At 28, Alexandre Ciriello is an up-and-coming young chef from Wallonia. After making a name for himself on the Objectif Top Chef competition, he won over the inspectors of the Gault&Millau guide with the cuisine he offers at his L'Horizon restaurant in Chaumont-Gistoux. He will be officiating in the Belgian pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka during Walloon Week from May 25 to 30.
Alexandre Ciriello has been immersed in cooking since childhood. His parents owned a restaurant called “Le Caprice” in Wavre. “A bit lazily, I started hotel school. I had difficulties at school, so going to hotel school was quite easy for me. I went to my parents' restaurant almost every day. I finally got hooked on the job, but I knew I didn't want to do the same thing as my parents. They had a fairly classic Franco-Italian restaurant,” explains Alexandre Ciriello, 28.
So he set off to train with top chefs in Michelin-starred establishments. “I got a taste for it,” smiles the man who has worked with Yves Mattagne (Sea Grill), Peter Goossens (Hof Van Cleve) and Maxime Colin (D'Oude Pastorie). In 2017, he took part in the TV culinary competition “Objectif Top Chef”, in which chef Philippe Etchebest selected a candidate to join his brigade in the Top Chef competition. Alexandre Ciriello finishes third. At the same time, he and his parents bought L'Horizon, a restaurant in Chaumont-Gistoux. He was soon recognized by the famous Gault&Millau guide. In 2018, he was named “Discovery of the Year”, while at the end of 2022, he was named “Young Chef of the Year 2023”.
Today, he will be cooking throughout Walloon Week in the Belgian pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. “I'll be offering different formulas depending on the event. From walking dinners to sit-down dinners, from 200 people to 35,” he explains. For the occasion, he will be offering a fusion cuisine between Wallonia and Japan. “I didn't want to do a Walloon recipe. I'm not interested in showing what Wallonia has done in the past. We need to look at things in a more modern way, because Wallonia is a region on the move,” he explains.
He dreams of a star
Alexandre Ciriello describes his cuisine as “curious”. “I don't hesitate to go looking for things that are a bit far-fetched, or to make daring pairings. My cooking never stops evolving. I like to use techniques I've learned abroad. At the restaurant, we offer a special formula: we propose a journey. Each guest can travel to different destinations and compose his or her own journey as he or she sees fit,” explains L'Horizon's chef. His signature dish is a Chaumont-Gistoux tartlet with crab, sea urchin and caviar.
Recognized by the Gault&Millau guide, Alexandre Ciriello has yet to win the honors of Michelin, the other culinary guide. “The Gault&Millau awards are proof that hard work pays off. It's a reward for my high standards and a source of pride to be supported. I hope that Michelin will one day walk through the restaurant door to judge us. It's important if I want to expand internationally. Gault&Millau is widely read in Belgium. But in Japan, the benchmark is whether you have a Michelin star. That's the only thing that counts. And today, it's a string that's missing from my bow”, he concludes.
Isabelle Anneet (AWEX)
