What has the Belgian celebrity Chef in Black in common with The Swedish Cook? Well, both are famous chefs and both make fun about the language they speak, although I am not sure which one is doing it on purpose…
"The Swedish Cook" was a funny character on the old but great Muppet Show who did everything but cooking.
Therefore they chose Sweden to be his home-country because just admit: what else do you know about Swedish cooking than what you eat in Ikea?
"The Belgian Cook"… is a chef on the AFC or Asian Food Channel. He not only knows about French food, but has his own TV show and restaurants in Singapore. His real name is Emmanuel Stroobant but he prefers to call himself Chef in Black. Look at his picture and you will understand why 
Now for the odd part: Chef in Black is a Belgian yet pronouncing "iz vordz az iv he is a real French…" .
On the show I saw yesterday he really went overboard by saying: you the Chinese and we the French are the only 2 people eating frogs…
We the French … Hello Mr. Emmanuel Stroobant: you are a Belgian you know!
What do we learn from this? That it pays off to learn French accents if you want to become a French chef…
Emmanuel Stroobant is not only a good chef, but he knows how to brand himself very well.
I mean: who will look up if you say you are a Belgian Chef? Yet you get everybody’s attention when you say you are a French Chef loving French food … especially with that peculiar English-French pronunciation of his…
Especially in Singapore: nobody can see if you look French or Belgian, so use a funny accent and pretend you are French to become a celebrity chef in black.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
I cannot imagine.. the stupidity of this article. I am assuming you are not from Europe? If you are I cannot imagine why you would even suggest his accent is fake. Belgium is made up of Flemish speaking and French speaking, and billingual. I have been to Belgium and I do not see a difference with the French spoken there and in France. And alot of Belgians live in France vice versa… so what do you expect when they speak English.
French Immersion Says:May 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Jay, what I want to say is he is pretending to be more French than he is.
He says “we the French”, would you as a Canadian say : ‘we the French”?
So why is a Belgian like Emmanuel Stroobant saying “we the French”?
Because his name is all but French sounding, yet people in Singapore will be impressed to have “a real French chef” in their mids…