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 to use them as a substitute for coffee. When he took them out to transform by drying and roasting the roots, he forgot a small heap 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 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 by mere luck the means to provide fresh vegetables during Belgium’s cold winter.

Over the years the cultivation of chicory was expanded, not any more to make infusions, but  to have fresh food in winter.

New production techniques were developed, as the upright burial of the roots in soil. Later on we added the heating, with hot water pipes under the soil to obtain earlier products. Genetic improvement followed, to find the best varieties and then, in the 1960's, the development of hydroponics.

There are still some producers using the traditional cultivation soil method, but most have converted to hydroponic technologies under which production has reached its highest level.

Today nearly 40.000 ha are cultivated in the world, with a final annual production of some 400.000.000 kg. The world’s biggest endive producer is France, with more than 50% of the worldwide total production.