Wim Schildermans

The Climb

The chef's role at JER has been the fixed point since 2014, and Wim Schildermans has used it to show how a nonstandard route can still produce disciplined work. Evening classes instead of a classical culinary education gave shape to his approach, and that route it explains the tone of the kitchen: direct, steady, and built through persistence rather than institutional polish. The result is a career line that reads less like a conventional ascent than a sustained practice. At JER, that background remains visible in the way the work is presented. Since 2014, Schildermans has held the chef role with a manner that avoids theatrics and keeps the focus on the craft itself. The story is not padded out with extra framing; it is defined by the fact of the work and the kind of life that stays close to it.

Today

The present-tense profile is built around directness. In Wim Schildermans’s case, that means a way of cooking that is clear rather than elaborate, and a professional identity that does not separate the kitchen from the rest of life. The work is grounded in routine, in family, and in the habits that come from choosing a path outside the standard training model. That proximity is the key detail. “Here I can often be found with my family” is not a decorative line; it explains the scale at which the work is lived. For Schildermans, cooking sits inside daily life, not above it. The craft is carried forward through that closeness.

In Their Words “Here I can often be found with my family.” “Evening classes instead of a classical culinary education gave shape to my cooking.”