WY (Brussels) – 4 hands lunch

The Place

WY Brussels is established in “The Mercedes House” on the Grand Sablon in Brussels.For more information about WY and the chef, please consult our first report.

Pictures in cooperation with Shoot That Food.

We revisited WY on the 28^th of September 2013 to experience a new concept from Bart De Pooter, where the chef invites foreign colleagues to join him in the kitchen for one day (lunch and dinner). Every month another international top chef will prepare a selection of dishes together with Bart in the kitchen of WY. Xavier Pellicer, the former chief of the 3 *** restaurant El Raco de Can Fabes, kicked off the first edition.

The Chefs

WY opened in 2012 and is a collaboration between Mercedes and Bart De Pooter, the Belgian chef from **De Pastorale. WY bar/restaurant is continuously opened every day (except Sunday) for lunch, dinner and drinks. The creative menu changes every month (3 or 5 courses, or à la carte).

Bart De Pooter’s kitchen is known for the use of local ingredients, seasonal products and a clear focus on balance, taste and inventiveness. He tries to limit the use of sugar and fat in his dishes and is constantly looking for new techniques to optimize the flavors. In his 2 Michelin star restaurant Pastorale, the chef offers an integrated dining concept where he wants the guests to taste, smell, see and feel his kitchen. Bart defines his kitchen as an experience kitchen, where he wants to give an exceptional experience that surprises people.

Xavier Pellicer (Barcelona, Spain) has led the kitchens of famous Spanish restaurants such as Can Fabes and Àbac. The chef is known for its creativity, discipline and professional execution, which has made him one of the most famous Spanish chefs. Just like Bart De Pooter, Xavier shows an extreme care in choosing the right ingredients. Natural and seasonal produce play an important role in its kitchen and culinary creativity is one of his keywords.

The Food

The menus for the four hands lunches and dinners contain six dishes. After the appetizers from Bart De Pooter, the guest chef cooks three courses. Bart himself prepares the three following courses. Each of the two chefs will present a preparation with the same ingredient: for the first meeting with Xavier Pellicer, Holstein Beef was prepared by the two chefs. The 6 course menu costs € 72, and comes for € 125, including drinks. An impressive price-quality ratio for a great menu by the top chefs!

Appetizers

Potato crisps & grissini of lentils with humus

‘Paling in’t groen’ (eel)

Raw beef sausage, horseradish cream and tomato aigre-doux

Oyster with salty vegetables

Aperitif: Champagne Bollinger

Menu

Ripened loin (50 days) with organic vegetables from the garden of Xavier and a broth of bellota ham (Xavier)

Shrimp with chard and migas with sage & garlic (Xavier)

White cabbage (slowly cooked for3 hours in the oven), Girolles & smoked egg yolk (Bart)

Poached foie gras, young chicory, pear, red lettuce and poultry gravy with salted butter (Xavier)

Holstein (ripened for 50 days, specially imported by Bart), structures of leek (mash-burned-fried) (Bart)

Apples from the garden of the chef with a caramel apple and vanilla ice cream (Bart)

Coffee & sweets

The “Belgian Taste Buds” Experience

Four hands cooking concepts are very popular these days. Sampling dishes from 2 top chefs is indeed a great opportunity to experience two different cooking styles at once – and often for an interesting price. The four hands lunch at WY was one with a perfect symbiosis between the chefs’ cooking styles and we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful, light and honest dishes from both chefs.

Bart De Pooter will invite 5 other befriended chefs the coming months: the 12^th of October you can sample the kitchen of Chef Benallal Akrame from Paris. After Benallal, Bart will share the kitchen with the Swedish master chef Mathias Dahlgren of the **Mathias Dahlgren restaurant in Stockholm, the Dutch chef Jacob Jan Boerma  from **De Leest, the Englishman Alyn Williams  from *The Westbury and the Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes from the popular London restaurant *Viajante. Hard to pick a favorite from this list… all of them are highly recommended! For more information and bookings, visit www.wybrussels.be.

Restaurant WY

Bodenbroekstraat 22-24, Grote Zavel
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 3 400 42 63
www.wybrussels.be
http://www.depastorale.be  
http://www.bartdepooter.be