It is said that in 1850 a Belgian farmer named Jeff Lambrecht lived in a small town between Brussels and Lovaina. At the beginning of winter he had stored in his cellar some chicory roots grown that summer for the purpose of using them as a substitute for coffee. When he took them out to transform by drying and roasting the roots, he forgot a small heap that was in a dark corner.

In the spring he returned to the cellar and he found that those forgotten roots had produced some tender, yellow shoots. Taken by his curiosity he nibbled them and he found them crunchy, juicy and just slightly bitter. The month of March still is very cold in Belgium and there were few if any fresh vegetables available in 1850 at that time of year. Jeff had found a means to provide a fresh food during the winter.

Over the years the cultivation of the chicory was expanded, but not to make chicory for infusions, but instead to have a fresh vegetable in winter.

New production techniques were developed beginning with the upright burial of the roots in soil. Later on the heating was added with pipes of hot water under the soil to obtain earlier product. It followed the genetic improvement to find more appropriate varieties and then, in the 1960's, the development of hydroponic cultivation.

At the moment they are still some producers using the traditional cultivation method in soil, but most have converted to the new hydroponic technologies under which production has reached it's highest level.

Today nearly 40.000 ha. are cultivated in the world, with a resultant annual production of some 400.000.000 Kg. France produces more than 50% of the worldwide total.