L.E.S.S.

Tomaat-garnaal kept in tension

Tomaat-garnaal stays recognisable in Ruige Vermeire’s hands, then shifts. As chef at L.E.S.S. in Bruges, Ruige Vermeire works inside a sharing house where the Belgian reference can sit beside green salsa, hollandaise, amaretti, and a sharper summer edge. His line begins at Spermalie, where kitchen vocabulary becomes method, then runs through the Hertog Jan Group and into ten years as chef of LESS. Vermeire has described the move plainly: “After a wonderful career for the Hertog Jan Group, I am going my own way.” At L.E.S.S., that station is not treated as solitary authorship. The house was founded by Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens, with an acronym that reads Love, Eat, Share, Smile, and the kitchen’s logic follows the words more than the gloss. Plates arrive to be divided. The pass holds refinement from the Hertog Jan line, but the room asks for reach across the table rather than ceremony.

A sharing program with North Sea weight

The method here is a small-plate architecture with enough precision to carry a tasting menu. North Sea fish and seafood give the kitchen its local ballast, while the register moves through Asia, Peru, Korea, and Hong Kong without turning the meal into a catalogue. Michelin has pointed to steak tartare with a Korean kick, ceviche with Peruvian freshness and spice, and Hong-Kong-style young turbot; those dishes explain the range better than a manifesto. In the 2025 cooking attached to Vermeire, kersen, roomkaasijs en amaretti works as a summer dessert with heat under the sweetness. Gegrilde bavette met groene salsa en hollandaise puts grilled beef against acidity and fat. Tomaat-garnaal in een L.E.S.S.-versie keeps a Belgian staple in view while letting the venue mark it. The seven-course surprise menu sits alongside à la carte sharing, so the kitchen can move between counter snacks, a communal table, and a longer pass without changing its grammar.

The counter, the communal table, the room

The room gives the cooking a little air. L.E.S.S. moved to the centre of Bruges in 2019, into an urban space that keeps the kitchen visible and the mood casual enough for conversation. The chef’s counter matters here because the restaurant’s promise is not distance. Diners see the pass work as dishes cross from hand to hand, and the communal table keeps the meal from becoming private theatre. The design is modern and light, with chill music and a room that reads more city than postcard. Bruges can make restaurants feel trapped by setting; L.E.S.S. answers with the bench, the counter, the shared plate, and the North Sea on the pass.

A baton handed forward

Vermeire has named the handover with the same restraint as the departure: “I hand over the baton to Jens. He will ensure the same vibe and dynamism. LESS will remain as it is.” The next chapter, then, is not framed as rupture. It is continuity tested at the pass, where Jens inherits the rhythm around tomaat-garnaal in een L.E.S.S.-versie.