Stefaan Couttenye:

May 2001

Stefaan Couttenye:Pioneer of the New Beer CuisineBy Nancy Ross RyanContributing Editor

In a country that takes its beer seriously, this Belgian chef has pushed the envelope of culinary innovation.In Belgium — where more beer is consumed per capita than anywhere in the world — traditional beer cuisine has existed for centuries: Flemish beef stew, rabbit stew with prunes, Normandie crepes and deep-fried, beer-batter fruit fritters are regional menu staples. But in 1983, a young chef named Stefaan Couttenye opened a restaurant in Watou, a small Belgian country town, and the new beer cuisine was born.Much like American chefs who explored the roots of American regional cuisine and updated their grandmothers’ recipes, Couttenye found old recipes and updated them by making them lighter. Living near the only active hop-producing region remaining in Belgium, Couttenye explored dishes heavy on hops or beer with high hops content, such as rabbit terrine (which uses a full bottle of locally brewed St. Bernardus Tripel) and poached egg with hop shoots.Over the 10 years, he pushed the envelope of culinary inventiveness: frogs legs with Brugs Blond (a white beer); millefeuille of salmon with wild mushrooms; panade of local cheese; tomato coulis and Watou Wit (a local white beer); bass ratatouille in Hoegaarden Grand Cru (a top-fermented unfiltered beer). His desserts include crème brûlée infused with peach beer; chocolate mousse with St. Bernardus, and sorbet of gueze (a spontaneously fermented, very tart beer).Against his parents’ objections, Couttenye enrolled in the cookery school Hotelschool Ter Duinen in Koksijde, Belgium, in 1976. He apprenticed in upscale hotels and restaurants throughout France and Belgium, even serving a military stint as chef in the kitchens of the Belgian Prime Minister’s residence in Brussels.In 1983, when he returned to Watou, fast becoming a summer tourist mecca for artists, he discovered a run-down, abandoned dance hall ‘t Hommelhof — and bought it. He began serving the haute cuisine he had learned. But his customers weren’t looking for that.Q: So when you first opened, customers were few and far between?A: My cooking was exquisite, elaborate. But my clients were tourists, even though they came to Watou in search of the arts. Business was very good in July and August, but the rest of the time it bombed. I soon realized I had to ease up. Beer was in my blood — my great-grandfather had been a brewer. My favorite pub in Antwerp is De Kulminator, which serves 1,001 beers, and it’s also the home base of “The Objective Beertasters,” and I’m a member of that group. And, ‘hommel’ means hops.Weiss strategyQ: So all this pointed in one direction?A: Beer. What could I do with beer? This was the way to get people in my restaurant. I would start experimenting with beer, trying to revitalize the ancient tradition of cooking with beer and create a new modern version. I started looking at old recipes, and I saw that our grandmothers cooked with beer. But I needed to make something more up-to-date.Q: How was this new trend received?A: The food yes, but still it was hard to convince customers to drink beer — not wine — with their food. At that time, French wine was really the only wine recognized in gastronomy, and I thought that if the French were so chauvinistic about their wine, why we Belgians cannot be just as chauvinistic about our beers?Q: So did business improve?A: During the tourist season, yes, but I only hoped that the news would spread and people would start visiting this border region all year round. And, of course, that they would come to ‘t Hommelhof. Then I had the luck to have some journalists write about me and the restaurant, and that started people coming.Q: ‘t Hommelhof is now a famous destination restaurant and, in 1999, your cookbook published in both Belgian and English — how did that happen?A: Well, it took about 10 years. People kept asking me how I prepared the dishes — the mussels, the hams, the cockerel. I started writing down the recipes. But it took years of continuous tasting, refining.Q: How many people are in your kitchen, including you?A: Four. When we are busy I bring in more. During out busiest season — July and August — we have a staff of about 20, front and back of the house, and we do about 200 covers a day, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Normally, we are open six days a week; on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for lunch only, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for lunch and dinner. We are closed on Wednesday.Q: In the United States chefs figure food costs as a percentage of sales. Do you do that?A: I try. But sometimes I fall short of the goal. I always say that I am a cook not an accountant. But still we have to stay within certain limits, we have to make money...or we don’t have a restaurant.Learning curveQ: Do you have apprentices?A: In the summertime, we always have students from the Hotelschool Ter Duinen. It’s the most famous hotel school in Belgium. My son is now going to that school.Q: In the States, chefs often complain about culinary school graduates who come into the kitchen believing they are ready to be executive chefs instead of apprentices. Is that the same here?A: Yes. It’s the same. They think after a few years of school that they know everything. But when you leave school, you don’t know anything.Q: Do they learn fast that they know nothing?A: Very fast.Brewing ideasQ: How would you describe your style of cooking?A: It’s a regional kitchen, based on beer. Not too complicated, and with respect for the ingredients.Q: What are your inspirations?A: Sometimes I would find a flavor inspiration in a beer. For example there is a beer, Affligem Tripel, with a hint of orange in the aftertaste. I thought that a marriage of orange and chicory (also bitter) or sour and bitter would go well. And that’s how a recipe for pheasant stuffed with wild mushrooms, served with chicory, and fresh orange segments evolved.Then there is a beer called Tongerlo Dubble Blond. It has a toffee bouquet with hints of fresh coriander and a little citrus — a perfectly balanced beer. The sweetness of this beer is in perfect harmony with the soft, sweetness typical of venison. Both contributed to a seasonal recipe for fillet of venison in Tongerlo Dubbel Blond. The pan in which the meat is cooked is deglazed with the beer and a little red currant jam is added.Sometimes inspiration would come from my colleagues. For years, six chefs from my region used to meet regularly on the same day each year to create local dishes. One of those chefs, now sadly deceased, Dina Vroman-Desmedt, came up with the basic idea for a recipe that is now in my restaurant and cookbook: Cod aan de schreve. ‘Schreve’ means the Belgian-French border region, and the recipe uses vegetables and herbs found here (potatoes, parsley, chervil, leek, carrot and celery) along with cod and, of course, beer used in two stages — first to poach the cod and second to add at the last minute to the reduced fish-stock cream sauce.Q: When you are creating new dishes, do you start with the food or do you start with the beer?A: It’s difficult to say, sometimes both. When I discover a new beer, I think, what can I do with this beer? But other times it starts with the ingredients.Q: Do you match the density and flavor of the beer to the food, or contrast it?A: I match. I also recommend that people drink the beer I have used in the recipe. It’s a marriage. That’s the link. And when you cook with beer, it’s tricky. If you boil it too much there is bitterness. And recently in my restaurant, I stress drinking beer with the food as much as cooking the food with beer.Belgian beers go perfectly with meals, from aperitif to digestive. They can easily replace wine in the glasses and as ingredients in dishes. Beer’s subtle taste differences are in no way inferior to those of wine. And beer should be served in four different kinds of glasses during meals, not necessarily crystal but definitely the shape that suits the beer. For example, lighter, blond beers need a tulip-shaped glass. Stronger beers? Use a Burgundy glass. For fruit-based beers and gueuze, a flute. And a generous goblet for abbey and Trappist beers.Q: Do you think people are drinking more beer, in general?A: I hear from my colleagues that they are. In the last few years in the top Belgian restaurants, the chefs are also starting to work with beer. And it makes me a little bit proud that I started this.

Nancy Ross Ryan is a Chicago-based food writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

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