The second thing she soon discovered was a passion for good food. “It doesn’t have to be complicated, but they love to eat well. It’s just how they live.”

Putting the two together resulted in her first book, Portret met garnaalkroket (Portrait with Shrimp Croquette). “It’s a book about creativity, born out of admiration for this small country.”

It’s a photo book so full of fun and celebrity, sales should be no problem, and the press have been eating it up. Suddenly everyone wants an interview with a photographer they never heard of.

The celebrities in the book – including designer Dries Van Noten, artist Jan Fabre, rock singer Arno and actress Marie Vinck – hadn’t heard of her either, but her ability to get nearly everyone she contacted to agree to be photographed is a testament to the approachability of well-known Flemish people – however busy – and her own power of friendly persuasion.

Miquel asked each subject to name their favourite food, and then she brought it along on the shoot. Some of the choices surprised her – like Brussels hat designer Elvis Pompilio’s drop – the Belgian and Dutch version of liquorice, which comes rolled up like a wheel. “He eats hundreds of them,” smiles Miquel. “When you don’t know the people, you think the choice is strange, but then when you get to know them, it’s like, oh yeah, of course.”

Interestingly, no one had to think too long to come up with their food of choice. “It’s not something with a lot of thought or theory behind it,” explains the photographer. “The answers were very straightforward and quick. And the choices pretty much explain something of who they are.”

Hence, you’ll find photographer Stephan Vanfleteren – who famously hates being photographed – with a shrimp croquette, a safe, traditional Belgian starter that nevertheless recalls his childhood growing up by the sea. He wore his late father’s old, oversized jacket in which he hides himself. Contemporary artist Jan De Cock, whose work more than one critic has called “raw”, chose a giant slab of steak, bones twisting out from the bloody chunk. Fit young actress Vinck (the victim in last year’s blockbuster Loft) holds a bowl of steamed rice in a simple clay pot. Contemporary artist Luc Tuymans said his favourite food was “three packs of cigarettes a day”. She shot him enveloped in smoke.

Sometimes the unexpected would happen, most notably when Miquel visited fellow photographer Lieve Blancquaert. Blancquaert had chosen raspberries, and Miquel strung them together to wear like a necklace. She took the shot, but she knew something was wrong. The photo was “too perfect”, she explains. She didn’t feel the real Blancquaert was coming through, so she asked her to eat the berries. Blancquaert made a huge mess of it, and berry juice got everywhere. Then Blancquaert told a story about how she always took raspberries to the bedside of a friend who recently died. She became very emotional, and there was the authenticity Miquel was looking for.

In a rather comforting twist, many celebrities chose food that reminded them of their youth. “It’s what they like the most. Like a child, it’s very simple and authentic,” says Miquel. Flemish writer Tom Lanoye, for instance, grew up behind the counter of his parents’ butcher shop. “His answer was immediate, ‘brains for me’, he said. He told me, ‘this is my childhood, where I came from. This is my heart.’ That’s telling enough.”

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