You call yourself the Creative Chef. What does art have to do with nature?
What is art? That’s the main question. I think art is an expression, it ignites the ideas of a person or a group, in others. With food, you can do the same thing: reach people with ideas. That’s the reason I decided to connect food with art, to share my perspective on the way society is designed with an audience and give them an experience they will never forget. They can talk about it with other people, with their children, and maybe someday we all eat like this and the world will be a better place, right?
What inspired this sustainable approach to your work?
My parents sparked my love of food. As a kid, I was always in the kitchen with my mother. My love for nature came from my grandfather and the surroundings I grew up in. I learned about sustainability in Wageningen, where the University of Agriculture is and it influenced me a lot. And I had a very special biology teacher, Mr Leenderts. He had an impact too.
“Oh look, a little bee…”
What’s the story with this garden you’re associated with Jasper?
This is a very special place. It’s ‘De BijenAkker’. In English, it means bees’ garden. It’s a project I do with a friend of mine, Henk van Berkels, called the Museum of Taste, where we grow old varieties of vegetables. We managed some years ago to get seeds from a gene bank. That gave us access to carrots from the 1950’s, cucumbers from the 30’s, and so on. For some of them, we are the only growers around. It’s basically a time travel of taste. We invite people to come over, sit down and eat with us, and everything we cook is from this garden. So, we have our own bread, our own wheat, our own flour, we have edible flowers. What we actually do with the garden is to serve an ecosystem. That’s a nice thought to have, it brings us back to the roots of humankind. Everybody likes food, so when we eat food which is grown naturally from a healthy ecosystem, then we will grow as people.
Eat more natural, eat better. That’s the essence of it.
What is it about edible flowers?
Flowers are tasty, but people don’t use them a lot. Some people say it’s just for the look of a dish. It’s true, I use flowers that don’t have a flavor function to ignite the color of the food, but some – like fennel flowers – have a magic taste. Like peppermint. It’s really good in your food. Wrap your vegetables in them and grill away. Or onion flowers, or chives – why use the onion when you have these options?
Can you tell us about some of these flowers?
Sure, let’s go pick some flowers for the dish. Look here we have dahlias, fennel flowers I mentioned, onion flowers too. Dahlias are really easy to grow. Phlox, too, that’s easy to grow, just get some biological seeds, scatter them around and they will grow. Here, these are the mustard plants – they grow everywhere. If you see these green bits on the side of them, you know you can eat them. Another great flower is cornflower. Common in France, Southern France, and in Holland, but you’ll likely find them on the borders of cornfields wherever you’re from. They’re blue, easy to spot. It doesn’t taste like anything, but theyadd color to your dish.
When did you start using flowers in your cooking?
I first started cooking with flowers in around 2005. I was inspired by a book by the French Chef Michel Bras. I was always interested in botanicals, my mother and grandfather always told me the names of the plants we saw during trips into nature. So you could say it was in my genes, and Michel Bras lit the fuel. It also secured my love of vegetarian grilling when I tried to cook a dish inspired by a famous recipe by Michel Bras. It was vegetables only, using beetroot. I tried and tried, but it was only when I used my grill as a tool to enhance the flavor in my ingredients that it blew my mind.
You sit at the intersection between art and food – what’s your vision there?
I use the language of a chef and turn that into art. I create paintings, objects, but there’s always a link to food. A lot of those projects also have a link to ecosystems, natural thinking, nature as a whole. And this means I get to return to the essence of life, I think.
You’re a traveller. What has travelling taught you?
Travelling first and foremost taught me that we should cook more locally grown products and eat less meat. There is so much waste, and a lot of it is coming from the way we produce and transport food. If we use more local stuff and cook more directly from the land it will have a massive impact. I call this hyperlocal. From farm to table. It’s what we do with the garden.
Any chefs who shaped you?
Restaurant EGGIE – it’s gone now – but the chef Jorik taught me everything. He was my mentor. Aside from that, a lot of cookbooks inspired me. For almost eight years, every night before sleeping, I would read recipes or about food culture, food science, art with food. These became my best learning tools.
What do you wish people knew about plant-based/sustainably-sourced food?
That it’s a really great way of life. A way to get out of the everyday hustle. It’s the key to a more focused and joyful existence. Growing your own food and sharing it with others is the most beautiful thing on earth. It connects us with people and gives us the opportunity to tell stories.
If you’d recommend one restaurant to friends, one restaurant to have an experience you will take with you for a long time, which one would you recommend?
Restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian (Spain) had a huge impact on me. When I visited their restaurant, they had done research on me and welcomed me as a chef. They invited me into the kitchen and asked me about my work. It was mind-blowing. Then they served me my own story.
Can you recall a natural wine that really blew you away?
It was an Austrian natural wine, but I cannot remember the name, haha. All I can tell you was that it was excellent. The idea of drinking fresh wine without any substitutes gives me the feeling of being closer to that essence of nature.
Where do you hope to take Creative Chef Studio next?
At the moment I am working on a big project for a museum called the Future Food City. It’s a project where architecture, future thinking and food come together in an immersive experience. I would love to take this project all over the world.
Okay, you’re stranded on a desert-island: you’ve got an open fire and the ingredients for one dish for the rest of your days. Which dish do you choose?
Beetroots. They have lots of sugar in them so I can make savoury dishes but also sweet ones. I can use the juice to make paint for my Desert Island museum, and they’ll roast great on a campfire while I’m signalling SOS.
