Chef - Elliott Van de Velde
Elliott Van de Velde
Chef at Entropy Restaurant, Belgian Inspired Cuisine
@elliott_vandevelde
“To fight food waste, we work with products close to their expiry date – therefore impossible to sell – but that are still perfectly healthy. This requires quick preparation and careful collection. Mastering cold extends the life of certain ingredients and lets us offer fresh and healthy meals that we deliver to charities that fight food insecurity and the economic and ecological impacts that food waste generates. This also allows us to offer local and seasonal products throughout the year on our restaurant’s menu without importing products from the other side of the world.”
The chef's cool recipe
GASPACHO OF YOUNG TOMATOES AND STRAWBERRY
The tomato is a precious, ephemeral product. But generations of Italians have managed to use the tomato all year round. How did they do it? By taking tomatoes at the best of their shape, of their flesh, of their taste. They preserve tomatoes in many ways. Today, we can imagine the tomato preserved whole without destroying its shape at Entropy.
Lacto-fermentation helps us for that with the production of enzymes. Their conservation by their cold allows us thereafter to work them at any time for our forgotten preparations of summer like gazpachos or ice.
Do not forget that tomatoes are one of the richest foods in “umami.” This flavor is obtained through the Maillard reaction, the caramelization of the juices, without however pushing the cooking because the acidity could prevail. This umami will be honored in a range of preparations: amazake, miso, etc.
And tomatoes, fruit or vegetable?