Adventurous, Latin American-inspired cuisine in the historic centre of Ghent
In recent years, Ghent has secured itself as a culinary capital with an abundance of great quality and innovative restaurants to choose from. For its relatively small size, the city has more than its fair share of Michelin-grade and highly-acclaimed eateries and one such example is Heritage, located in Patershol – the beating heart of Ghent’s food scene.
Following a morning of wandering the cobbled streets of the city in some rare winter sunshine, we stopped by Heritage for Saturday lunch. Its interior is unpretentious and welcoming, with simple design that keeps focus on the building’s traditional Belgian architecture.
From the kitchen, visible to diners behind glass, waft aromas from a different continent. This is the work of chef Nadine Zimmerman, who joins Heritage after stints in Michelin-starred kitchens in Germany, France and Belgium.
It’s Nadine’s personal culinary experiences in Peru that serve as influence and bring together the unique combination of European ingredients and Latin American flavours at Heritage.
At Heritage, diners are encouraged to trust Nadine’s expertise with the choice of a chef suggestion menu – available as a fish or vegetarian option. The sensible approach would have been to order one of each to get the full experience, but had you experienced the scents of the fish menu from the kitchen, you wouldn’t have judged our ordering two of the same.
Even so, innovative use of vegetables is abundant throughout both menus. The ‘First Kiss’ menu (aptly named as we enjoyed it on Valentine’s weekend) kicks off with an amuse-bouche mini tortilla combining the Latin chocolate and tang of molé and mango with carrots and cress.
Next, a personal favourite: arepas – bland when done badly and heavenly when done well. This incarnation was the latter – perfectly cooked and partnered with a mango chimichurri salsa.
Paying tribute to a continent with such wealth of climate and ingredients, the drinks menu at Heritage is not merely an accompaniment but an important feature of the menu.
The menu comes with an optional wine pairing specially chosen to match the complex flavours of the food. This time we were more tactical with our choices, sampling all four options: a dry Chilean sauvignon, a Spanish rosé, and two Argentine torrontés wines – one white, one orange.
The next course was a refreshing ceviche of beetroot, goat’s cheese, yellow tomatoes and almonds, followed by a main course that we enjoyed so much we didn’t even waste time taking pictures: a meaty slab of fish, perfectly falling off the bones and accompanied by cabbage and green molé.
Dessert combined the malted sweetness of dulce de leche with the tropical freshness of coconut – a tour of the mountains and coastlines of South America to finish off our culinary voyage.
Heritage is modern, surprising and not afraid to take risks, and Chef Nadine Zimmermann brings the best of latin cooking and flavours to this hidden corner of Patershol. A deviation from the heaviness of traditional Belgian cooking, it’s fresh and light and will leave you plenty of room for that excellent dessert.
Reserve your table online.
Fish Menu: €56/Accompanying Wines €27
Veggie Menu: €54/Accompanying Wines €27
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