Entropy: Does militant cuisine reshuffle the deck of gastronomy?

An island of freshness and greenery in the heart of downtown Brussels, Entropy is a restaurant like no other. Not only because it's one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the country, but above all because it bears the culinary, environmental and social commitment of its chef, Elliott Van de Velde. A militant conscience that gives Entropy's cuisine an extra soul all too rare in this sector, whose influence is often confined to hedonistic pleasures. But just how well do the chef's ideals serve his cuisine?

If you think you're entering a restaurant when you walk through the doors of the former 18th-century inn on Place Saint-Géry, where chef Elliott Van de Velde has set up Entropy, you'd be wrong. Well, no. Entropy is indeed a restaurant. One of the best vegetarian restaurants in the city, if not the country. But it's not just a restaurant. It's also the arm of the ASBL Hearth Project, founded by the chef and his wife Adeline Barras.

A militant project against waste

This structure fights against food waste and social precariousness by allowing each meal consumed to finance a meal for a person in need. Hearth Project was born of Elliott Van de Velde's striking awareness of the astronomical quantities of food wasted in the food industry. In 2018, during an awareness campaign, he discovered that in a single day and in a single store, it was possible to recover 134 kg of food destined to be thrown away.

This revelation was the trigger for the creation of the ASBL. Hearth Project's mission is threefold: firstly, to prevent food waste (by recovering unsold food from the B2B sector and transforming it into meals); secondly, to have a tangible social impact (by distributing quality meals to Brussels charities); and thirdly, to educate the general public and corporate players alike about the issues surrounding food waste.

A supportive network of Brussels partners

Hearth Project relies on a carefully structured ecosystem of partners, collaborating with numerous Brussels charities such as Kamiano (the Sant'Egidio Community's social restaurant), L'Îlot (an emergency shelter), La Samaritaine (the housing rights defense committee), as well as the Sisters of Mother Teresa, Douche Flux, Pierre d'Angle, Nativitas (a reception center), and Restos du Cœur. This synergy with the associative fabric ensures targeted and efficient distribution of meals to people in precarious food situations: the homeless, single-parent families, refugees and students.

In May 2022, the ASBL inaugurated the Hearth Project Hub, Brussels' first space dedicated to the fight against food waste. Located on Place Saint-Géry, this multifunctional third-party space includes a workshop for the production of meals destined for charities, educational workshops focusing on the zero waste approach, a fine cannery responsible for marketing the processed products, as well as spaces dedicated to training and raising public awareness.

According to the most recent data, the organization has achieved remarkable performance by recovering over 300 tonnes of unsold food saved since 2019, enabling the distribution of over 200,000 social meals to partner associations. This social action is supported by a dynamic network of over 300 volunteers mobilized in the project, who ensure the constant delivery of 100 to 150 meals a week to Brussels charities. These figures illustrate not only the scale of the organization's social commitment, but also its exceptional operational capacity to transform an environmental problem into a concrete social solution.

Entropy: the project's financial engine and showcase

But what about Entropy? Entropy is Hearth Project's gourmet restaurant, whose chef is, of course, Elliott Van de Velde himself. The restaurant not only contributes to the ASBL's mission to combat food waste, but also acts as an arm of the organization. Indeed, Entropy is the ASBL's primary financial resource. Self-financing by the restaurant enables Hearth Project to maintain financial independence and develop its activities without relying exclusively on public subsidies or private donations. This autonomy guarantees the long-term sustainability of the social project. It is therefore gastronomy, an elitist form of catering too often reserved for a privileged clientele, that enables the ASBL to live.

With this long preamble, it's easy to understand Entropy's purpose. But being militant is one thing. Offering a gastronomic cuisine of excellence is quite another. In other words: how well do the chef's ideals serve his cuisine?

The proof is in the eating

Elliott Van de Velde answers this question straightforwardly and in the most beautiful of ways: on the plate. This summer's seven-course menu (not including amuse-bouches) gives a broad overview of the chef's talents. Just reading it, you can already appreciate his concern to offer intelligent, truly thoughtful cuisine. Seasonality of produce is obviously non-negotiable (and when you have your own urban kitchen garden, as you do at Entropy, it's almost more of an obligation than a choice). So, on the evening of our visit, we were treated to asparagus, peas and even the first cherries of the season. Of course, working with the seasons can be very stimulating for chefs, but it can also be frustrating since, by definition, not all products are available all year round. Elliott Van de Velde gets round this problem by using the whole arsenal of “low-tech” natural preservatives that our ancestral kitchens have developed: drying or lacto-fermentation... or other, much less common methods such as koso, a Japanese fermentation technique that creates raw, fermented fruit syrups. This technique can be found in the first “Naturalité” entry (peas, green beans and butter, strawberry koso, split pea cream, borage).

Elliott Van de Velde's other great strength is that he opts for gentle cooking techniques that respect the characteristics of the products he cooks. Where, for example, Aurélie d'Hollander, at Frondes, proposes (with brio) strong enough cooking to caramelize the juices (and the famous Maillard reaction, so dear to meat lovers) and give body and power to her vegetables, Elliott Van de Velde prefers to play a less intense score, willingly playing on the vegetal and chlorophyll aspects of his products. A favorite, for example, is asparagus in lambic maceration, where the vinous acidity of this typically Brussels beer lends tension to a vegetable that is cooked so unctuously. Here, there's no make-up, no travesty, and above all, no distortion. And while this approach to respecting the naturalness of products may spontaneously appear simpler, it is, on the contrary, eminently more complex. Preparations and seasonings are designed to emphasize, support, complement and match tastes and flavors. Elliott Van de Velde's cooking is all about emulsions, oils, infusions, reductions... He knows that oils have the ability to capture, then preserve and finally transmit tastes and flavors, that infusions dilute then diffuse them, that vegetable, flower or spice powders condiment and season...

But all this requires a level of dedication in the kitchen that's truly admirable. Each plate on the menu features three, four or five different preparations. All meticulously prepared. What's more, in keeping with Entropy's commitment to the environment, nothing is thrown away: radish tops are turned into aromatic oils, squash skins are transformed into tepache (a traditional Mexican fermented drink usually made from fermenting pineapple), peelings are used to make powders and vegetable trimmings are used to create delicate foams...

Services follow each other at an ideal pace, developing a menu that goes from strength to strength. After “Naturalité” and ‘Développement’ (asparagus macerated in lambic and roasted, first cherries, nasturtium stuffed with seeds, citrus reduction in lactofermentation), come “Terroir” (kohlrabi in cooking juxtaposition and binchotan, miso foam, hazelnut praline, herb juice and nettle) and “Transparence” (candied red onions, crisp white onions, leek mousseline with koji, coffee grounds infusion and caramelization). Before the dessert duo comes the cheese. But since Elliott Van de Velde is a workaholic, you'll never see the exhausting cheese platter arrive at the table, but rather a truly lightly cooked cheese preparation! As for the desserts, “Souvenir d'enfance” (rice pudding with quinoa, chicory and black garlic, hay ice-cream) and “Coquin” (strawberry and beet bavarois, savory ice-cream, rhubarb tuile), they maintain the menu's plant-based approach, while providing an absolutely delicious treat without falling into the trap of excessive sweetness. Once again, we're walking a fine line. We leave the table with the “Monochrome” mignardises (cucumbers, green tomato, verbena and tagetes sorbet, tomato water, noblesse gel), which provide a refreshing finish to the meal.

A cellar in unison

Speaking of freshness, the wines that accompany the menu follow the house's editorial line. In all colors, they are fresh, with notes of fresh fruit, and play less on intense extractions and more on the register of delicacy. A special mention goes to Samtavisi Marani, a Georgian orange wine aged in amphora, vintage 2021, which went particularly well with the second starter “Développement” (asparagus in lambic maceration and roties, first cherries, nasturtium stuffed with seeds, citrus reduction in lactofermentation) or this Amori, a late harvest Gamay from Domaine Incipit which accompanied “Transparence” (the main course).

And while the selection of wines was extremely meticulous, it was undoubtedly the non-alcoholic offerings that made the greatest impression on us. Here too, the workmanship is unimaginable: with “Développement” green tea, pepper syrup, black lemon and kefir, with “Terroir” smoked tea, Cascara, apple and elderberry juice, with ‘Coquin’ red fruit infusion, beet and strawberry kombucha, with “Monochrome” jasmine-hydromel tea, aniseed agastache... but the one whose memory will stay with us the longest on the palate is without possible hesitation this kvas (bread beer) with magnolia syrup.

With these made-to-measure menu drinks, the task is no longer to find out which existing wine is the best accompaniment to which preparation, but to invent the ideal drink. The effect is often striking, and the result is just as complex, fresh and, quite simply, pleasurable.

A new definition of gastronomy?

Ultimately, we leave Entropy with the feeling that Elliott Van de Velde's uncompromising commitment is reshuffling the gastronomic deck. While upholding exacting social and environmental ideals, he proves that the quest for taste and flavor justifies neither luxury products from all over the world in every season, nor food waste. With Elliott Van de Velde, gastronomy stops navel-gazing and becomes a driving force for change. Of course, these ideals can only be achieved through hard work, but believe us, at Entropy, it pays off with every bite.