L'Air du Temps - Liernu, Belgium

Sunday lunch @ L'Air du Temps by chef Sang-Hoon Degeimbre

We had lunch this Sunday 28 April at two Michelin starred L'Air du Temps. The restaurant has moved to a farm in Liernu this past January, surrounded by fields and with gardens for growing veggies and rare herbs. There are 2 points worth noting about the chef. First, he never received a formal culinary school training; he actually began his career as a sommelier. Second, he is Korean-born, grew up in Belgium and this perhaps explains the Asian influence his cuisine.

The main restaurant building:

Inside the restaurant:

The window view from our table

Table layout

Bienvenue

There was already a super thin flatbread sitting on a piece of rock on our table. Soon after we were seated, some "water" was served, a signature welcome drink of L'Air du Temps.


Le Pain - Bread without yeast, with sesame and onion

L'Eau - Eau parfumée à la tanaisie (Tansy perfumed water) - this was an interesting discovery, although not impressive enough for us to order the water menu called "Nos créations sans alcool".

We selected the surprise April 2013 Genèses menu with 5 courses with matching wines (Nos vins d'envie). As always, She requested a pescetarian menu and the staff was totally fine with this request.

Let's begin our meal, which consisted of 4 snacks, 2 bouchées, 4 savory courses, 1 dessert and mignardises. 

Snacking

Cerfeuil tubéreux, Ponzu, Ail Noir

Céléri - Pamplemousse - Salers fumé

Choux rave - Radicchio - Anchois

Chicon - Jambon - Gruyère

Bouchées

Choux fleur - Buratta - Cacahuètes

Oeuf coque - Petit gris (de Namur) - Curcuma

While we were enjoying the second bouchée, oil, butter and salt were brought to our table, followed by bread.

Sicilian olive oil
Fleur de sel d'Angleterre
Beurre fermier - plain and with Yuzu

Bread - some might find the bottom crust too hard and slightly burnt, but we enjoyed it.

Dégustation

Now's the beginning of our 5 courses lunch.

Course 1

Tartare aux couteaux - Veau - Couteau - Bergamote
Accompanied by: Domaine de la Grand Cour Fleurie - Beaujolais - 2010

Course 1 - non-meat


A waiter brought a tree stump board  covered with a glass lid to our table. As he lifted the lid and the steam dissipated, we saw some potatoes resting on some Sphagnum moss.

A few minutes later the potatoes were served:

Pommes de terre cuites à la vapeur
Croustillant faits à base des pelures de pommes de terre
Jus vert à base de Lierre terrestre (ground ivy) et égopode (ground elder)
Fleurs: Tussilage
Feuilles: Lierre terrestre

Course 2

Crème cuite de crevettes grises - Couteaux - Concombre
Accompanied by: O.V.N.I. Objet Viticole Non Identifié J. Mourat - Loire valley - 2012

This dish was barely lukewarm. Perhaps that was the intention, but we would have preferred a warmer broth.

Course 3

Cabillaud - Miso - Crème aigre - Gomasio
Accompanied by: Santorini Argyros - Assyrtiko 2012

Course 4

Agneau de Bellac (Limousin) - Tomates - Bleu - Gingembre
Accompanied by: Chateau Musar Jeune - Bekaa valley  - 2010

What a memorable lamb dish! Plus the beautiful Lebanese red matched the lamb perfectly!

Course 4 - seafood version

Turbot - Coques - Jus vert de shiso et ricotta

Condiment: poivrons rouge, pomme, kimchi et zeste d'orange

Poudre de coraille d'homard

Achillée millefeuille

Desserts

Course 5

MMMMh! Crème catalane - Tonka - Topinambour
Accompanied by: The Madeira Collection 2 - Reserve- dry

Notice the Korean flag! This dessert was good yet, compared to what we had been eating so far,  seemed to be somewhat ordinary. I was hoping to see some more creativity here.

Course 5 - alternative dessert

Carrot-themed dessert

Carottes confites - Mousse au chocolat blanc - Orange - Chips de pommes de terre - Sucre à la coriandre.

Again, no wow factor in this dessert either. For a dessert, it was not sweet enough, the potato chips were to blame. As to the sugar, cardamom would have been a better match than coriander.

What are we to make of these 2 desserts ? While they were slightly underwhelming, we thought that perhaps that was intentional, like in Japanese and Korean restaurants, where the dessert is supposed to be a light sweet ending to the meal as opposed to the heavy desserts in French cuisine.

Mignardises

Sorbet à l'huile d'olive avec un papier de sucre autour (the lollipop)
Caramel pistache-orange (in the foil)
Un Paris-Brest revisité
Guimauve au chocolat (Chocolate marshmallow)
Biscuit (cigare) au chocolat

Verbena infusion served in an East Asian cast iron teapot.

Unlike other Michelin starred restaurants that offer 1-2 extra mignardises along with tea/coffee,  here all we got was some sugars and sweetener served in what resembled a dim sum tray. Perhaps the rock sugar counted as a sweet ? :)

As we were about to leave, a waiter accompanied us to have a look at the kitchen. It was 16:30 by then and the crew was busy plating a couple of desserts and cleaning had begun. Chef Sang-Hoon saw us and walked over to shake our hands and we chatted for a little while.

While one could hope for some improvements on the dessert side, overall this was such a lovely meal by an incredibly talented chef, which was totally worth the hour long car ride from Brussels. This meal was a beautiful exploration of new ingredients, textures and flavors.

L'Air du Temps

Liernu, Belgium
www.airdutemps.be