Last Sunday, the second edition of the already famous Cooking festival Flemish Food Bash, located for the first time at the Oostduinkerke’s beach after a first edition in Antwerpen.
Flemish Food Bash is the belgian culinary event of the year for all foodista, with fun, culinary creation, exageration and all party’s things included. The today’s gastronomy world is not confined anymore in the kitchen but is also a world of communication, parties, and the Chefs are now as know as rockstars, and their only presence can lead to a lot of people in the events. So, not less than 40 Chefs, many barmen, djs, hairdressers and others culinary craftsmen were there for the best restaurant in the world that day.
.
World Cast, Dream Cast
20 belgian Chefs, 20 internation chefs, 30 beers from de Struise, and many other craftsmen were part of the simply sumptuous Cast.
Among the big names, Heinz Beck***, Bart De Pooter**, San Degeimbre**, Atsushi Tanaka, Soenil Bahadoer**, Michael Yates and so many starred Chefs were there, all with their own creations, sometimes baffling but everytime executed with talent.
The Brewery de Struise was there with astonishing brews, detonating but finally wonderful, special mention to Zombie Nation, aged in Margaux barrels.
Up #GenerationW!
GenerationW – Stéphane Diffels and Clément Petitjean in discussion
For the guy from Liège I am, something has especially caught my attention : what a presence of the Wallonia on the scene! San Degeimbre, Clément Petitjean, Stéphane Diffels, Luc Broutard, Pascal Fauville, Eric & Tristan Martin.Huge. And in the crowd, I’ve noticed the presence of the known Nicolas Septon (Sophie et Nicolas), Jean-Philippe Watteyne and other people.
It’s chauvinistic but, as a Walloon, the fact to see my region begins to count on the world gastronomy map makes me really happy!
Flemish Food Bash Concept?
Vincent Florizoone en cuisine, en plus de son costume d’organisateur
Under the leadership of Vincent Florizoone (Congratulations to him for the organization), the event has been a big popular success, a really nice edition, the first under this way. The concept is quite simple : a 30€ fee then you have to pay reasonably to taste all creations. This concept is not cheap, but it allows to taste a lot of dishes from all over the world in one singlz place! The only critic is the relative distance between Chefs and people, the first are in tent raised relative to the crowd, which is a bit impersonal, almost at the beginning of the day.
Ristorante All’Oro
The atmosphere, chic and relaxed, has been an important for the event’success : people wanted to stay. DJs, shows and small events were all around the place, and even a storm came to make the beginning still mor Rock’n roll!
Cuisine has to win from these events!
Be honest, I wI’m still having questions about the utility or futility of that type of events. We pay a certain price, there is a dose of self-congratulation and show-off, but it is mainly a place where ideas fly from heads to heads, a place where Chefs from all around the world meet in a positive and open-minded atmosphere. We can see in one only festival culinary techniques from all around the world (the Beef cooking from the restaurant Ludivine, USA, was quite different of cooking in an european way) where, more and more, Think globally act locally takes place : All these different cooking methods are applied and mixed to products which are more and more local and organic products : we are not anymore in the era of Kobe Beef but to the farmer next door’s beef (if this farmer works well, yes). The pleasure is to taste an image of a region, not to taste the most luxurious but common products.
By the way, what about the dishes?
Plat de Clément Petitjean
So, Flemish Food Bash is cool, we have fun, but the most important stays what we have in the plate. I had the opportunity to taste around 10 different creations during that day, and my feelings went everywhere, from “So what?” to “Oh my god it’s wonderful”. I have to confess my disappointment for the Heniz Beck’s pasta, tasty pasta’s but with no surprise, and an impression of “too simple dish”. Another pasta, the Fregola Sarda from another Italian Chef, was also simple, but the fish’s juice used to cook it was so deep than in that case the simplicity was an elegy to the natural beauty, really nice!
Queue de Boeuf du resto de Lindehof
Maybe I’ve not the elemantary objectivity to judge the walloon Chefs, but the Petitjean’s Tête Pressée, tasty, with a twist, a bit of crunch, was a perfect exemple of the local product’s nobility, as the snails from San Degeimbre, with lot elements conducting to one single truth or the Ondenval’s trout perfectly flavored by Stéphane Diffels enjoyed, all the 3, my palate .
The pork made by Vincent Florizoone with a devilish juice and spicy carrots, or also the oxtail, with a huge personality, from the Lindehof (Nl) were also moments my taste buds will remember for long!
See you next year!
Bouillabaisse, révélation du jour
In conclusion, I have to confess 3 days after this event, I’m more and more enthusiastic to attend to the next edition, with I hope an even better interaction between Chefs and crowd but in the same party atmosphere, with the same mix of Chefs and other culinary professionnals.
Congratulations and thank you all the Chefs and espcially Vincent FLorizoone for this moment!
Leave a Reply