Eetlokaal Van de boer (Diningroom of the farmer) - Eco-food makes for a culinary hotspot
- Series: Kreativ.Quartier.Ruhr
Deep down in the West of Rotterdam lies restaurant/lunchroom Van de boer: the locals do not seem to pay much attention to the spacious, sun-filled lunchroom, but it has become a haven for flex-workers and eco-minded alike.
"I used to work at Rosso, which is a pretty fancy restaurant downtown, but I didn’t know how big the quality difference was between normal food and eco-friendly food until I started working here," sous-chef Stanley Veeloo tells me, "The taste of the vegetables is so much more intense."
The audience comes to seek out.
Does Van de boer have a hard time connecting with the neighbourhood, known as one of the rougher parts of town?
"The former owner had a restaurant combined with a little foodstore. That’s what made them go belly up in the end. The locals here, mainly foreigners, aren’t interested in biological eco-food and aren’t part of a flex-working community that like a quiet place to have coffee and work. We have a free WIFI-connection and a dining section that can be used for meetings. Our audience comes to seek us out."
What is it that you want?
I am handed the menucard and I get a little puzzled. It has a minimal amount of dishes on it, like omelette and sandwich cheese without specifying what goes along with it. When I ask if I could order something from the dining card, the owner asks me annoyed: "What is it that you want to eat?"
"A soup?", I ask hesistantly. Off he goes and within fifteen minutes I get the best aspargus soup I have ever eaten.
Veeloo explains later: "We work with fresh ingredients from local farmers. We make up our dishes per day. Yesterdays dining card is not available anymore today."
Does he think eco-friendly food will be the the future of culinary cuisine?
"No", says Veeloo, decidedly. "Eco-friendly dining will always have a little romantic touch to it, eating good food, with pure ingredients. But it has its limitations. I can’t, for example, do anything with that chemical-cooking, freezing ingredients with nitrogen and stuff like that. Eco-food is too robust for that."
Related videos
Related blogs
Go to channel:
"I used to work at Rosso, which is a pretty fancy restaurant downtown, but I didn’t know how big the quality difference was between normal food and eco-friendly food until I started working here," sous-chef Stanley Veeloo tells me, "The taste of the vegetables is so much more intense."
The audience comes to seek out.
Does Van de boer have a hard time connecting with the neighbourhood, known as one of the rougher parts of town?"The former owner had a restaurant combined with a little foodstore. That’s what made them go belly up in the end. The locals here, mainly foreigners, aren’t interested in biological eco-food and aren’t part of a flex-working community that like a quiet place to have coffee and work. We have a free WIFI-connection and a dining section that can be used for meetings. Our audience comes to seek us out."
What is it that you want?
I am handed the menucard and I get a little puzzled. It has a minimal amount of dishes on it, like omelette and sandwich cheese without specifying what goes along with it. When I ask if I could order something from the dining card, the owner asks me annoyed: "What is it that you want to eat?"
"A soup?", I ask hesistantly. Off he goes and within fifteen minutes I get the best aspargus soup I have ever eaten.Veeloo explains later: "We work with fresh ingredients from local farmers. We make up our dishes per day. Yesterdays dining card is not available anymore today."
Does he think eco-friendly food will be the the future of culinary cuisine?
"No", says Veeloo, decidedly. "Eco-friendly dining will always have a little romantic touch to it, eating good food, with pure ingredients. But it has its limitations. I can’t, for example, do anything with that chemical-cooking, freezing ingredients with nitrogen and stuff like that. Eco-food is too robust for that."
Related videos
Related blogs
Go to channel:
Sun, 17.04.2011
0
Similar Content
About the author
Newest comments of the author
Topic
City
Capital of Culture 2001 and City Of Architecture 2007. The Dutch port city is not only one of the most important hubs of global economy - it also reflects symptomatically the urban challenges of our time.
Branch
Recent Tweets
