Bon Bon, an institution on the Brussels culinary scene, will be closing its doors on 30 June this year after 20 years, its chef Christophe Hardiquest announced on Monday.
"After 20 years behind the stoves in the kitchen of my restaurant Bon Bon, 20 years of 200% personnel investment every day, it’s time for me to make a turn in my life and my career," he wrote in a statement on Instagram.
He said that the "strange times we have been living in," led him to accelerate his wishes and visions, adding that the closing of the restaurant "is not an end, but the beginning of a new chapter."
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The two-star Michelin restaurant Bon Bon is located on the Avenue de Tervuren in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre, near the Forêt de Soignes, and is one of the most celebrated restaurants in Brussels. It was awarded a 19.5/20 by Gault et Millau, the French restaurant guide.
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Hardiquest, whose late Flemish grandmother taught him how to cook, is famed for using modern techniques to completely transform traditional Belgian recipes. He organises "Friday Tests," asking a staff member to create a new dish to develop their creativity every Friday night.
In the kitchen, he employed people from 14 different nationalities. "I’m very open as a citizen of the world. I don’t want to work with only Belgians," he told The Brussels Times. At the time, he said he was "looking for a new way to cook for the next ten years. "Not a pop-up, not really another restaurant. Something different.”
The restaurant is famed for applying modern techniques to classic dishes. Credit: Bon Bon
The chef said he will not be stopping with cooking, but that it remains a surprise even to him how he will continue to do so in the future.
