I gather that you have completed school and are now working at your craft. What level do you consider yourself and at what kind of establishment are you employed today?

At the moment I'm working in Paris in a very expensive classy restaurant. I'm 'chef de partie' which means responsible for a ' post'. In this kitchen we've got 6 posts; Cold Starters, Hot Starters, Soups and Clams, Fish, Meat, and Pastry. I'm currently head of the fish post. Other then that we have 2 'sous-chefs' (=second chefs) and 1 'chef de cuisine' (head of kitchen).



How and when did you get interested in food preparation and what kind of training did you have?

I always loved to eat and when I was young I loved to help prepare dinner with my mum. At about the age of 15 I started at the most prestigious Culinary Institute in Belgium = “Ter Duinen”. There I had a 5 year during (very intense) education.


While we can only imagine how they taste, a lot of effort is put into pleasing the eye, how much time would you say is spent on the visual aspect?

Its depends. If I make a dish just so I can take photos of it (to post and sell), then I try to make it looks as delicious as possible, I don't use seasoning etc... It's just the visual aspect that counts. When I'm working at the restaurant, it's 60% taste and 40% looks. Cause a dish might look really really delicious but if it's bland, or undercooked or tastes crappy, you failed.


Your gallery shows you like photography also. Do you take the photos and are there any special challenges in getting good pictures of your dishes?

Lighting is very important. To much light can ruin a perfect good shot, same as flash. The background is the most important aspect when it comes to successfully shooting food art. It must be wide open, preferably black/white and not shiny (matte?). The sherbet was indeed not very easy to shoot cause it melted pretty fast under the hot spotlights. But I gotta admit, my older brother helped me a lot while taking pictures...



What are your favorite foods and do you have a specialty?

I loooove sea food and Jamaican pepper .


Do you come up with all your own recipes or are some “tried and true” standards?

All dishes are my own recipes, I make everything myself.


The Smoked Salmon Havanna's as well as Blossom Sherbets have flower petals as a garnish, is everything you use edible?


Everything is edible! Once I used electrical-tasting flowers in a restaurant... THAT's unusual!


It looks like you do international dishes from Sushi (Tuna and Crusty) to Russian (Pomme Moscovite), do you have any favorite cuisines?

The restaurant which I work in right now is 100% fusion kitchen, which means that almost all our dishes are mixture of different styles, culture blended into a harmonic gastronomical dish. I love fusion kitchen.



Your Amuse Bouche appears to have Central American/Caribbean flavors combined with Continental ingredients, do you like to come up with unusual combinations?

Yeah, I like to experiment a lot with different textures, flavours and colours. Its one of the most exiting parts of my profession. A few weeks ago I made 'crab cakes with puffed corn and marinated salmon with Japanese lime and vanilla'. We do get to experiment a bit at the restaurant, but most of the time we work tough.



Congratulations on winning The Belgium Cover Contest here in dA combining humor, food and photography.... are there any other events that you have entered? And (in keeping with the 10 tricks for burnt food...) have you ever tried anything “blackened”?

Thx, uhm I haven't been able to compete in a lotta contests cause I never find the time. But I've entered in a few contest at ~CulArt. For the blackened food, we have a dish at the restaurant served with black-roasted sweetcorn and sour onions ... Delicious!!!!



Where do you see yourself going in your career and art?

Dunno, we'll see about that. People should stay tuned to find out !!!
Greetz Tom


Make sure to visit his gallery and leave him some comments and faves while you're at it! Remember, no drooling! Well, maybe a little.

`Tomazz


Status: Senior Member
General Film Photographer
Male/Belgium
Deviant since Apr 9, 2004, 5:59 AM



//*cl2007 *ArtisanCraft