Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens (Hertog Jan) are the new ‘Cullinary personalities of Belgian Gastronomy’ 2012

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Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens Chefs at restaurant Hertog Jan in Brugge are the new “Cullinary personalities of Belgian Gastronomy” 2012. This was announced sunday 18/11 at Horeca Expo in Ghent.

An expert jury nominated eight candidates. The title goes to a belgian gastronomer who accomplished pioneering work in the past year or contributed in a meritorious way to the culinary industry.

“Gert and Joachim succeeded with Hertog Jan to gather (starting from none) 3 stars in a time span of just seven years. Gert belongs to the 3 youngest 3-star chefs in the world, ” according to organizer Horeca Expo. “Joachim, partner and supervisor, achieved in 2004 the degree of First Sommelier of Belgium and was nominated in 2011 way ahead of the other candidates ”Sommelier of the Year”. The two friends are working on a new project on their farm with an own vision on ecology and their own vegetables.

 

source: http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20121118_063

How simple can it be

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Zaru Soba can be served cold with dipping sauce.

 

RECIPE

It’s boiled and chilled soba (buckwheat noodles) served on a bamboo basket (zaru). It’s served with noodle dipping sauce (mentsuyu) and some toppings. Packages of dried soba noodles are often availabe in Asian grocery stores.

Ingredients ( 4 servings)

  • 14 oz. dried soba
  • *for dipping sauce
  • 1 1/2 cup kombu and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) dashi
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup mirin
  • *for toppings:
  • wasabi paste, finely chopped green onion, and so on.

 

Preparation:

Put mirin in a sauce pan and heat. Add soy sauce and dashi soup stock in the pan and bring to a boil. Stop the heat. Cool the sauce. Boil lots of water in a large pot. Add dried soba noodles in the boiling water, gently stirring noodles with chopsticks. Turn down the heat to medium. Boil soba noodles, following the package instructions. It usually takes a couple minutes to boil soba. If it’s necessary, add a little bit of cold water in the pot to prevent overflowing. Drain and cool the noodles in cold water. Gently wash noodles with hands and drain well. Divide soba among four serving plates or zaru. Divide dipping sauce among four small cups. Put toppings on small plates and serve them on the side of soba.