When Scottish dippy ditster Donovan was cooing “they call me mellow yellow, quite rightly” in the groovy sixties, chef Gert de Mangeleer and sommelier Joachim Boudens were too far out in the karma sphere, light years from earth, waiting to be reincarnated as Belgium’s coolest culinary duo, to be infected by all that hippy summer of love hoopla that really hasn’t aged well and tastes worse. So instead of mellow yellow their pop-up restaurant in Brugge is more opulent orange. An orange to make an oligarch kick a hole in a stained glass window (to update and secularize the famous Richard Chandler quote to our neo-religious age).

By the end of the month, 15,000 bottoms will have sat down in their three month yellow pop-up yellowbrugge next door to a pizzeria and purveyors of medieval Flemish lace made in China. 15,000 tongues will have been tantalised by the klitser of a la minute gedraaid vanille-ijs with its secret ingredient – Illy coffee (above). 15,000 hearts will have been stolen by the head waiter (below)

or sommelier Dries, who is all of 20 years old. In the USA, it would be illegal for Dries to drink even. Thank heavens we’re not in Kansas, Dorothy!

15,000 tummies will have been tickled with squashed pig heads, lauwe kingkrabpoten, geklakte paling met gesmolten ganzenlever and Zeeuwse kokkels, a-live, a-live o. For this is the boere do Babette’s feast. The food is rustic with a capital R and has a good chance of replacing Danish flotsam and jetsam as the next wave of culinary fashion. Which is the biggest culinary scam since the last one.

After all the duo won a Michelin star every two years until plateauing at 3, the maximum, in their Hertog Jan bistro-cum-pocket sized restaurant down the road. While SA restaurants reverse out of the San Pellegrino gastronomic hall of fame at speed (down to two in the Top 100 this year), a leaf should be taken out of Gert’s Yellow Book and nose to tail fare re-introduced onto the SA restaurant scene. Time to give foams the flick and nudge nems into the bin. Junk the jus and crash the cook-in-a-bag machine (sous vide).

Save on kitty litter with copies of Eat Out magazine. SMS Robertson’s Spices that you’ll use spices imported from India and bought in the BoKaap until they stop funding MasterchefSA and visit ouma to photocopy her recipe book.