Laurence De Smet becomes the first woman to be crowned First Chef of Belgium 2025
Her sense of perfectionism and her two months of intensive preparation earned sous chef Laurence De Smet (24) from the two-star restaurant Hof van Cleve in Kruisem victory at the culinary mastery competition First Chef of Belgium 2025 in Ghent. She is also the first woman to have won that competition.
By early 2024, Laurence knew that in November, she would be up against four other top contenders in Belgian gastronomy at the finals of the prestigious culinary competition First Chef of Belgium 2025. The jury, consisting of the star chefs from Zilte in Antwerp and La Paix in Anderlecht, kept a very close eye as the finalists prepared the three specified dishes and turned them into gastronomic masterpieces. First came the appetiser of squid, algae flan and a lobster vinaigrette, followed by the main course of Belgian pork back with stuffed cabbage and a sauce of the chef's choice, and finally the dessert of crêpe soufflée with citrus fruits. Laurence, with the help of her commis chef Marcus Van Wonterghem, successfully impressed the judges with her technical perfection, her refined balance of flavours and her attention to detail.
The 2025 competition to become First Chef of Belgium is unique, given the fact that so far, it is the only time that a female chef has been accorded that honour. It's worth emphasising, however, that it is talent, not gender, that determines which of the chefs goes home with the title. The competition was founded in 1952 by asbl Club Prosper Montagné, which bears the name of the famous French chef de cuisine (°1865 - †1948), whose Burgundian motto was ‘Cooking, that's my life’.