Does the Brasserie Chez Clément menu change seasonally?

Seasonal rotation is a signature of Vincent Frédéric De Laloy, and, more broadly, of the Belgian bourgeois brasserie tradition he has carried at Chez Clément since 1996. Four strong seasonal markers anchor the year. Autumn is the time of game: wild boar, deer, pheasant, drawn from controlled Belgian and French hunting filieres. Spring is the asparagus window, a short, much-anticipated season in Belgian cooking that requires working the product at its peak. Mussels in season and eels in season complete this framework on broader calendar windows.

This rotation is not a marketing posture. It flows directly from Vincent's everything-made-in-house philosophy. When you master every recipe from start to finish and you run a brigade of thirty-two people, you can rework dishes, add items, retire others according to what the season offers. It is the opposite of an industrial kitchen that prizes year-round stability, and it is why few brasseries of Chez Clément's volume (200 to 300 covers per service, more than 1,400 covers a week) maintain a real seasonal rotation.

Alongside the seasonal pivot, the carte preserves a core of permanent classics that define the house signature: vol-au-vent à la financière, carbonnade flamande, croquettes aux crevettes grises, anguilles au vert, and Vincent's emblematic cabillaud florentine. These dishes are on the carte all year, a customer finds them on a first visit and ten years later. It is this combination of stable core and seasonal pivot that defines the house's culinary writing.

For a curious British visitor following the brasserie, the seasonal calendar is worth marking. September-October brings the autumn game opening, the moment when the carte's most heavy-comfort dishes appear. April-May brings the spring asparagus, often the most delicate window of the year. September-October also brings the classical mussel season. This rhythm anchors the brasserie in Walloon Brabant's culinary calendar and extends the legacy of five generations of Cléments since 1858.