Interview with Belgian chef Lieven Lootens

Stuart Forster conducts an interview with Belgian chef Lieven Lootens in Ghent, Belgium.

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Please note: Naturell, the Ghent restaurant where this interview took place, is now permanently closed.

I met chef Lieven Lootens at Naturell, his now closed city centre restaurant in Ghent. Lootens is also the proprietor of ‘t Aards Paradijs, which was named Belgium’s best vegetable restaurant in 2011 and the best for culinary flowers in 2018.

“I learnt how to cook when I was 10 or 12 years old,” he told me, chuckling while explaining how he once made ice cream for the whole terrace while still a lad. He subsequently entered the restaurant business with his father.

Egg yolk and cauliflower foam served at Restaurant Naturell in Ghent, Belgium
Egg yolk and cauliflower foam served at Naturell in Ghent.



Interview with Lieven Lootens

“I liked the vibe of the city…I wanted to take over the restaurant from my father when I was about 20 years old. He said no, I was too young. He said, ‘A city has too much competition. You have to go into the countryside and then you can do what you want.’”

Lieven’s countryside fine-dining restaurant, ‘t Aards Paradijs, is in Nevele-Merendree, a little over 20 minutes’ drive north-west of Ghent. That business has been operating since the early-1990s.

Belgian chef Lieven Lootens in the kitchen of Naturell restaurant in Ghent, Belgium
Chef Lieven Lootens in the kitchen of Naturell.
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A fine-dining restaurant in Belgium

Initially, Lootens wanted diners to watch a film and listen to music while dining at Naturell. The restaurant seated up to 40 diners and served a seasonal tasting menu or a 10-course signature menu.

“I adore sounds and music that fits with a dish. We started here, for the first two or three months, with a movie that goes with the plates. Every plate had its own story and own little movie of a few minutes. At first, I wanted to make it a restaurant of all senses,” explained the chef.

“For some people, it was a little bit too far. Also, it was very new. It was really hard to synchronise it with people coming in,” he added. Some of the restaurant’s patrons had issues finding parking spots while others spent a few minutes longer than anticipated in bars.

“In the city, people have their own way to have an evening…it was very complicated for people to watch, listen and eat. It was too much. Also, the movies were intensive to make; costing a lot of time, effort and money. Maybe that will come back, when I have a restaurant that’s even bigger and when we can have a little more of a cinema setting,” said Lootens, whose culinary presentation is a form of edible art.

He pointed out that tables in Naturell are orientated towards the open kitchen. He explained that it was his intention to have diners looking towards the kitchen and a screen. “I let it go because I heard people want to have their own conversations and don’t want to be disturbed,” he reflected.

Fish served with vegetables and sauce, a dish created in the kitchen of Restaurant Naturell in Ghent, Belgium.
Fish served with vegetables and sauce.

Opening Naturell in Ghent

Lootens explained that it took about a year to open Naturell, on a corner location at the Appelbrugparkje. Two restaurants previously stood on the site.

“You need a good team. That’s the main part. You need a good team that you can trust and gives you the trust,” he explained. “It’s working quite well,” he added. The restaurant was busy and the people around me were clearly happy with the food being served.

Roast partridge with celeriac and vegetables, a dish created by Chef Lieven Lootens and his team.
Roast partridge with celeriac and vegetables served at Naturell.

“I have always been interested in smells that go with a meal…I love to get smells into the menu,” he explains. “We have some smells that we integrate in the menu and stories that we tell about where the food comes from. The waiter will tell how the chef was walking about the beach, he saw this and that, and that’s why he made this plate. So, it’s just the story we tell and leave it with people’s imagination,” said Lootens.

The menu changed every six weeks or so, reflecting the products of the season.

“I try to find everything from not too far away. But if there’s a carrot that’s better in Holland then we get them in Holland. I don’t want to have a fish from the other side of the world; that I don’t do. We try to get our ingredients as local as possible,” he explained.

Bone marrow with Bellota and Pata Negra ham, one of Belgian chef Lieven Looten's creative dishes.
Bone marrow with Bellota and Pata Negra ham.

Dishes of vegetables

Vegetables play an important role in chef Lieven Lootens’ cuisine.

“I was named the best vegetable chef in Belgium…I try to make dishes starting with vegetables. They are really very seasonal; more than fish and meat, I think,” said Lootens.

“I think they are more inspiring for me because they have more beautiful colours and textures, and more differences in shapes. I really have something with vegetables and herbs, things that grow in my own garden. We go outside in the countryside, at home, see those herbs and smell them. By the smell only you get teased by your senses. You associate them with other vegetables or the meat that you have. From there on you start building those flavours together. That’s how I create dishes when I have products from the season and can feel it, taste it and smell it,” he explained with passion.

Salad and seafood served in a ceramic bowl, one of the creations of Flemish chef Lieven Lootens.
Salad and seafood served in a ceramic bowl, one of the creations of Flemish chef Lieven Lootens. 

I asked about the chefs that have inspired him.

“It’s more the people who produce than inspire me,” answered Lootens. “They have so much love for the things that they work with. I have somebody who delivers spices and very fresh herbs. He tells me about the aromas that I can find. Then I discover more in that product, get inspired and create.”

“I think it’s very personal how you interpret nature and how you react and respond to what you see. I don’t want to be inspired by the thoughts of other people, only the products,” he added.

Saint Jacques scallop served in a shell with salad.
Saint Jacques scallop served in a shell with salad.



Inspired by artists

Lootens then discussed how he finds artists who do things that have never been done before inspirational.

“I always try to search for new things. Sometimes I’m satisfied. Mostly I’m not. When I am satisfied, I can keep a dish for a longer time. You should not rest because everything is possible to make better. I think work is never finished,” he said.

“When you think you know a lot you are just at the beginning. Because then there is so much more to discover,” commented Lootens before heading back into Naturell’s open kitchen.

Dessert with a chocolate hand and mango in Belgium
Dessert with a chocolate hand and mango in Belgium



‘t Aards Paradijs in Deinze

Keen to taste Lieven Lootens’ cuisine?  His restaurant ‘t Aards Paradijs is at Merendreedorp 65 in Nevele-Merendree (tel. +32 9 371 5756)

You can see ‘t Aards Paradijs location on the map below:

Google Map showing ‘t Aards Paradijs in Nevele-Merendree, Belgium.

Further information

Find out more about things to do in Ghent on the Visit Ghent and Visit Flanders websites.




Stuart Forster, the author of this post, is an award-winning travel and food writer. His work has been published by The Independent, BBC Good Food and Great British Chefs.

Thank you for visiting Go Eat Do and reading this interview with Belgian chef Lieven Lootens. If you enjoy Belgian cuisine, you may also enjoy this post about Oyster Sunday in Ghent.

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This interview was originally published on Go Eat Do on 5th January 2019. It has been updated to make clear that Naturell is no longer open for business.

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