair evenement rijker, maar dan wel een in een bijzondere locatie. Tien chefs etaleren op hun kookkunsten in de Magdalenakerk en hebben al enkele toepasselijke recepten klaar: crunchy hos-T en Magdalenatetjes.

Geen priester achter het altaar, wel tien chefs achter het fornuis: de Magdalenakerk nabij het Astridpark maakt zich op voor een wel heel smakelijke viering. Op zaterdag 8 en zondag 9 april vindt in de kerk de eerste editie van Voorsmaak plaats, telkens van 11 uur tot 20 uur. Tien Brugse restaurants serveren een gerecht van 6 of 8 euro: De Mangerie, De Visscherie, Cantine Copine, Bhavani, De Kaasconnaisseur, De Republiek, Kok au Vin, Komtuveu, Tom’s Diner/Next Door en Guillaume.

Zo heeft Brugge er nog maar eens een culinair evenement bij. “Maar ik denk dat we ons gemakkelijk kunnen onderscheiden door de unieke locatie”, zegt Pieter Loosveldt, die samen met Wannes Loosveldt en Laurens Fiaert instaat voor de organisatie, hetzelfde team dat vorige zomer instond voor het Urb Egg-pop-upcafé en de culinaire zijsprong Urb Eat. “Daar is ook het idee voor Voorsmaak ontstaan. Natuurlijk zijn er al veel culinaire evenementen, maar ik denk dat Voorsmaak zich kan onderscheiden door de unieke locatie. Als het een succes wordt, dan is het de bedoeling om dit op jaarlijkse basis te organiseren. Mogelijk op een andere, maar even unieke locatie.”

Why One Michelin Chef Is Refusing Her Star
Michelin stars are hard to come by. Some chefs spend years of their careers in pursuit of them. But Karen Keygnaert, the only woman in Flanders to have garnered a Michelin star, turned hers down this winter, Munchies reports.
She isn’t the first chef to refuse a star, but she gives insight into why some are saying no to the honor: “Until 10 years ago, a Michelin star was a blessing, but in these economic times it is more of a curse.” In Europe, where the Michelin Guide started awarding stars in 1926, stars come with specific expectations from diners, she says. Those expectations typically focus on the type of experience they will have at the restaurant, mainly that it will be fancy or formal, often involving a tasting menu. “You lose the freedom to do what you want as a cook,” she adds.
Keygnaert is hoping to get that freedom back when she opens a new restaurant, one that is less formal (staffed entirely by women), where she says she doesn’t want Michelin stars. “In my new restaurant . . . I [will] continue to serve quality food, but not as a (set) menu, so people can decide for themselves how expensive or long they want their dinner. And I’m going to stop with all the frills!”

The chef of an all-female kitchen is rejecting her Michelin star, and this is why
Rachel Hosie

Professional kitchens tend to be testosterone-fuelled, male-dominated spaces. And although domestic cooking is largely still associated with women, most of the world’s top restaurants are run by men.

So it was particularly noteworthy when Karen Keygnaert was awarded a Michelin star – but even more so when she decided to give it back.

Keygnaert is the only Michelin-starred female chef of Flanders, the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, and is about to launch a restaurant where the kitchen staff are all female – but she doesn’t want it to be associated with Michelin stars.

This is not the first time a chef has refused a star, and, curiously, it seems to be particularly common for chefs from Flanders: Jo Bussels, Christophe Van den Berghe and Frederick Dhooge have all refused stars over the past years.

Similarly, top chef Jason Blanckaert gave it all up to start a sustainable business and Vincent Florizoone said he never wants a Michelin star “because it would spoil – rather than enrich – his restaurant,” according to Munchies.

Keyngaert’s restaurant A’Qi has had a Michelin star for five years, which was awarded two years after opening.

She is planning on opening her new restaurant, which just so happens to have a solely female staff, this March, but believes a Michelin star has become “more of a curse” than a blessing in today’s economy.

“People go to star restaurants just to go for a festive occasion, to dine long and extensive, but personnel costs have become so high that it’s unpayable,” she explained to Munchies.

“Guests will also come with a different expectation. They expect certain products, such as lobster or lamb, but as purchase prices rise they find it difficult to accept that the prices of the menus are going up as well.”
Chef Lee Skeet’s Michelin-inspired pub grub pop-ups – in pictures

Dining-out culture has changed, and increasingly, people are after casual, fun, relaxed dinners, which typically aren’t associated with Michelin stars.

With a Michelin star comes a lot of pressure: “The star brings along a whole circus that’s outdated. If there’s even a crease in the menu card or a crease in the tablecloth, people soon end their sentence with: ‘I don’t think that belongs to a star restaurant,’” Keygnaert explains.

In her new restaurant, Cantine Copine, she wants diners to feel comfortable and not have to worry about if they’re dressed appropriately.

The trouble is, you can’t actually return a Michelin star: “The only thing you can do to get rid of your star is by not filling in the form when you receive another one again,” says Keygnaert.

As for her all-female team, that’s simply the way Keygnaert most enjoys cooking: “It’s much quieter and there’s less competition,” she says.

“I can’t tolerate all the messing around and I can do without all the macho behaviour as well.”

She also says that she’s found it hard being the boss of men, particularly older ones, as they are more reluctant to accept her authority.

Despite that, she didn’t set out to hire just women, it was accidental: “When I search for new employees, I don’t look at the gender, but at their personality and competence.”

Accident or not, an all-female kitchen is certainly a welcome change from the norm.

Chef of all-female kitchen: Outdated Michelin can have its star back
In Britain, of the 172 Michelin starred restaurants, just ten have female head chefs, and in Flanders, Belgium, the stats aren’t much better. Despite this, chef Karen Keygnaert, the only female chef in the area to be awarded a Michelin star, and the soon to be owner of an entirely female staffed restaurant, has announced that she will reject the prestigious award.

Keygnaert’s restaurant, ‘A’Qi’ has had its Michelin star for the last five years, but she believes that the star has now become “more of a curse” than a blessing. Consequently, Keygnaert will not apply to renew A’Qi’s star this year.

A Brief History of Chefs Giving Back Michelin Stars
Tom Jenkins

In the restaurant world, it can sometimes seem like Michelin stars are the be all and end all. Indeed, the example of chef Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide in 2003 amid speculation that his restaurant was about to lose its third star, is often cited to demonstrate the hold the Red Guide has on chefs.

But some chefs see the patronage of Michelin as an unwelcome weight that prevents them, they feel, from innovating and one which raises customer expectations to unreasonable levels, where even the slightest imperfection is greeted with incredulity.

Chef Karen Keygnaert of Belgium’s A’Qi restaurant recently spoke to Munchies about her desire to return her star because it “brings along a whole circus that’s outdated. If there’s even a crease in the menu card or a crease in the tablecloth, people soon end their sentence with: ‘I don’t think that belongs to a star restaurant’ … You lose the freedom to do what you want as a cook.”

The only problem is, you can’t technically return a star. “You can agree with it or you cannot, but you can’t give it back. That’s not an issue … kind of an urban myth,” said the Michelin Guide’s International Director Michael Ellis in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2015. Keygnaert came up against a brick wall trying to return hers: “It’s a very closed, absolutely not transparent institute. You can’t even ask them for an explanation. You have no right to an answer; they are untouchable,” she says, having written to Michelin and received no reply.

Keygnaert is not the first chef to ‘return’ her stars of course. Marco Pierre White famously returned his three Michelin stars after becoming disillusioned with the Michelin world and the pressures associated with it, questioning why inspectors with inferior culinary knowledge to himself were judging him. In 2014, Julio Biosca of Casa Julio, close to Valencia, returned his star, describing the Michelin system as “burdensome,” while Skye Gyngell of London’s Petersham Nurseries Cafe famously described a Michelin star as a “curse” after falling foul of diners incensed about the restaurant’s shabby chic aesthetic, despite having been open for seven years before gaining its first star. She later closed the restaurant.

And then there’s Frederick Dhooge of ‘t Huis van Lede in East Flanders, Belgium, who gave back his star in 2014, arguing that he should be free to cook fried chicken if he wanted to and Le Lisita in Nimes, France, which decided to relinquish its star in favour of a more relaxed brassiere style.

Chefs willing to speak out are in the minority of course, and for many, a star, then two, then three will still be the pinnacles of their careers, and can make the difference between survival and closure.

Perhaps there are some rides that are just too difficult to get off once you’re on.

Why the Chef of an All-Female Kitchen Rejected Her Michelin Star

On December 12, Michelin presented its prestigious restaurant guide for 2017. A lot of top chefs eagerly gathered in a tiny room to hear whether they received a star, lost a star, or remained starless.

At the same time, there are chefs who were once in that room, but now prefer to disconnect from the red book, which has been inventorying the best restaurants in the world for nearly a century. This happens especially often in Flanders. Jo Bussels emailed Michelin a few years ago to say Michelin should not give him a star under any circumstances. Shortly after, Christophe Van den Berghe refused a star and Frederick Dhooge gave back his star two years later. Meanwhile, Jason Blanckaert—one of the Flemish Foodies—traded his life as a star chef to start a business that was more accessible, and chef Vincent Florizoone told me in an interview that Michelin should never come to him, because it would spoil—rather than enrich—his restaurant.

Last week, Karen Keyngaert, the only female Michelin starred chef of Flanders, announced that she will give back her Michelin star. She is going to start a new restaurant with exclusively female staff and she doesn’t want her star there. I called her to ask her why she gave back her star, and how it is to work with a team consisting of only women.

MUNCHIES: Hi Karen! How long has your restaurant A’Qi had a Michelin star?Karin Keyngaert: For five years now. I got it two years after opening.

Why do you start your new restaurant without a star in March? Until ten years ago, a Michelin star was a blessing, but in these economic times it is more of a curse. People go to star restaurants just to go for a festive occasion, to dine long and extensive, but personnel costs have become so high that it’s unpayable. Guests will also come with a different expectation. They expect certain products, such as lobster or lamb, but as purchase prices rise they find it difficult to accept that the prices of the menus are going up as well.

People now go for dinner in another way: casual, quick, just for fun or a quick bite. A star increases the threshold of your restaurant, which means people will not get to enter as easily. In my new restaurant, the food remains the same, but the formula for offering it will change. I continue to serve quality food, but not as a [set] menu, so people can decide for themselves how expensive or long they want their dinner. And I’m going to stop with all the frills!

What kind of frills do you mean? The star brings along a whole circus that’s outdated. If there’s even a crease in the menu card or a crease in the tablecloth, people soon end their sentence with: “I don’t think that belongs to a star restaurant.” Hanging up jackets for the guests, the clothes waiters wear, the white gloves they wear when they put silverware on the table … I myself don’t attach any importance to it when I go out to eat, so why should I keep this type of restaurant open? You lose the freedom to do what you want as a cook when you do this.

This summer, someone called me to ask if her husband could please come in shorts, because of an accident. Who am I to say he can’t? I don’t want to get those calls anymore. I don’t want people to come eat there because the chef has a star, but because it’s a cozy place. People have to be able to come as they are, just to have a nice conversation with good food. I want a restaurant where I would like to go out to eat myself, so I attract the kind of people I seem to feel comfortable with. Therefore it’s also called Cantine Copine. I want to create the feeling that people go to their best friend’s to eat, in a casual atmosphere, a place where they know where the refrigerator is, so to say. And that concept won’t qualify for a star.

Street food stalls and sushi bars get Michelin stars outside Europe, right? Yes, but here Michelin continues to play the traditional card. Therefore, it was quite a weird edition here last November. There’s a whole new generation of chefs who think in a different way. They do their own thing in a different way, but do not qualify for a star. Other chefs, who very clearly created a concept with the intention to obtain a star, are eligible.

How do you actually return a Michelin star? Michelin gives you a star and you can’t return it. It’s a very closed, absolutely not transparent institute. You can’t even ask them for an explanation. You have no right to an answer; they are untouchable.”

I once tried to contact them and that’s a real mission. You can send a letter by mail to “the director of the Michelin Red Guide” because nobody knows his name, and just hope that it ends up in the right place. But I never got an answer. The only thing you can do to get rid of your star is by not filling in the form when you receive another one again. It’s a pity, because the original idea of Michelin was fantastic: they sold tires and gave a guidebook with it so you could find restaurants if you went driving around. But people now travel and find other ways to discover places to eat. The guide has not kept pace.

I read that you want a restaurant with a team consisting of only women. Why? It happens to be the case that I currently only have women in my team—two in the kitchen and one in the ministry. I’m going to take them with me.

Is it better to work with just women? There is a notable absence of testosterone. It’s much quieter and there’s less competition. I personally find it enjoyable. I can’t tolerate all the messing around and I can do without all the macho behaviour as well.

Was it difficult to lead a team of men as a woman? It depends on the personality of the boys and their age: the older, the more ambitious, and thus the harder to stand my authority. Once there was a cook in my kitchen that was very domineering and arrogant. He was twice as big as I was, so physically I wouldn’t stand a chance, certainly not in a kitchen full of large knives. I had to fire him.

How come there are so few female chefs? I think women take on their ambition in a different way than men do. Men like to take the lead, and it’s still true that women have to take care of their families more than men. That’s difficult to combine with working in a restaurant. I’m different from the other women, because I don’t have a classical household to take care of. Furthermore, it’s not that I want a kitchen with just women. This is accidental. When I search for new employees, I don’t look at the gender, but at their personality and competence.

This story originally appeared in Dutch on MUNCHIES NL.

Enige vrouwelijke sterrenchef geeft Michelinster terug: “Ze doet me niets meer”Karen Keygnaert opent in mei Cantine Copine, waar dezelfde keuken geserveerd wordt, maar op een meer laagdrempelige manier.

Brugge verliest nog maar eens een sterrenzaak. Karen Keygnaert, de enige vrouwelijke chef met een Michelinster in Vlaanderen, ruilt A’Qi in voor een nieuw, toegankelijker concept. “Die Michelinster doet me niets meer, ik ben ze ontgroeid.”

De drempel van een sterrenrestaurant is voor veel mensen te hoog

Amper een paar maanden nadat Geert Van Hecke zijn driesterrenrestaurant De Karmeliet heeft gesloten om met een kleinschaliger, laagdrempeliger concept van start te gaan, slaat Karen Keygnaert van A’Qi dezelfde weg in. Eind maart volgend jaar sluit ze de deuren van het restaurant. Daar stond ze sinds 2009 achter het fornuis, eerst samen met medeoprichter Arnold Hanbuckers en sinds 2013 als enige chef. Vorige maand nog werd haar zaak voor het vijfde jaar op rij beloond met een Michelinster.

Maar in mei verhuist de keuken naar een nieuw gebouw, en de Michelinster gaat niet mee. “Een doelbewuste keuze”, zegt Keygnaert. “Want net omdat we die Michelinster niet meer willen, beginnen we met een nieuw concept, onder een nieuwe naam. We willen een restaurant waar gezelligheid en ongedwongenheid vooropstaat.”
Veranderde tijdgeest

Dat ze datgene laat vallen waarvoor zoveel chefs zich dagelijks in het zweet werken, is volgens Keygnaert niet eens zo’n onlogische keuze. “Als ik op restaurant ga, dan ga ik in de eerste plaats voor de gezelligheid. En ja, natuurlijk ook omdat ik dan eens niet zelf moet koken. Daar ben ik niet alleen in, de tijdgeest is veranderd. Mensen gaan vaker op restaurant, en het moet ook sneller gaan. De drempel van een sterrenrestaurant is voor veel mensen te hoog. Dat, in combinatie met de hogere kosten, maakt het ook financieel niet erg interessant”, zegt Keygnaert, die ook met haar nieuwe zaak geen ster meer wil.
Enige vrouwelijke sterrenchef

Zo verliest Brugge, en bij uitbreiding Vlaanderen, zijn enige vrouwelijke sterrenchef. “Het was leuk om erbij te horen, maar eerlijk gezegd: die Michelinster doet me niets meer, ik ben ze ontgroeid. Let wel, ik heb de waardering die het met zich meebrengt altijd geapprecieerd. Maar dat hoofdstuk is nu afgesloten.”
In mei opent Keygnaert Cantine Copine, in de oude borstelfabriek aan de Steenkaai. Ze neemt behalve de keukenapparaten ook het personeel mee. “De naam moest gezelligheid uitstralen en verwijst tegelijk naar de equipe, die volledig uit vrouwen bestaat. We zullen dezelfde keuken serveren, maar dan op een meer laagdrempelige manier.”

Andere sterrenzaak sluit
Daarmee verliest Vlaanderen een tweede Michelinsterren. Komende week sluit Bistro Margaux in Sint-Martens-Bodegem immers de deuren. Thomas Locus wil terug naar de basis en opent in januari op dezelfde locatie Brasserie Julie, waar eerlijke gerechten aan democratische prijzen op tafel komen.

Vlaanderen verliest enige vrouwelijke sterrenchef

In maart volgend jaar verliezen we in Vlaanderen de enige vrouwelijke sterrenchef die we rijk zijn. Karen Keygnaert sluit dan restaurant A’Qi in Brugge om een meer toegankelijk concept te openen. De ster die de zaak vijf jaar lang had, verhuist niet mee.

‘Het was leuk om erbij te horen’, zegt Keygnaert. ‘Maar eerlijk gezegd doet die Michelinster me niets meer. Ik apprecieerde de waardering wel die ermee gepaard ging, maar dat hoofdstuk is nu afgesloten. De drempel van een sterrenzaak is voor veel mensen te hoog, ik wil voortaan iets laagdrempeligs.’

In Wallonië en Brussel zijn er wel nog vrouwelijke sterrenchefs, zoals Arabelle Meirlaen. En volgens Michelin komt er zeker nog vrouwelijk talent aan. Die hebben nu misschien nog geen ster, maar staan wel al vermeld in de gids. ‘Vorig jaar stonden er 74 vrouwelijke chefs in, dit jaar al 88’, zegt woordvoerster Ellen Neukermans. ‘43 van hen komen uit Vlaanderen.’