Seppe Nobels

For many years, Seppe Nobels was the chef at Antwerp’s sustainable vegetarian restaurant Graanmarkt 13. His cooking taught guests you don’t need more than plenty of fresh vegetables to create interesting dishes. He established a city farm on the restaurant’s roof where he grew over a hundred different herbs and vegetables. As a promoter of vegetarian cooking, he taught a nation how to appreciate local and forgotten vegetables through cookbooks and appearances on TV. A decade and a green Michelin star later, Seppe has said his goodbyes and is embracing a new adventure.

Newcomers enrich the kitchen

A former canteen for shipbuilders and metalworkers in Antwerp’s port now houses Instroom. This project is somewhere between a training centre and a dining experience. The people working in the kitchen and serving the food fled their own countries for political or economic reasons, in search of a better future. Based on their cultural contributions, Instroom offers a new approach to fusion cooking.

“I think it is deeply wrong to demand that new residents abandon everything from the countries they left behind. We should be inviting them to share as much as they can of their own ways of life,” says Nobels in an interview for De Standaard.At Instroom, Seppe’s multicultural team serves the specialties these refugees brought with them to Antwerp; dishes they learned to prepare as a child or teen, which their parents or grandparents still cook regularly and which they may never get a chance to taste in their own countries again. They do this Seppe Nobels-style, however. With respect for Belgian ingredients, products and methods.The chef hasn’t forgotten his love of Belgium’s terroir. Here, Iraqi dolmades get served with local purple cauliflower and algae from the Eastern Scheldt. By the time they finish their training, his students are familiar with the taste of asparagus, Brussel sprouts and North Sea fish.

Guests at Instroom are served both food and stories that encourage understanding and a sense of connection. That connection is very important to Nobels. “Not the kind we think can be found in today’s web of smartphones and social media, but the true sense of connection that comes from sharing meals together.

"I think it is deeply wrong to demand that new residents abandon everything from the countries they left behind. We should be inviting them to share as much as they can of their own ways of life."

War victims tell me these remained the most important moments of their day, even in the shelters,” the chief noted in the same interview. In testament to the project’s success, the team was awarded a green Michelin star this year. Perhaps even more significantly, 95% of the first group of trainees have meanwhile found jobs.

Visit the website of restaurant Instroom Academy Download my resume here