Our Interview with Top Chef Bart Vandaele

For the last nine years, Belgium native Chef Bart Vandaele has been delighting the pallets of DC diners with classic Belgian cuisine at his highly popular Belga Café and then redefining those dishes at his newer restaurant BToo. From heavenly stuffed waffles, to aromatic mussel pots filled with all sorts of imaginative ingredients, Vandaele’s creative mind has helped put Belgian food on the map in DC.

The former Top Chef contestant has quite the culinary resume, literally growing up in his family’s restaurants and eventually working as a sous-chef at two-star Michelin restaurant Scholteshof in Belgium. He has received countless accolades and honors, including being knighted in the order of Leopold II, and serves as the brand ambassador for Belgian beer Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe Blond and Leffe Brown.

With such a busy schedule, the jovial chef was kind enough to take time to chat with Cloture Club about Belgian fare, the DC restaurant scene and his delightful pet chickens (read on).

Cloture Club: Belgian cuisine in the DC area has really taken off and many say you’re responsible that. How has Belgian cuisine evolved in the DC area?

Belgian cuisine and beer became popular at the same time in the area. American beer became more popular because of microbreweries and then we added good food to it. Kind of like, first came the beer, then the food. I grew up in it so it’s natural and normal but for others we are just showing off what is Belgian cuisine. A lot of it is comfort, family, enjoying the beauty of life, part of what makes Belgian cuisine so popular.

I think if you want to be a trendsetter you have to be an educator at the same time. Belgian cuisine wasn’t always here. I’ve worked at some of the best restaurants in Belgium and I take those experiences in to my restaurants. We give a wide range of Belgium cuisine, so people can understand it is not just about mussels and fries.

Waffles have become something super popular for us that I never thought in my career that would happen.

You started with Belga Café, modeled after Brussel’s casual cafes and now your newer restaurant BToo is a reinterpretation of classic dishes. What took you from one concept to the other?

Reinvention. Otherwise I’d be bored out of my mind. I need to create, it keeps me on the edge, keeps me making different things. For me, with Belga, held back a little bit and now can show more of what we are capable of at BToo. We kind of redid 90% and copied 10%. But at Belga we are always developing new ideas too. I want to be different and it keeps me on my toes and its fun.

What are some of your favorite dishes from each restaurant?

Oh, that’s hard. Green eggs at Belga Café for brunch, definitely one of my top dishes that has been there forever. Also I love the green mussels or the spicy cigars of chicken and crabmeat. At BToo definitely the Boudon noir waffle appetizer and the chocolate Eden, also anything Josper cooked on the menu (traditional oven and charbroiled cooking).

What do you think of the DC restaurant scene compared to other cities? What is it you like about owning a restaurant here?

For me, I think it was the only think I could afford when started. That’s one thing for sure. But the scenery overall is exploding with room for more. I’ve been in this city for 17 years and I really like it. Very happy with the development, happy we have different styles and different cuisines. It’s competition for sure, but that only makes it better.

You started Belgium Restaurant Week in DC. Tell us a bit about how it started and what it has turned into.

Ah, my baby. Just friends getting together who want to promote their restaurants. We all figure, hey it’s July and nothing going on in the city. We have the goods, we got the beer and beer is what you need on a warm day. I hope this year we can do it bigger and better. Last year with the opening of BToo it was a little side tracked and kicked off a little late. Still, we want to do it bigger each year so that more and more restaurants take part and we hope it becomes a staple of DC.

Other than your own, what are some of your favorite restaurants in the DC area?

I like Fiola. I like to visit friends on 14th street. Graffiato is fun. Week ago I went all the way to Peking Ducks in Seven Corners that was amazing.

Honestly, if I go out to restaurants I’m working. I’m observing, I’m looking, taking notes mentally. Looking at how things are, how constructed. I look at everything. Because chefs go out to restaurants everyone thinks we are super critical. Some are, but for me I want to learn. I want to enjoy, but I want to observe. If I see something wrong I won’t say it’s wrong, it’s an honest mistake. But I’ll see if we can avoid it back at my restaurants.

Several DC chefs have seen much success from being put in the public eye with Top Chef. What did you take away from your experience on season 10?

Definitely helped me in the business. More visibility and fun to have guests actually coming for you and to take care of them as much as possible. Personally, has it changed my life? Nope, still do the same thing. I think it was because I worked so long in eh business that it didn’t change how I do thing, because I’m stable.

Top Chef is fun to do, crazy to do, exhausted when you do it and you get burned out.

Did it change my life? Directly not, just probably happened.

Do you miss Belgium?

Sometimes, I miss small things. But, if I’m there for too long than I want to come home to DC. I like the way it’s made in the US. I think I’m the lucky one to have the best of both worlds. Anything I don’t like from one place or another I ignore it, then things from both worlds the best I enjoy, be selective.

Any similarities between Belgium and DC dining?

Food wise, I don’t think there is a difference. I think DC is on a very high level when it comes to food. But then, when you look at the whole atmosphere of entertaining and guest experience and just food overall, in Belgium that’s completely different. Belgium, you go to a restaurant and stay the whole night, enjoying your time with friends. We also entertain at home a lot and family wise eat a lot together and sit around the table.

So, I hear you have some pet chickens?

Yes, I have four chickens and a big coop they run around in. If I’m home they will run around the backyard and jump after food like a dog. If you want to pet them they sit down.

They follow you everywhere around in the backyard. Around evening time when night starts to fall, they come to the back door and look and ask for food. Eggs go to everyone, my manager and my family.

Anything else you want to add?

Thanks for all the people that have supported me for so many years at Belga and thanks for all the new ones that come to BToo!

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