i. Biography
Executive Chef Thierry Strauven’s formation sits inside the working memory of Au Vieux Saint Martin in Brussels, Belgium, a house where continuity is maintained through service rather than display. The central reference is filet américain, a preparation the restaurant menu traces to Joseph Niels in 1924. In Strauven’s kitchen, that inheritance is handled as a daily technical obligation: seasoning, texture, timing, and sauce have to return the dish to its expected measure. The work keeps a Brussels specialty aligned with its original mark while carrying a French Bistro repertoire with Belgian inflection.
The Route
The Executive Chef role at Au Vieux Saint Martin is a stewardship position, and Thierry Strauven holds it in the present tense through the precision and poise required by the house. A restaurant closely identified with one signature preparation gives the chef a narrow margin for drift. The work is not built around constant reinvention, but around protecting a standard guests already know. Strauven’s path is therefore written through repetition: the same address, the same expectations, and the same Brussels appetite for a dish whose identity depends on exactness.
The Work Today
The kitchen at Au Vieux Saint Martin works in a register of French Bistro classics with Belgian inflection and Brussels specialities, with Thierry Strauven leading that daily production. Filet américain remains the defining preparation. Made in his kitchen about a hundred times per day, it is both service item and act of preservation. Each plate returns to the same technical questions: whether the seasoning lands cleanly, whether the texture holds, whether the timing protects freshness, and whether the house sauce brings the preparation back to its mark. The point is not novelty, but fidelity sharpened by repetition. The broader bistro repertoire places the cooking in a specific Brussels register. French form and Belgian taste are not treated as separate lanes; they meet through the daily menu and the city’s specialities. The food depends on balance, proportion, and a clear sense of what the house is expected to deliver. Repetition at this volume is a craft problem. A dish made so often can flatten into routine unless attention is rebuilt service by service. Strauven’s kitchen treats endurance as active work: standards carried through hands, habits, and daily correction.
Accolades
The clearest recognition attached to Strauven’s kitchen is the endurance of Au Vieux Saint Martin’s filet américain. That recognition is practical rather than ceremonial. Guests return to a Brussels address for a preparation whose proportions are protected and whose standard is explicitly tied to the original. In a trade often pulled toward the new, the achievement here is continuity: keeping a much-loved dish exacting, recognizable, and worth returning for.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Thierry
What role does Thierry Strauven hold?
Thierry Strauven is Executive Chef of Au Vieux Saint Martin.
What is Thierry Strauven known for?
Filet américain at Au Vieux Saint Martin.
