“Eating organic, we hated that. My mother was accused of plant harassment”

“Flemish-style asparagus is a dish that connects my territory to its history, a very special vegetable (which we deprive of light so that it achieves its taste), full of culinary simplicity and ‘good peasant sense, which is good on the inside. I have always been passionate about everything related to the body. When I thought about it, I realized that it went back to my early childhood.

“Despite everything, the awareness of good nutrition was there, the seed was planted. And at the age of 10, my health problems were solved, with no medication other than good nutrition and physio sessions. »

When I was two and a half, because I was very asthmatic, my mother went to see a doctor who advised her not to give me lactose and other fats, and she took it very seriously. However, the small village where I grew up, not far from Ghent, in Flanders, is also the birthplace of the organic products company Lima. At the time, it was a small factory in the middle of the woods. Opposite, a somewhat bohemian community made and sold bread, vegetables and factory products.

On weekends, as a family, we went there on foot to buy vegetable milks and artisan breads. That’s how my mother started making us eat organic with the idea of ​​being careful what we ingested. Of course, my three siblings and I hated it. My mother was accused of plant harassment. Despite everything, the awareness of good nutrition was there, the seed was planted. And at the age of 10, my health problems were solved, with no medication other than good nutrition and physio sessions.

During my teenage crisis, I threw everything away and went to study in Brussels. I started loving restaurants. As a student, I obviously didn’t have a lot of money, so I didn’t go to expensive addresses, but I liked the atmosphere. It’s not just about cooking. What interests me are the flows that connect the human, the place and the plate. I studied in a business school but I wanted to do cinema.

As soon as I graduated, I moved to Paris and worked for ten years in a film production company. After a year-long break to fix up a house in Burgundy, I met food critic Andrea Petrini. He wanted to create unique, out-of-the-ordinary events with a collective of creative chefs and I wanted to set up independent and committed projects. We teamed up and organized a dozen together. It was amazing experiences, but everything was going so fast…

Today, giving time to a project has become essential for me, just like working in depth, developing roots, anchoring myself in the earth, reflecting on the body. The more I think about it, the crazier I find it that we can eat things lightly. It is all the more terrible because what we ingest constitutes us.

My new project, “L’oeuvre au corps”, connects duos of artists and conductors, over a long period of time. For a year, each pair has been thinking about transcribing the work of the other through their art. There will be dinners, exhibitions, restitutions, which are also stories. Like Flemish asparagus, like every dish that touches me, straight to the body. »