You’ve eaten hundreds of them, baked with ham, and you’ve probably never given it a second thought. Yet the chicon is a quintessentially Brussels product —so much so that the rest of the world still calls it “Belgian endive.” Its story begins in total darkness, somewhere in the northeast of the city…
A damp cellar, a revolution, and forgotten roots
The legend is too good not to tell. Around 1830, in the Josaphat Valley in Schaerbeek, a farmer left to join the troops of the Belgian Revolution and left his chicory roots in a dark, damp corner of his cellar. When he returned three weeks later, what a surprise! The roots had sprouted small, white, bitter leaves. In Dutch, they’re called “wit lof,” meaning “white leaf.” The name stuck. Another version, just as colorful, claims that the farmer was hiding his harvest to evade the taxman. Historians , however, remain cautious.
The serious version: a gardener, mushroom cellars
What is documented is the role of François Bréziers, head gardener at the Botanical Garden at the Porte de Schaerbeek in Saint-Josse—yes, today’s Botanique. Around 1840, he turned this accident into a method: growing the root in total darkness, protected from frost, in the garden’s mushroom cellars. This is known as forcing. Through selective breeding and crossbreeding, he developed the chicory as we know it today. Cultivation then spread to Schaerbeek, Evere, and Haren, and the landscape became dotted with curious mounds of corrugated iron. In 1873, a French horticulturist introduced it in Paris; in 1879, the first crate was sold at Les Halles under the name “Brussels endive.” A global misunderstanding was born.
And today? It still grows in the city
Chicory nearly disappeared from the Brussels landscape, driven out by urbanization and soil depletion. But it’s holding on: in Haren and Evere, the last open-field growers remain, and there are about a hundred hobby farmers who still force chicory at home. Since 2015, urban agriculture projects have even given it a new lease on life. The ultimate recognition: on March 15, 2021, chicory cultivation was added to the inventory of Brussels’ intangible cultural heritage, alongside fry shops, beer culture, and speculoos. A sweet victory for a vegetable born in the dark.
