“It is not to throw me flowers, but I was a very good student. I had a very good relationship with the teachers. Which did not prevent me from already doing the clown. I was not at all the type to stay at the bottom of the class next to the radiator. I was on stage.”
And you already know to what professional future you are going to?
“Very young, yes. Every Sunday, my dad was to eat for us. And, from my 5-6 years, I was stuffed in the kitchen with him because it interested me. But at the start I wanted to be a butcher. François.
With the desire to open your own restaurant?
“I was first hired at François, then I went through the Moulin de Lindekemaele, a star restaurant. Then I became a chef of a brewery, the Milord before going to Soje. I finished as an employee of a fish wholesaler before opening my restaurant with the mother of my children. It immediately worked and all the players came to eat at home, including the president Vandenstock. Much worked with Jean-Luc Petitrenaud and for the Coyotte de Déchavanne company. “Koken op de Markt”, where I found myself cooking between a sock seller and a vendor of dresses. Cooking for cycling runners and for cycle tourisms who want to combine holidays and bikes. Also.
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With several books on the subject, the Stoemp is your trademark and your nickname. Why did you choose this dish?
“Because it is a dish that looks like me. It is a popular, family, sharing dish. It is very easy to make even if you can make stoemp with caviar or lobster. I think I’m going to die with this name and besides my company is called Stoemp. For me, the base of the kitchen, that’s it because even the star chefs love to eat simply when they do not work. Proud.
To go with the Stoemp, you also embarked on beer …
“It’s a great story. My parents held a bistro in Leeuw-Saint-Pierre, which was called the Resistance. At the place where the brewer was installed who delivered my parents, there is a brewery today. When I met Jo, the owner, he offered to make a beer that bears my name, the Albertstoempbier. It is a light beer (6.2 °), with lemon notes, END.”
In your books, as in your shows, we find this desire to share your knowledge. Is it your vision of cooking?
“Yes, because every day I am asked for recipe ideas. I like simple and well done things. This is why I offer recipes in 6 or 7 stages, no more, otherwise it is too much. If we follow these steps, we cannot miss the recipe unless you do it on purpose or not like to cook. I like to make people laugh, but I am also someone serious, professional and sometimes they are almost surprised. For what they do, but they have a pressure that I don’t have. “
As a television man and chef, what do you look at all these contests like Top Chef?
“This is another world. The dishes presented there are anything but accessible. It may interest an audience, but it is not my cup of tea. I also think that these emissions are starting to get tired. I have to go back to the foundations of the kitchen. I am an unconditional fan of Escoffier. The kitchen owes him a lot and he laid the basics …”
By being exposed to media, one can nourish the ambition to do politics. Has it tickled you?
“I have already been approached. But it is a world that scares me” I have the image of a simple guy, a good Brussels resident who loves life and make promises that we cannot hold, it is not for me. The political world is a world of sharks, but I am a nice runner.
The great interview with chef Alessandro Ciriello: “Make the Universal Exhibition, an experience that only happens once in your life”
Isn’t there a job you would have wanted to do?
“Without hesitation, humorist! There are not many people who make me laugh. But what makes me laugh the most is the people who do not know that they are funny. I also have an extraordinary respect for the humorist who finds himself alone on stage. I love making people laugh. Like Éric Boschman who goes on stage and makes a show around wine, I could be tried to do it. In Wallonia?
You have also been a cook on the Tour de France for 10 years. How did it happen?
“In fact it is an idea of ​​Marc Coucke. He saw me on television and he wanted me to come on the Tour de France with his team. This is how this crazy story started. At the time when I worked for Quick Step, we went on an internship in Javea. As the runners knew that I came on a motorcycle, they offered to accompany them during an outing. The Tour de France. Book of 40 potato recipes, telling me that it is like that he loves them. “That’s not going to do it”. Passed, we have been marked.
Did they all eat the same thing?
“I had asked before beforehand the gastronomic CV of the runners, which they like and especially what they do not like. All the teams, in all the hotels, receive the same ASO menu. We receive the menus in advance and we look at if there is not a dish that a runner does not like to offer him an alternative. These are very well-made menus. All the goods are delivered to the hotel. is the most important moment. Charcuterie, too. There was only me who could open the water. Tour, I lost between 8 and 10 kilos because we slept 4 or 5 hours a day. “
The great interview with Julien Lapraille: “Fortunately I am the son of independents otherwise I would not be of this world”
A particular memory that marked you?
“I will always remember a day of rest in Pau. I was at the hotel and I am asked to organize a barbecue for 200 people. I had made a big hot and cold buffet. All the journalists were there. There were two Chinese who kept wondering” What was it? “And it was starting to get upset so I replied:” That is the favorite meat. Journalists turn to me and take their bic in hand. He is invented at France Télévisions and when asked how he is, he replied: “I am in good shape because, every day, my chef is preparing me” skindfer “. Otherwise, I also have the memory of a step won by Lance Armstrong to the summon of Mont Ventoux. We left together by helicopter to the hotel. He was really a runner with extraordinary kindness. “
The turn and you, it’s not completely over …
“No, throughout the month of July, I will be on nostalgia to animate a section linked to gastronomy and the Tour de France. The theme will be linked to the city stage each time. Thus, if the turn stops in Toulouse, I will speak of the cassoulet and I will of course give a recipe. And the rest days, I will tell an anecdote linked to the Tour. In August, we will also organize a big competition. Day, I will ask a question about the story of Eddy Merckx and the listeners will have the opportunity to win a dedicated bike from Eddy Merckx. “
