Clément Colpé, a Chef in pursuit of perfection
Clément Colpé has worked as a chef on four different continents. A self-taught cook, he has never written down a single recipe – he memorises flavours and cooks by instinct. “I remember how a dish looks and how it smells. For me, cooking is about emotion, and that doesn’t come from a piece of paper.” Throughout his years and travels, one constant in his kitchen has been Debic products.
With nearly thirty years of experience, Clément now leads the kitchen at Panorama in Namur, a restaurant in Belgium. He doesn’t believe in perfection. “I prefer to talk about dedication; dedication to your ingredients, your suppliers, your guests – blended with creativity and originality. That’s how you strive for perfection without setting yourself up for disappointment. Perfection, to me, is the end of a journey, and we are always on the move.”
What Clément truly appreciates is imperfect perfection. “The kitchen I work in is a blend of gastronomy and bistro cooking. Sometimes, we serve between 600 and 1,000 covers a day. At that scale, maintaining high quality while working efficiently is an art in itself. That’s when you need perfect ingredients like Debic’s cooking cream, which you can count on every day. For example, between lunch and dinner service, we prepare the evening’s sauces and keep them warm in a bain-marie. To do that, you need a cooking cream that holds up perfectly. As a chef, it makes a huge difference when your base ingredients are consistently high-quality, dependable and stable – that’s already half the work done. Debic’s cooking cream really is made for professional hands.”
When the sensory-driven chef pours Debic cooking cream into a chicken broth, the aroma immediately brings back memories. “It’s comforting. It takes me right back to my grandmother’s kitchen. That’s the power of good flavours. And you can only achieve that with the best ingredients.”
Reducing plastic waste
When it comes to Debic products, it’s not just the taste and aroma of the cooking cream that impresses Clément. “It’s about how we can place our orders and how they’re packaged; the cream comes in two-litre bottles, reducing plastic waste in our kitchen. I also appreciate the range of options. For example, the whipping cream comes with or without sugar, giving chefs the flexibility to choose what suits their needs best. Here at Panorama we use a fair amount of the Debic Sugared cream too, especially in summer time when we serve up to 400 ice creams a day.”
When he was a young boy, Clément’s mother told him that he has more weaknesses than strengths. But his strenghts overshadowed his weaknesses. It was the Belgian Michelin-starred chef Yves Mattagne who recognised Clément's talent and took him under his wing for several years. That experience shaped him into the chef and leader he is today. “When you spend 14 hours a day, seven days a week with your team, you need to understand their personal lives. You can’t build a team without knowing the people in it. And you can have the most talented chefs in the world in your kitchen, but if they don’t work as a team, you’ll get nowhere.
You need a cooking cream that holds up perfectly.
My important job is to recognise individual potential and place people where they thrive. A chef is not a manager. A chef is a leader, someone who elevates their team. My greatest compliment is when guests visit the kitchen and can’t tell that I’m the head chef. I am one of them – we are the team.” Clément is especially proud of the young chefs he has trained, during the 20 years he was a chef in various 5-star hotels in Senegal and western Africa. “Some of them didn’t know the difference between a tomato and a cauliflower when they started. Now, they work in five-star hotel kitchens. That fills me with pride – even though they did it all on their own.”
Clément continues to strive for perfection, but he knows he will never achieve it without the right suppliers or inspired staff. “Of course, there are compromises. If you run a brasserie, you can’t charge €90 for a menu. But that doesn’t mean you have to compromise on quality. To grow as a chef, you have to invest not only in yourself, but also in your staff. They have to perform better every day, better than they did yesterday. As a chef, you are only as strong as your weakest link – whether that’s a dish or a team member. That’s why everything has to be on point. In the end, quality always makes the difference.”
Full of inspiring recipes, Cooking Cream tests and techniques!
Read the brochure!
