Are desserts homemade at Brasserie Chez Clément?

For a curious British visitor at the end of a long brasserie meal, the dessert moment is its own ritual, a final test of whether the kitchen took the same care from start to finish. At Chez Clément, the pastry side of the brigade falls inside Vincent Frédéric De Laloy's everything-made-in-house philosophy. Dessert components, crémeux, mousses, custards, pastry doughs, ice cream and sorbet bases, finishing touches, are produced on site rather than bought ready-made.

The dessert card is then complemented by tarts from Les Tartes de Chaumont-Gistoux, the partner pastry maker located in Chaumont-Gistoux, a few kilometres from the brasserie. This is a deliberate partner-specialist choice, in the same logic that drives the bread partnership with Au Petit Fils: rather than running a full pastry operation parallel to the main brigade, the kitchen brings in a dedicated tart-maker whose entire craft is focused on this register. The result is a dessert card that combines in-house production with one of the best-known tart specialists in the area.

Vincent inherited this rigour from his grandfather, a Michelin-starred chef at the restaurant Chez Grégoire in the 1960s, and consolidated it through his classical CERIA training in Brussels. The Belgian brasserie dessert repertoire is itself a strong tradition: dame blanche, profiteroles, mousse au chocolat, crémeux to seasonal fruit accompaniments, ice creams paired with hot accompaniments, classical fruit-based desserts. The carte rotates partly with the seasons, spring desserts lean on fresh fruit, autumn desserts use the deeper register of caramel, chocolate and seasonal fruits, while the Chaumont-Gistoux tarts add a steady artisanal layer.

For a regular at the brasserie, the dessert moment is often associated with the warm, family-friendly atmosphere that defines the place. Marie and Gilles Verleyen, the fifth-generation owners since 2021 who were married in the brasserie's own conservatory, run the house in a way that gives weight to these end-of-meal moments. The dessert is not an afterthought, it is part of the brasserie's identity from 1858 to today.