Walk Local with Marcelo Ballardin

This is a walk for the foodies. How could it be: after all, a star chef never stops thinking about good food! Marcelo offers you his favourite (food) addresses and all the places where he finds inspiration himself.

His name already betrays his Brazilian and Italian roots: Marcelo Ballardin (1981). He came to Belgium for love and now calls Ghent his home. The star chef put himself on the map with OAK and later also with Door73 with sous-chef Eric Ivandis. Guess what, it was only when Ballardin was 28 years old that he decided to take a cooking course in London. Ballardin was trained at the Bruges star restaurant Hertog Jan. In 2020 he also made his TV debut with Mijn Keuken Mijn Restaurant at the side of good friend Sergio Herman. 

5.1 km - 6800 steps 

To discover Ghent, we start at Kouter, where you can buy a bouquet of flowers on Sunday at the colourful flower market. On the Kouter you'll also find the Paard van Troje, book paradise pur sang, including a sunny terrace for Sunday coffees. CRU has a wide range of exclusive culinary ingredients for the best dinner parties.

If you are looking for an original gift for foodies, be sure to drop by the nostalgic shop of Tierenteyn-Verlent, where you can buy artisan mustard in authentic packaging. Time for a sweet pit stop at the popular coffee bar Take Five or at Joost Arijs, the latter being voted the best chocolatier in Flanders by the Gault & Millau in 2019. Sweeties are also better off finding their way to Nonno: nowhere in Ghent can you enjoy better stracciatella ice cream.

Palenque, a Mexican pearl hidden in a small alley near the Vrijdagmarkt, provides the perfect seasoning for your day with a fresh Pisco Sour.