The story
Atelier Gist, at Goeferdingeplein 21 in Goeferdinge (9500 Geraardsbergen), serves a contemporary tasting menu built around open flame. The 2026 Gault&Millau guide awarded it 15.5 points, and the restaurant also holds a 2026 Michelin Recommended listing.
Jason Spinoy is self-taught, and his cooking here runs on fire, smoke and fermentation. Before this farmhouse, he cooked at Burnt and at L'Histoire 32 in Aalst. Food is charred on a grill, cured, and fermented in the kitchen in view of the guests.
Le Fooding described a twelve-course evening that alternated mains and smaller plates. Among them were raw scallops over chawanmushi with koji and fermented celery juice, and langoustine with butternut squash prepared three ways. Lamb is smoked over the fireplace and served with truffled onion cream, morels and koji gravy. Sourdough bread from the kitchen can be taken home if ordered in advance.
A large wooden counter runs along the open kitchen, with exposed timber beams overhead. Laurence Menten leads the front of house, and Gault&Millau notes her natural wine list and relaxed hospitality.
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Intoxicating! After playing with fire at Burnt and then at L’Histoire 32 in Aalst, self-taught chef Jason Spinoy and his wife Laurence Menten have finally found their own corner of paradise. And nothing’s going to get in their way! At this old renovated farmhouse (exposed timber beams, large wooden counter bordering the open kitchen and its burning flames) in the middle of the countryside, it’s charring and fermenting a-gogo! That evening, there were 12 courses alternating between mains and appetizers: delicious crispy chicken skin spread with creamy brown butter, topped with flame-grilled wild garlic; coffee meringue with a dollop of smoked eel cream, black garlic, burnt onions and lardo di Colonnata; marvelous raw scallops reigning upon a chawanmushi bathed in a koji and fermented celery juice and dotted with finger lime; perfectly poached meagre atop grilled kohlrabi chunks and a caramelized cream, which the chef himself drizzles with an umami-esque chicken broth infused with razor clams cut with chervil oil; perfect just-cooked langoustine accompanied by butternut squash in various forms (pickled, mashed and as a kosho-flavored foam), all whipped up with an intense langoustine head juice; smoked lamb leisurely cooked over the fireplace, served with a truffled onion cream, morels and koji gravy. And for a soft landing, a milky foam hiding a wild berry sorbet and a rose and white chocolate crumble. There’s more: the excellent homemade sourdough bread is available to take-away when ordered in advance. // Alba Nebbioli
Atelier Gist defies easy categorization: in a countryside setting, Jason Spinoy gives his kitchen a contemporary flair, while Laurence Menten elevates the experience to an exceptional level with natural wines and refined hospitality. The deg...
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