20th edition of the guide for Gault&Millau which crowns the Chef of the Year 2023 and other winners

Brussels, 7 November 2022. Gault&Millau presented the twentieth edition of the Belgian Guide in front of an audience of more than fifteen hundred restaurateurs, journalists and partners. For a year, the guide’s anonymous inspectors have travelled to the most beautiful addresses in our country to compile a guide containing more than 1,380 addresses, no less than 125 new addresses and 168 upgrades.

The 2023 list of winners

This year, the title of Chef of the Year 2023 goes to Nick Bril of The Jane in Antwerp. “A passionate entertainer, Nick Bril likes to take his guests into a world of experience. As a chef, he has long demonstrated his gift for innovation. In doing so, he manages to achieve exceptional levels every time. Nick Bril is therefore our Chef of the Year for 2023, a year in which, with The Jane and his 18.5 rating, he reinforces his position as one of the best chefs in the country.”says the editor. “It is a top-class gastronomic experience and is undoubtedly one of the best culinary walks in the world,” adds CEO Marc Declerck.

This year, the titles of Young Chef of the Year go to Alexandre Ciriello (L’horizon – Chaumont-Gistoux) for Wallonia, Davy Devlieghere (Restaurant Julien – Lievegem) for Flanders and Alexandru Sapco (La Bonne Chère – Brussels) for the Brussels region.

Also noteworthy this year are the four newcomers in Flanders: Willem Hiele in Ostend, Misera in Antwerp, Atelier Gist in Geraardsbergen and Modest in Oudsbergen. All four received a score of 15/20. For Wallonia, the remarkable novelty is La Grappe d’Or in Arlon with a score of 15.5/20, and in Brussels, it is Ivresse with 14/20.

The top of the Belgian gastronomy scene is getting bigger and bigger, as evidenced by no less than three restaurants with a new score of 18.5/20 and four toques: Boury in Roeselare, The Jane and Zilte, both in Antwerp. Also in the lead are Ralf Berendsen (Lanaken) with 18/20, Cuchara (Lommel) and L’Eau vive (Arbre) with 17.5/20, Altermezzo (Tongeren), Castor (Beveren-Leie), De Kristalijn (Genk), Sir Kwinten (Lennik), Toma (Liège) and La Villa Lorraine d’Yves Mattagne (Brussels) with 17/20, and Le Cor de Chasse (Wéris) with 16.5/20

List of annual winners

In addition, as every year, the following thematic winners will be awarded:

• Host of the Year: Serge Sierens (Hof Van Cleve, Kruisem)
• Italian of the Year: Felicità (Waterloo)
• Asian of the Year: Old Boy (Bruxelles – Ixelles)
• The most beautiful terrace: Hoeve de Bies (Fouron-Saint-Martin)
• The most beautiful design restaurant: La Grappe d’Or (Arlon)
• Sommelier of the Year: Maxime Sanzot (Racines – Floreffe)
• Dessert of the Year: Bozar Restaurant (Bruxelles)
• Brewery of the Year: Fortuin (Kontich)
• Gastro-bistro of the Year: Bistrot Blaise (Marche-en-Famenne)
• Artisan Cook of the Year: Eric Fernez (d’Eugénie à Émilie – Baudour)
• Vegetable dish of the Year: Elements @ Indrani (Loupoigne)
• Wine list of the Year: Paul de Pierre (Maarkedal)
• Beer list of the Year: Hop Gastrobar (Louvain)
• Pleasure prize of the Year: Onism (Blankenberge) for Flanders, ÖTAP for Brussels and L’O de Source (Jalhay) for Wallonia.
• The 3 discoveries of the Year: Côté Préféré (Jabbeke) for Flanders, Entropy for Brussels and Recto Verso (Ciney) for Wallonia.

POP Casual Dining selection and additional guide books

The “POP Casual Dining” booklet, which has now been in existence for five years and contains the best ‘casual’ addresses, is also growing rapidly. It now has more than 488 more accessible addresses where you can enjoy a relaxed meal. This means 93 additional new addresses. The three POP Award 2023 winners are Finch in Antwerp, Pinsaci Tu in Brussels and Socio-Pâtes in Charleroi. Discover this unique selection in its entirety on www.gaultmillau.be/pop.

Cette année encore, le guide Gault&Millau est bien plus qu’un simple guide de restaurants. In the 20th edition of the guide, the publisher has included three other richly illustrated booklets alongside the POP booklet:

• ‘Great Cocktail Bars’: a selection of the best cocktail bars in Belgium. On this occasion, TAZU in Antwerp was elected Cocktail Bar of the Year 2023.
• Finest Chocolatiers’: the Gault&Millau selection of the best chocolatiers.
• The gastronomic and POP restaurants in the Gault&Millau Luxembourg guide have also been included in a separate booklet in this guide.

Fast-growing website with new booking module and expanded search capabilities

Since the end of last year, the restaurant guide also has a brand new website. This site was optimised in 2022 and has become the largest restaurant website in Belgium. The website includes all restaurants, POP restaurants, chocolatiers and cocktail bars and is extremely intuitive with its extensive search functionality. This search function is now extended to allow users to check the availability of most of the restaurants in the guide with a few clicks. Access to the site is and will remain completely free.

Almost 30,000 guides sold in advance

The paper guide is not yet dead! Despite the success of the digital guide, Marc Declerck, CEO of Gault&Millau, is proud to point out that Gault&Millau, with 30,000 pre-sold copies, remains by far the Belgian-Luxembourg leader in this sector. For this, he thanks once again the faithful partners who make the guide possible, as well as the entire Gault&Millau team who work every day to make the guide as realistic and objective as possible.

The 2023 edition of the Gault&Millau guide will be available in Belgian bookshops for 34 euros. It can also be ordered at shop.gaultmillau.be. The website www.gaultmillau.be allows you to search for restaurants according to various criteria.