Davy Schellemans

The Climb

The early shaping of Davy Schellemans’ cooking runs through In de Wulf, where he worked as sous chef, and then into Veranda in Antwerp, Belgium, where he became chef from 2011. That sequence matters less as a career ladder than as the set of rooms where the work was tightened: two kitchens, two named posts, and a practice built on discipline, precision, and a preference for clarity over flourish. The movement from one role to the next reads as steady accumulation rather than display, with repetition and attention doing the heavy lifting.

Today

Since 2016, Veranda in Antwerp, Belgium has been the place where Davy Schellemans’ approach is carried in full: straightforward cooking, service aimed at a good evening, and no interest in making the plate more complicated than it needs to be. The line he gives—“The smell of fresh tomatoes is something I will never forget.”—puts the emphasis where it sits in his kitchen: on ingredients at their most immediate, on smell, ripeness, and the kind of memory that comes from handling produce closely. The result is a style that stays grounded, unsentimental, and alert to small details.

Signature

Whole roasted carrot and focaccia are the named signatures here, and both point to a kitchen that trusts simple forms to carry the plate. Whole roasted carrot relies on finish and care rather than embellishment; focaccia brings bread into the meal as something to share and slow the table down. Taken together, the pair describes a cooking language that favors generosity, direct flavor, and restraint.

In Their Words “I don’t have a philosophy, just want to serve good food and let people have a nice evening. For me “good food” is not too complicated, neither technical but made with love.” “The smell of fresh tomatoes is something I will never forget.”

Recognition

In 2018, the restaurant was named Gastro-bistro of the year. The fit is clear: a kitchen measured by polish, by hospitality, and by the ability to deliver a good evening without loading the plate with excess.