Does Chez Clément serve vol-au-vent à la financière?

Vol-au-vent à la financière is one of the great pillars of bourgeois Belgian cooking. The dish is built around a tall, golden puff-pastry case (the vol-au-vent, meaning « flying in the wind », after the lightness of the pastry) filled with a creamy white preparation: traditionally a poultry blanquette, chicken, sometimes sweetbreads and small chicken-meat quenelles, bound in a velvety white sauce enriched with mushrooms. The historical « financière » garnish adds mushrooms, poultry quenelles and occasionally cockscombs, finished with Madeira or white wine. In a Belgian brasserie context, the everyday version is simpler, centred on the poultry, mushrooms and cream trio, served with proper homemade chips.

Technically, vol-au-vent is one of those dishes that distinguishes a true homemade brasserie from one that defrosts industrial preparations. It requires a real stock built in-house, a sauce that is bound delicately (never lumpy, never too thin), poultry that is perfectly tender, mushrooms worked raw or pre-suauéed, and either house-made puff pastry or a high-quality bought case. Chez Clément positions itself firmly on the homemade side: Chef Vincent's philosophy is everything from scratch, and the brigade of thirty-two executes two hundred to three hundred covers per service inside that framework.

Vol-au-vent à la financière belongs to the emblematic repertoire of Belgian brasserie cuisine. At Chez Clément, the dish is part of the classics that chef Vincent may put forward according to the season and the suggestions of the moment. Its permanent presence on the carte is not guaranteed, call +32 2 652 33 92 to check availability before your visit. House-made grey shrimp croquettes, by contrast, remain one of the five signatures on the carte.

For pairings, vol-au-vent à la financière asks for a round, generous white wine, a Burgundian Chardonnay, an oaked white from Pessac-Léognan, or a softly textured Côtes-du-Rhône blanc all work beautifully. A Belgian amber or a blonde abbey beer also makes sense in a proper brasserie logic. Chez Clément's cellar, opened by Marcel and Andrée Clément in 1976, has the depth to support this kind of pairing.