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Chef de Partie · Antwerp, Belgium

Rein Estebal — Chef de Partie. Crafting exceptional pastry with precision, curiosity and care.

Chef de Partie specialising in pastry, desserts and bread, shaped by Michelin-starred hospitality and hands-on baking. Calm, precise and commercially minded.

Explore experienceView full CVContact
Trained inZilte3 Michelin starsThe Jane2 Michelin stars

About

I came to pastrythe long way round.

I came to pastry the long way round.
Michelin-starred houses
2Michelin-starred housesZilte ★★★ · The Jane ★★
Years in retail & brand
11Years in retail & brandPhilippines & Germany, 2012–2023
Stores in last portfolio
45Stores in last portfolioALDO group, three e-commerce sites
Languages
3LanguagesEnglish · German · French

For eleven years I built brands for a living. Assortments, buying, planning, store openings, a direct-to-consumer launch — across fashion and food retail in Manila and in Germany. I was good at it. But the part I kept reaching for was always the product itself: how it was made, how it was presented, and how it landed with the person who picked it up.

Baking gives me all of that at an honest scale. A loaf tells the truth about your timing. A tart tells the truth about your hands. There is no brief to hide behind and no campaign to rescue it — there is only what you actually made this morning.

Today I run the cold section at MEA in Antwerp: desserts, pastry preparation and most of the in-house bread. Before that, two Michelin-starred rooms taught me what precision under pressure really costs, and what genuine hospitality asks of you when the room is full and nothing is going to plan.

Mise en place that holds. A station ready before it is needed. The discipline to repeat something exactly — on the four hundredth cover as on the first.

What Michelin service teaches

I work calmly, I waste very little, and I finish what I start.

Professional journey

A professionaljourney.

From a decade of commercial retail into Michelin-starred rooms, and from there to the bench. Open any role to read the detail.
A professional journey
    • Run the cold section, with responsibility for desserts, pastry preparation and most in-house bread production
    • Plan and execute daily mise en place and service across all sections including breakfast and buffet production, maintaining consistent quality, presentation, stock and station readiness in line with food-safety and hygiene standards
    • Work independently and with the kitchen team to deliver consistent output under changing covers and service pressure

  2. Chef de Rang (flexi)

    Zilte3 Michelin stars

    June — Sept 2025

    Flexi front-of-house at one of Antwerp’s most decorated kitchens.

Skills

What I bringto a bench.

Four disciplines, listed as they appear on the CV. Open one for what it looks like in practice.
What I bring to a bench
Rein Estebal in chef’s whites and a navy apron in a tiled professional kitchen, holding up a glass jug of custard.

Commercial & Brand Experience

Eleven years on theother side of the counter.

Brand Management, Buying, Merchandising, Planning and Business Development across fashion, retail and F&B — Philippines & Germany, 2012–2023.
Eleven years on the other side of the counter.
Stores
45Stores
E-commerce platforms
3E-commerce platforms
Brands in portfolio
3Brands in portfolio
Years, 2012–2023
11Years, 2012–2023

Most bakers have not run a P&L. Here is what a decade of retail actually translates into, behind your counter.

Retail

In retail, it meant

Running the floor across 45 stores — staffing, standards, and the daily gap between what a plan says and what a shop actually does.

In a bakery, it becomes

A bakery is a shop that happens to have an oven. I read a counter the way I read a store: what moved, what sat, what the eleven o’clock customer wanted and did not find.

For the record

  • Led commercial and brand operations for a multi-million-euro portfolio spanning ALDO, ALDO Accessories and Call It Spring across 45 stores and three e-commerce platforms
  • Launched aldoshoes.com.ph, establishing ALDO Philippines’ direct-to-consumer e-commerce channel
  • Managed assortments, inventory, vendor relationships and customer engagement across brand, retail and consulting roles
  • Built a strong eye for product, presentation and consumer experience — commercial skills now applied in hospitality and food

Education

Where the commercewas learned.

Education

De La Salle University

Manila, Philippines

  • 01

    BA in International Studies

    Major in European Studies

  • 02

    BS in Commerce

    Major in Marketing Management

Languages

Three, inthe kitchen.

Languages
  • EnglishNative
  • GermanIntermediate
  • FrenchBasic

Why your bakery

What I am actuallylooking for.

What I am actually looking for.

I am not looking for a kitchen that needs me. I am looking for one I can grow inside of, for a long time.

Bread and pastry are where I want to spend the next decade, and I would rather learn them properly than quickly. Laminated dough, longer fermentation, a real viennoiserie section, whatever your house does better than anyone else — I want to be taught it by people who hold the standard without having to raise their voice.

Michelin service gave me the habits: a station ready before it is needed, prep that does not collapse when the room fills, the patience to make the four hundredth one exactly like the first. Volunteering in retreat kitchens gave me the other half — cooking generously from whatever is actually in the walk-in, and wasting almost none of it.

And because I spent eleven years on the commercial side, I will care about your margin as well as your crumb. I know what it costs when product does not sell, and what it is worth when it does.

I want to be trusted with the early shift. I want to leave the bakery in better shape than I found it. And I would like to still be there in five years, quietly better at it than I am now.

If that sounds like your kind of person, I would love to talk.

Rein Estebal

Chef de Partie · Antwerp, Belgium

Character

The way Iwork.

Ten things colleagues would say, and where each one comes from.
The way I work

  • Calm

    Michelin service and silent retreats both reward the same nervous system.

  • Reliable

    The station is ready before anyone has to ask whether it is.

  • Precise

    Weighed, timed and repeatable — pastry does not forgive approximation.

  • Curious

    Five years of seasonal experiments at home, still running.

  • Team Player

    Two years working shoulder to shoulder with kitchen and sommeliers.

  • Disciplined

    Food safety and hygiene standards kept without being chased.

  • Creative

    Gluten-free and vegan versions built to be good, not merely permitted.

  • Adaptable

    Consistent output as covers, sections and service pressure change.

  • Low Waste

    Leftover ingredients treated as a starting point, not a problem.

  • Commercial Thinker

    Eleven years of margin, sell-through and vendor relationships.

References

People who canspeak for the work.

The kitchens below know how I work on a bad Saturday as well as a good one. I ask my referees before passing on their details, so they come by request rather than in a public list — but the introduction is quick.
People who can speak for the work.

  • MEA at VIA Antwerp

    Chef de Partie

    August 2025 — Present

  • Zilte3 Michelin stars

    Chef de Rang (flexi)

    June — Sept 2025

  • The Jane2 Michelin stars

    Chef de Rang

    Nov 2023 — May 2025

Available on request

Tell me which of them you would like to hear from and I will make the introduction the same day, with their permission.

Request references

Contact

Let’s baketogether.

Let’s bake together.

Available in and around Antwerp. Happy to come in for a trial shift — that is usually a better conversation than a CV.

Let’s bake togetherDownload the PDF CV
Email
reinestebal@gmail.com
Phone
+32 456 55 34 11
Based in
Antwerp, Belgium