The Flemish primitives: the playground of top chefs

Lien De Leenheer | The Flemish primitives is all what you thought it would be: a parade of top chefs applying the most crazy ideas and coming up with new techniques that seem to be fitting in sci-fi series.

Let’s be honest it’s sci-fi. Putting oysters under a 6000 bar high pressure cabin –worth several million euro- to give them a taste of champagne or (why not!) parmigiano. Captain Spock would not even frown at the idea.

It’s fun to watch how excited the chefs get at this seemingly ludicrous idea. Like little boys fighting aliens in their self-constructed spaceship in the middle of the wood. Their light sables made of dead branches and a protective shield made of torn leaves. The boy’s faces radiate, full of joy and fantasy. Just one look, and you know what’s going on: a union of likeminded brothers fighting for one cause.

Well, that’s what you see at the primitives. Chefs fooling around like 10-year olds, their sables turned into whisks and their shields are now years and years of cooking techniques made to perfection. Still they tap each other on the ass like little kids playing in the woods.

So even if the 5 inventions who were presented to the public during The Flemish Primitives seem only accessible to a happy few, it’s not these scientific creations that will remain in my mind. It’s the passion that vibrated through the room, the air full of creation and inspiration, light bulbs going of here and there and passionate talks in the hallways. A family of likeminded people fighting for one cause: a beautiful tasteful world. To be a chef –or a foodie- equals one thing: the joy of cooking, weather it’s with fancy 3-starfood or it’s by making a good pasta dish for your family.