Zilte: Viki Geunes’ Three-Michelin-Starred Restaurant High Above Antwerp

The name was born on a honeymoon. Viki Geunes and Viviane Plaquet were in South Africa, at that point in life when everything still feels tender and unpredictable. At some moment during the trip, he ordered oysters to enjoy with his wife, and there, in that almost cinematic simplicity, the word appeared that would later become the core of an entire life: Zilte. Brine. The taste of the sea as it lingers on the lips. It is a small word, almost physical in its immediacy, which years later would come to carry the story of two people and of one of Europe’s most discussed gastronomic restaurants, now holder of three Michelin stars.

Viki Geunes has one of those trajectories that ultimately explains a great deal about his cooking, and I say that with complete confidence. Of course I knew who he was, had followed his career and was familiar with his work, but I went to Zilte deliberately unprepared, without looking up further details online, because I wanted to leave space for the meal itself to speak to me. He studied industrial sciences, and that seems to show in the way he organises his thinking: with formidable structure and precision, but also with a need to understand how something works in depth before he can make it his own. Self-taught, stubborn in the best possible sense, and driven by an almost handmade faith in what he and Viviane had imagined, he opened ’t Zilte in Mol in 1996. From there, he began building a cuisine that grew alongside him, from its early experimental steps to its present evolution.

What I particularly liked was the way his dishes seem to carry the mind of an engineer while also preserving the memory of a man still connected to that first moment of emotion in South Africa, the one that set everything in motion. He is drawn to clean lines, precise sauces and seafood that, in his hands, can play both contrasting and leading roles. He works with the interplay of temperatures and textures, and with the sense that the flavour reaching the guest should be immediate, direct and quietly disarming.

The first Michelin star came in 2004, the second in 2008, and in 2009 Geunes was named Chef of the Year by Gault & Millau. In 2011, following the opening of MAS, the restaurant moved to the top of the museum, high above Antwerp, to a location that seems almost tailor-made for his culinary temperament. Below lies the city; beyond it, the port, the water, the cranes and that northern clarity which, to my eyes, has always felt both austere and poetic. After its 2020 renovation, the dining room left behind the older image of ’t Zilte and became far more striking. Then, in 2021, at a time when gastronomy itself seemed almost frozen, the third Michelin star arrived. The pandemic had left dining rooms empty, restaurants were living under constant restrictions, and the idea of a major distinction felt almost detached from the reality of the moment. And yet Zilte reached the summit. Unexpected in the atmosphere of that particular year, perhaps, but deeply logical when one considers the path that had led there: 25 years of work, persistence and evolution, and a cuisine that had reached its most mature expression.

On Zilte’s menu, the sea is present almost everywhere. Sometimes it takes the lead, sometimes it acts as a foundation, and sometimes it simply seasons the thinking behind a dish. This is perhaps the most personal quality in Viki Geunes’ cooking: the technical finesse of someone who works with absolute precision, combined with a maritime memory that seems to run through his entire culinary being. The sweetbread was a signpost to that way of thinking. It was paired with corn, truffle, sweet potato and North Sea crab: a combination that could easily have become verbose, but in Geunes’ hands the result was something quite remarkable. It also served as a reminder that the sea finds its way even into his most earthbound dishes. The wagyu, meanwhile, takes you somewhere else. Around a piece of beef with a distinct personality came artichoke, octopus, smoked hay and pine nut. It was cooked with formidable accuracy, with a remarkably refined texture and that silken intramuscular fat spreading across the palate to give the meat a delicate depth. It is a dish that sums up Zilte rather well: immense technique, considerable thought, precision in the choice of ingredients, the sea in the background, and an attempt to bring everything together within a highly demanding composition.

At this level, of course, Zilte also gains a great deal from Aaron Moeraert. The restaurant’s Head Sommelier has a way of reading both the table and Viki Geunes’ cooking that one encounters only in truly great restaurants. He also has a fascinating wine list at his disposal. I will return to Aaron in greater detail in a future feature on some of Europe’s finest sommeliers.

To close, it is worth saying something about Gitte Geunes too, because at Zilte the sense of family is also felt in the dining room. Gitte has an effortless presence in service, the kind that immediately changes the atmosphere of a great restaurant. She moves naturally, speaks with grace and, together with her mother, helps conduct Zilte’s choreography, bringing to the table a more personal, almost familial elegance.

Behind the precision, the technique and the three Michelin stars, there is a family that has grown alongside Zilte. Perhaps that is its most human quality: a word that began with the brine of an oyster and became a shared life.

Info: www.zilte.be