What fresh fish does Chez Clément serve?

Fresh fish is one of the strong axes of Chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy's kitchen at Chez Clément. The signature dish, the one identified across thirty years of Vincent's tenure as the technical and emotional centrepiece of his work, is the cabillaud florentine, or cabillaud florentine. The recipe lays a generous fillet of cod, poached or steamed just to the point where the flesh begins to flake, on a bed of wilted spinach (the « florentine » bed), and finishes the dish with a mornay sauce (béchamel enriched with Gruyère or another cooked cheese) gratinéed under the salamander until golden. The result is a precise interplay of soft flesh, herbaceous spinach, creamy sauce and a faintly caramelised crust.

Beyond cod, the broader Belgian brasserie fresh fish repertoire is built around the North Sea catch, sole (one of the great Belgian luxuries, often presented Meunière with brown butter and lemon, or simply grilled), seabass (bar, increasingly central to modern Belgian menus), bream (dorade), turbot (tu rbot, perhaps the noblest of the round North Sea fish), and pollock (lieu, the everyday cousin of cod). Eels still appear in their classical green-sauce preparation. Plaice (carrelet) and skate (raie) round out the everyday repertoire on a more accessible basis. The exact daily list of fish available at Chez Clément rotates with the catch and the kitchen's purchasing.

The sourcing logic for a Belgian bourgeois brasserie of Chez Clément's identity (founded in 1858, brigade of thirty-two, more than 1,400 covers a week) is to lean on the Belgian North Sea coast where possible, the auctions of Zeebrugge, Ostend and Nieuwpoort, with grey shrimp from Oostduinkerke, and to fill in with European waters for the noble species. Vincent's training (CERIA, Étangs Mellaerts, Thoumieux, Le Méridien, Le Trèfle à 4) gives the kitchen the technical depth to handle fish at the level the bourgeois brasserie format demands.

For pairings, fresh fish at Chez Clément pairs naturally with the wine cellar's white selection. Cabillaud florentine accepts a Burgundian Chardonnay (Saint-Véran, Mâcon), a Pessac-Léognan blanc, or a Loire Sauvignon depending on the day. Sole Meunière asks for a more aristocratic Chardonnay (Meursault, Chablis). Sea bass works with a wide range, from a Provence rosé in summer to a Pessac-Léognan blanc year-round. The exact fresh fish of the day is announced in the dining room or written on the daily slate.