The Master Sculptor: Jan Vande Voorde from Belgium

Mr. Dandoy had a world-famous bakery in Brussels. Even to this day the Dandoy House makes the best speculaas. They are considered the benchmark.
The wooden boards did wear – the company needed new once constantly. Mr. Dandoy and Mr. Vande Vorde teamed up – and a career in cookie board carvings was established.
Jan Vande Voorde was a furniture maker/wood carver. He just took the opportunity and carved speculaas boards, it provided him a living. Not many people made these boards at that time.



Jan Vande Voorde carved for professional bakeries as well as for himself; he sold his molds locally at craft fairs. However his contacts were international, he had customers in the US and Japan.  Interestingly the local, Flemish people did not pay much attention to him.
He tried to retire at age 80 – but that didn’t work. He might well be carving in heaven at this point.

I was fortunate to see a mold for sale – a court jester, all but 13” in height. 
(The mold, the molded cookie before baking and the end result)

    

Comments

  1. Barry ClemensMay 24, 2026 at 4:45 AM

    My name is Barry Clemens. I am 78 and live in Monrovia, California, USA, near Pasadena.
    In 1982-3, I worked for International Correspondence Institute in Waterloo, Belgium, as a purchasing agent; Heidelberg printing presses, papers and inks to toilet paper, IBM selectric typewriters (from Holland) to the new IBM PC (qwerty keyboard).
    In 1983, Brussels, I attended a traditional Thanksgiving dinner where I met Jan Vande Voorde, Belgian speculas cookie board press carver. He had a few boards for sale and I bought one, which is the court jesture. A few years ago I made a call to Maison Dandoy, Grand Place to see if there was any value to my signed cookie board. I was told Jan was a master carver and the owner of the cookie shop was head-over-heals interested. My board has never been used so mit doesn't have the patina of older boards. My board hangs proudly in my dining room.

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