Chef Christophe Hardiquest thinks it’s time for something different. — © dbb
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A major surprise for Belgian gastronomy: the Brussels two-star restaurant Bon Bon will close at the end of June. “It’s time for something different.”
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Klaas Maenhout
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The celebrated Brussels two-star restaurant Bon Bon is closing its doors. Chef Christophe Hardiquest announced this via Facebook. “After twenty years in the kitchen of my life’s work Bon Bon, after twenty years of 200 percent commitment, it is time for me to turn a page,” it sounds. With two Michelin stars and a rating of 19.5 in Gault Millau, this closes the best restaurant in Brussels.
Hardiquest, who runs the restaurant together with his wife, is an established name. He was named chef of the year in 2011 and finished in 2018 as the highest ranked Belgian in the list of the 100 best chefs in the world. After him were Peter Goossens, chef of Hof van Cleve, the only three-star restaurant in our country, and Gert de Mangeleer, then chef of Hertog Jan in Zedelgem. The restaurant Bon Bon, housed in a stately villa along the Tervurenlaan in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, was also long regarded as a prime candidate for a third star.
In Brussels, after the closure of Bon Bon, three two-star restaurants remain. The most resounding name is undoubtedly Comme chez soi (18.5 in Gault Millau). The Anderlecht restaurant La paix by chef David Martin and Le chalet de la fôret will also remain available for culinary enthusiasts.
“Nomadic cook”
Hardiquest, who in the past teamed up with RSC Anderlecht, among others, will not stop cooking. “I absolutely love my job as a chef and I will never stop,” he says. It is still unclear how the chief will proceed. to the magazine Trends he says he will become a “nomadic cook”. “I haven’t defined it yet, but I’m sure life has some nice surprises in store for me,” he emphasized in the announcement. “This is not the end but the beginning of a new adventure.”
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