Roland Debuyst

At Ceria, Roland Debuyst trained in the basics that would keep recurring through the rest of his work: discipline, movement, and the ability to build a project from the ground up. That foundation matters in hospitality, where a cook’s range often extends beyond the stove and into the structure of the room, the pace of service, and the shape of the offer. From 1993, Orangeraie sat under his care as both owner and chef.

That combination asks for two sets of judgment at once: the operational decisions that keep a place running, and the kitchen work that gives it its point of view. In Debuyst’s case, it marked an early period where ownership and cooking were treated as one job rather than separate lanes. By 2005, Orange Food Fashion added a founder’s role to the record. In 2007, Mariadal brasserie in Zaventem brought another shift, this time as operator.

Taken together, those roles show a working pattern familiar in the trade: move, build, adjust, then build again. The pace is less about settling than about keeping a concept alive across different settings. In 2015, BeBurger brought Debuyst into a co-founder position, which placed him inside a shared model of making rather than a solo one. The following year, Brasserie Alfons became another founder-led project, and in 2017 he returned to the pass as chef at Bistro R in Nossegem. Across those moves, Roland Debuyst kept one throughline intact: kitchen work, ownership, and concept-building were never far apart.

He founded Brasserie Alfons.