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Key Takeaways Training under Michelin-starred chefs in Belgium taught Bonnarens the value of discipline, composure and mastering the basics.
Years of global kitchen experience, combined with becoming a father, shaped Bonnarens’ belief in trusting his team, giving them responsibility and helping cooks grow through real ownership.
Chef Bert Bonnarens fell in love with food long before he ever put on a chef’s jacket.
He grew up in the kitchen helping his grandmother and mother cook. “I was always hungry,” he says with a laugh. When he realized high school didn’t suit him, and he needed something more hands-on, a six-year culinary program in Belgium became the obvious choice.
It functioned more like an academy than a traditional classroom, with rotations through bakery, butchery and hotel classes covering cooking, serving and management.
“They train you like the military,” Bonnarens says. “Don’t walk like that, don’t do this.” If you made it through the first two years, you chose your direction and committed to the craft.
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Bonnarens thrived. His internships took him to the Belgian coast, where a chef with two Michelin stars demanded precision from every station.
Then he went to Bruges, where he cooked under the chef many consider the godfather of Belgian cuisine, a man who held three Michelin stars for 20 years.
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