The chef
The chef, in the house's DNA since its very beginnings
Vincent-Frédéric De Laloy
Nearly thirty years under the same sign. And yet, at the start, nothing was settled: Vincent-Frédéric De Laloy was an accountant.
From a desk to the stove
Cooking is a family passion. His mother is a cookery teacher, and in the 1960s his grandfather ran the Michelin-starred « Chez Grégoire » on the rue des Bouchers. A spell in accounting confirmed to him that his path lay elsewhere. Cooking won out.
A training where gastronomy shines through
With no diploma, he was hired in 1995 as a commis at the Étangs Mellaerts, where he worked alongside four chefs and quickly climbed the ranks, all while training for three years at the Ceria. Then came the brasserie Thoumieux, then the Méridien alongside David Martin, and finally the Trèfle à 4, the restaurant of the Château du Lac, under Alain Troubat.
From a tavern to a brasserie
When France Clément called him, it was the time of fromage-blanc tartines, croque-monsieurs, omelettes and stoemp for some twenty covers. Little by little, the tavern became a brasserie: entrecôtes, filets purs, small soles, pain de viande (always on the menu) and a menu that changes every month. The twenty covers of the early days have become two to three hundred today.
The asset of homemade
"Without question, quality and consistency," the chef sums up: almost everything is made in-house, apart from the ice cream. Marie sees to local sourcing: Genappe potatoes peeled by hand (two tonnes a month), goat's cheese from an artisan in Chaumont-Gistoux, fresh fish every day, vegetables grown close by. The seasons set the rhythm of the plate: asparagus, maatjes herring, mussels, game. The cabillaud florentine (cod florentine) has become one of his signature dishes.
A loyal team
The secret also lies in the stability of a team of 32 people in which everyone counts: a dishwasher for twenty years, sous-chefs for seventeen and thirteen years. The finest compliment, for the chef, is that people come back generation after generation. "Giving pleasure: that's why we're here."
In the kitchen
