Gert De Mangeleer named Gault&Millau Belgium's chef of the year
The Hertog Jan chef in Antwerp takes the top title in the guide's 2027 Belgian edition, in which Boury remains the only restaurant rated 19 out of 20.
Gert De Mangeleer, chef of Hertog Jan in Antwerp, was named Chef of the Year 2027 by Gault&Millau Belgium on Monday 9 November, at the presentation of the guide's 24th Belgian edition at Brussels Expo. He succeeds Karen Torosyan of Bozar Restaurant in Brussels, last year's winner.
The editors called Gert De Mangeleer a driven craftsman whose curiosity and eye for detail make him a versatile chef of international calibre, and pointed to the signature dishes he created at Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp, which lean on Japanese cuisine. The title follows Ryodo Kajiwara's second Chef of the Year win in Luxembourg, announced on 26 October for the same Belux guide.
Gert De Mangeleer after Bruges
Gault&Millau rewards what Gert De Mangeleer built after walking away from three stars.
De Mangeleer and his partner Joachim Boudens closed the original Hertog Jan in Zedelgem, near Bruges, in 2018, while it held three Michelin stars. Since then the pair have built a group of concepts aimed at different audiences, among them Bar Bulot, L.E.S.S. Eatery and Babu, and reopened Hertog Jan inside the Botanic Sanctuary hotel in Antwerp, which the Michelin Guide lists with two stars.
That spread is what the award rewards: a chef whose name sits on casual addresses as much as on a tasting menu. For a guide that scores kitchens rather than companies, it is a deliberate choice, and it lands a month after Switzerland handed the same title to a vegetarian kitchen.
At the top of the scores, Boury in Roeselare, run by Tim Boury and Inge Waeles, is the only restaurant in Belgium rated 19 out of 20, the mark it also held last year. A year ago it shared first place with L'Air du Temps, Sang-Hoon Degeimbre's restaurant in Eghezée, which slips to 18.5.
Young chefs and the 2027 numbers
Ruben Christiaens of La Villa Lorraine took Young Chef of the Year for Brussels. Christiaens, barely 30 according to La Libre, replaced Yves Mattagne in January at a house that in 1972 became the first restaurant outside France with three Michelin stars and lost its last star in 2025; the new guide rates it 15 out of 20. The other two young chef titles went to Mathieu Vande Velde of Le Roannay in Francorchamps, for Wallonia, and Anthony Stoop of Komaf in Wommelgem, for Flanders.
The 2027 guide reviews 1,311 Belgian restaurants, 132 of them new entries, and raises the score of 160. Pierre Wynants, the former head of Comme chez Soi in Brussels, received the lifetime achievement award; the restaurant is now run by his son-in-law, Lionel Rigolet.
The guide reaches bookshops on 10 November at €35. For Gert De Mangeleer, the title comes eight years after he closed a three-star restaurant by choice: the guide is now rewarding what he built afterwards.
