Sander Goossens

Sander Goossens


Pastry chef at Domestic
Antwerp, Belgium

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Pastry chef at Domestic – Antwerp, Belgium Sander Goossens

"My entire adolescence was about rebellion. I didn’t always feel in the right place… So, turning 15, I started in pastry school, but wasn’t really passionate about it… nor even good at it. I loved life too much (laughs)… Finally around my 19th birthday, I realized that I needed to do something with life. So from one day to the next, I started working in a pastry shop to learn the trade. After that I worked Espai Sucre, Pierre Gagnaire, …

A year ago I became the pastry chef for Domestic in Antwerp. With that beautiful shop, we go back to real craftsmanship. A sort of minimal pastry. No décor. No unnecessary ornaments. Just straightforward flavours, but craftly and freshly made every day…

In my patisserie, you can still find traces of that rebellion back. Yet, very subtly in the flavours. I love to bring flavours such as beetroot, chicory or smoky accents that make it slightly exciting without becoming dominant.

Chocolate to me should be as pure as possible, yet I want to surround it with contrasting flavours. I love working with chocolates with high cocoa content and spicy notes such as Madagascar, or with ingredients such as smoked cocoa nibs. Chocolate is also a very precious ingredient. It will become very exclusive again in the years to come, just like almonds. Many pastry chefs still take chocolate for granted, yet I want to build a tension around it, and use its sensational appeal…”

"I use mixologist influences in my work. That really works for me. I don’t think I could achieve the same thing staying within the boundaries of the classic patissiers."

 

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