Our
ambassadors
recount the
stories

Dutch Cuisine wants to offer a platform to all of the chefs in The Netherlands who convey our vision: cooking in a healthier, more well-informed, and tasty manner, from a sense of our Dutch identity. All this in a creative, free-thinking, individualistic, pragmatic way, and operating from the less is more principle. In that sense, Dutch Cuisine views the Dutch chefs as key ambassadors. They are able to convey the philosophy, recount the stories, fan out the recipes, and apply the principles in dishes and menus that carry the Dutch Cuisine label, and thereby make a significant difference. Dutch Cuisine therefore calls these chefs change agents. Dutch chefs such as Jonnie Boer, Niven Kunz, Albert Kooy, Bas Cloo, Jim de Jong, Jef Schuur and Leon Mazairac, lend Dutch Cuisine a new sense of distinction, and demonstrate what makes our Dutch cooking so rich. They are the present innovators, and the future explorers.

Dutch cuisine
On the map

Restaurant
Caterer
Producer
Education
Culture

Kaart

Showcase

Restaurant Wannee

The philosophy of Restaurant Wannee is based on Dutch Cuisine. This restaurant is headed by SVH Master Chef Albert Kooy, the founder of the 5 principles that Dutch Cuisine uses as its charter. Using these principles, Wannee creates a menu each month, using vegetables from the cold ground, and animals for garnishing. It’s a varying menu whereby every single dish is genuine.

 

Restaurants

Dutch Cuisine aims to link up with as many chefs and restaurants as possible who will place at least one Dutch Cuisine dish on the menu. Dutch Cuisine organises various events in conjunction with umbrella and industry organisations such as Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and the Gastronomisch Gilde, and various events for professionals in the food sector, such as demos, workshops, talks, tastings and chef’s tables. There are collaborations with councils, provinces and businesses from the food sector, as they have successfully charted and regularly approach the catering industry network of restaurants and chefs.

As of October 2017, Dutch Cuisine will further expand its out-of-home channels in conjunction with umbrella and industry organisations, businesses, councils and provinces. The municipalities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ede and Groningen – Dutch Cuisine partners of the Green Deal’s ‘Food consumption sustainability enhancement’ – have a number of frontrunner restaurants within their urban borders, through which they can present themselves via their city marketing operations. These frontrunner restaurants and new recruit Dutch Cuisine restaurants will be incorporated in the Dutch Cuisine Culinary Routes. For additional information, visit: Dutch Cuisine Culinary Routes.

Flagship

BOLENIUS

Dutch Cuisine’s flagship restaurant Bolenius, which opened its doors in late 2010, is located among the office blocks of the commercial heart of Amsterdam, and was voted one of the world’s 25 best vegetable restaurants by We’re Smart World. The restaurant has a 120m2 vegetable patch, where star chef and Dutch Cuisine ambassador Luc Kusters harvests part of his fresh daily vegetables and herbs. The choice was to use a modern and healthy kitchen, with plenty of vegetables and the use of seasonal and local ingredients. In addition, the cooking is done with modern techniques, whereby much of the emphasis is on vegetables and seasonal products. Luc Kusters: ‘We place vegetables as much centre-stage as fish and meat, and make the difference with specific preparations and techniques. Inspiration is drawn from all over the globe, and we translate this to a minimalist Dutch cooking style’. Bolenius shows that healthy and tasty go well together, and that the (old) Dutch tastes are surprisingly contemporary.   
www.bolenius-restaurant.nl

Showcase

Albron

In the campaign ‘Holland op zijn lekkerst’ (Holland at its most delicious) that Albron has developed in conjunction with Dutch Cuisine, new Dutch Cuisine dishes featured on the menu during every season at Albron’s 400-plus corporate restaurants over the previous year. For 2018, Albron has announced that it will provide its entire range with Dutch Cuisine dishes, together with Dutch Cuisine.

 

Corporate and chain restaurants

The major Dutch chains and corporate restaurants such as Albron, Sodexo, WeCanteen, De Bijenkorf, La Place and Van der Valk feed over 1 million consumers on a daily basis, thereby having an enormous impact on animals, humans, and the environment. In order to attain increased sustainability of food consumption, it is therefore very important that Dutch Cuisine works together with chains and corporate restaurants. The supply and demand aspect can be positively influenced and adapted where necessary.

Green Deal partner Albron for instance has announced that in 2018, it will provide its entire range with Dutch Cuisine dishes, in conjunction with Dutch Cuisine. Additionally, within the Green Deal ‘food consumption sustainability enhancement’ Dutch Cuisine will link up new chain restaurants with Green Deal partner Variatie in de Keuken (Variation within the Kitchen). The showcase at Van der Valk – a research project about the increase in vegetables and reduction of meat, by Variatie in de Keuken, willed be additionally rolled out to other out-of-home channels, and Dutch Cuisine will also place dishes on the menu at these locations. This entails mainstream locations with a wide customer base, such as HMS, NS and Van der Valk.

Projects

Inspiration session Dutch Cuisine on the menu
Dutch Cuisine has demonstrated that Dutch cooking is creative, varied and seasonal, and that it ties in entirely with the current zeitgeist whereby awareness and sustainable food play a major role. In order to convey this message to a large number of people, Dutch Cuisine has enlisted the help of restaurants and chefs. They can fulfil the role of proud friends and ambassadors of the Dutch cuisine like no other, and show it: ‘we embrace this unique food culture and opt for sustainable food.’ That is why Dutch Cuisine is looking to work with as many restaurants and chefs as possible that are willing to place at least one Dutch Cuisine dish on the menu.

It was within this context that Dutch Cuisine ambassador Bas Cloo set up a Dutch Cuisine inspiration session at the Horeca Academie (Catering Academy) in The Hague in the autumn of 2017, in conjunction with the Municipality of The Hague. The target group comprised the chefs of The Hague, who were looking to increase the sustainability of their menu by including one or multiple Dutch Cuisine dishes.

The main objective is that by the end of 2018, at least 1000 restaurants will permanently feature a minimum of one Dutch Cuisine dish on their menu. In order to attain this aim, Dutch Cuisine has launched a recruitment campaign among the Dutch hospitality sector, catering and healthcare institutions.

New proteins on the menu
On 18 March 2016, councillor Choho of the Municipality of Amsterdam launched the ‘New proteins on the menu’ project‘. For the duration of two months, five catering locations in Amsterdam served proteins that were more sustainable and more in line with animal welfare than traditional proteins: the North American crayfish, Dutch hens, seaweed and algae, pulses and buckwheat. The aim is to draw attention to the alternative for the traditional and often utilised fish and meat dishes. A record was kept of guests’ reactions, product availability and culinary possibilities. Via this method, a great deal of valuable information was amassed, which will prove useful to Dutch Cuisine in the event of a continuation within the Green Deal, particularly in match-making to determine the correct thought and action direction. The pilot was backed by the Ministry of Infrastructure & The Environment, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Natuur & Milieu, Albron, Mattmo and CREM. Watch the following video for more information on new proteins.

Green Deal for sustainable food consumption
The Green Deal for sustainable food consumption, which is scheduled to run from November 2015 to November 2018, is aimed at making it easier and more attractive for consumers to eat healthier and sustainably. Dutch Cuisine helped initiate this cause and cooperates with national and municipal governments, businesses and social organizations. A Green Deal offers businesses, citizens and organizations an accessible opportunity to work with the government on green growth. Where initiatives encounter obstacles, the government can smooth over barriers, facilitating and accelerating these initiatives. Additional partners to the Green Deal are Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Foundation Nature and Environment, Sligro, Albron, City of Amsterdam, City of Rotterdam, City of Groningen, City of Ede, Rabobank, Mattmo Creative, Wageningen University, Koppert Cress and GroentenFruit Huis.