“The Fish Knows Everything” tasting at the EWRC2025 in Brussels

This October, Bauhaus of the Seas Sails is presenting a unique gastronomic experience at the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) in Brussels: a tasting of the Regenerative Menu pilot drop, developed in Hamburg by Dutch designer Katinka Versendaal, as part of her ongoing The Fish Knows Everything project.

The Fish Knows Everything is an ongoing culinary research project within the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails’ Regenerative Menu strand. Aside being a speculative gastronomy project, it is also online platform and community of culinary creatives, cultural practitioners and academic and artistic researchers. It invites participants to reconnect with coastal and river ecosystems—from Hamburg to Rotterdam and Venice—through shared meals and multispecies storytelling.

In Brussels, participants can enjoy a tasting menu that blends care, ecological responsibility, and speculative gastronomy, featuring dishes like a waste-reducing salmon head terrine, crayfish croquette and a memory-evoking eel broth, paired with seasonal local drinks. The Fish Knows Everything offers an evolving experience that invites us to rethink our relationship with the sea, rivers, and the species we share them with.

The _ Knows Everything is a speculative gastronomy project, online platform and community of culinary creatives, cultural practitioners and academic & artistic researchers

Eel broth, with a strong flavor of eel, is created by using its fats and other remains from the smoking process for the broth, but the actual fish is nowhere to be found

Crayfish croquette, or bitterbal – The lack of roe or meat in the crayfish, combined with the desire to use many of them, makes them suitable for broths and demands a dish that is often eaten in large volumes

Salmon Head Terrine – inspired by the traditional Dutch dish Kopkaas this recipe uses usually left behind salmon by-products such as heads, tails, and bones

The Fish Knows Everything: An experience by the Hamburg pilot of Bauhaus of the Seas Sails tasting will take place on Tuesday, 14 October 2025 from 19.00-23.00 at the Square Brussels. Register here for the free event here before 30 September.

The EWRC, held from 13–15 October 2025 at the Square in Brussels, is the European Union’s largest annual event dedicated to regional and urban development. It gathers policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and citizens to explore how regions and cities can shape a more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful Europe.

Among the many workshops, exhibitions, and networking activities, the EWRC programme also features tastings—moments where participants can discover and experience regional cultures through their food. These tastings will take place during various venues and days in Brussels, offering visitors a sensory gateway into the regional gastronomy and traditions.

The Regenerative Menu drop aims to promote the creative implementation of foods that have a regenerative function in local aquatic ecosystems and embrace a dynamic form of eating, such as shifting to drought-resistant crops during water scarcity or relying on filter feeders in polluted or acidified waters. Through a co-design process with local partners – from chefs to sustainable algae producers – this initiative aims to create and test innovative menus, exploring the relationship between gastronomy, architecture, and design while researching food sources, production chains, consumption habits, and their respective environmental impacts.