Does Chez Clément offer game in autumn?

Autumn game is one of the great calendar moments of a Belgian bourgeois brasserie. The season opens in September with the early game, peaks through October and November, and runs until the end of January depending on the species. The Belgian and broader Ardennes hunting territory provides venison (chevreuil, red deer), wild boar (sanglier), pheasant (faisan), hare (lièvre), partridge, and occasionally guinea-fowl and wild duck. For a Belgian brasserie diner, this autumn shift is one of the year's most anticipated table moments.

The classic preparations are deeply technical and require a real kitchen. Venison saddle is roasted pink and served with a sauce grand-veneur (a peppery reduction of the marinade, often with redcurrant or blackcurrant), wild boar is slow-braised in red wine, pheasant is cooked en cocotte with cabbage or chestnuts, hare is treated à la royale, one of the most demanding preparations of French-Belgian classical cuisine, with a slow braise and a sauce thickened with foie gras and blood. The accompaniments are equally codified: red cabbage, chestnut purée, root vegetables, mushrooms (the autumn cep, the chanterelle), pear poached in red wine, cranberry or blackcurrant compote.

At Chez Clément, autumn game is a long-standing seasonal classic of the carte, alongside spring asparagus and the mussels and fries season. The kitchen, led by Chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy for thirty years under a fully-homemade policy, has the brigade depth (thirty-two staff) to handle these labour-intensive preparations across two hundred to three hundred covers a service. The autumn game menu is announced when the season opens and runs alongside the year-round classics.

For pairings, autumn game asks for serious red wines. The classical anchor is Bordeaux: a Pauillac for the most structured cuts (saddle of venison, wild boar), a Saint-Émilion or Pomerol for the rounder Merlot-friendly preparations (pheasant in cabbage, hare in red wine). Burgundy is the noble alternative for the more delicate cuts (partridge, young pheasant). On the Belgian beer side, the Chimay Blue (trappist) on Chez Clément's list provides the brewer-leaning pairing. The wine cellar at Chez Clément, opened in 1976 by Marcel and Andrée Clément with a strong Bordeaux accent, is built precisely for this kind of season.