PLANT

Botanical gastronomy from the kitchen of De Nieuwe Winkel

The world loses out to food. It sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. Just consider: with our wasteful eating habits, our obsession with meat and dairy, ignoring of the seasons and our fancy for convenience food we bring our world closer to the abyss with every bite. Things have to change. Things Chef Emile van der Staak of De Nieuwe Winkel, which was crowned with two Michelin stars, is convinced that chefs can be pioneers in this. With their skills and creativity they can lead the way to a new way of eating. With food that is just as good, only more balanced with everything that surrounds us. With regular harvests from forest gardens Van der Staak developed a plant-based way of cooking and a philosophy of ‘botanical gastronomy’ that reflects on the plate what the land has to offer. In his restaurant he shows every day this doesn’t have to be plain cuisine. On the contrary: forest gardens offer us a wealth of new produce. He processes those with new and old techniques, like fermenting.

In Plant he shares his knowledge and a collection of over eighty plant-based recipes, as his botanical gastronomy is not meant to be the umpteenth new cooking method, but a new way of thinking about food with which we make the earth a little bit more beautiful and better with every bite.

Antilles) and a mother from Ireland.

Since a number of years, she’s been living with her family in Amsterdam. After studying sociology and working as a social worker for a couple of years, Lelani followed her heart and started cooking professionally. She got interested in the complex history of her father’s cuisine and started Code Noir, a platform on Caribbean cuisines. Furthermore, she organises dinner parties, workshops and lectures to explore food, history, resistance, remembrance and colonialism.

Dishes from the Caribbean

The cuisines of the Caribbean are incredible meltingpots of cultures, ingredients, flavours and cooking techniques. These influences were over the centuries taken from four continents by people who – voluntarily and involuntarily – made their homes on the islands. The result? Tasteful, exciting and colourful dishes that the Netherlands and Flanders need to get acquainted to.

In Code Noir Lelani Lewis goes back to the roots of her Caribbean eating culture with classics like jerk chicken, salted cod fritters, pepperpot stew and Guinness punch. She also shares new creations with typically Caribbean ingredients like cassava, corn, coconut, lime, plantain and chilies: plantain with peanut and lime salsa, sweet potato gratin with ginger cream and crème anglaise of creamed corn and caramelised guava.

Code Noir tells the interesting story of Caribbean cuisines that are not only incredibly rich in flavour and colour, but also have a wealth of history and variety in them.

één exemplaar de reis bleek te hebben overleefd. De Spaanse koning Ferdinand was direct verkocht: hij vond de smaak die van alle andere vruchten overtreffen. De Spanjaarden vonden de ananas op een dennenappel lijken, en noemden de vrucht daarom ‘pina’; in het Engels werd dat pineapple. Ananas zoals de vrucht in de meeste talen is gaan heten – komt uit het Tupi, de taal van de inheemse bevolking van het huidige Brazilië. Opvallend: in Brazilië noemen ze ananas juist weer abacaxi, van het Tupi voor ‘aangenaam aroma’ of ‘vrucht die sterk geurt’. In zestiende-eeuws Europa was ananas zo zeldzaam en bijzonder, dat het een statussymbool werd. De elite liet paleizen decoreren met beeldjes en afbeeldingen van de ananas. En wie écht indruk wilde maken op zijn gasten, huurde voor een feestje een ananas als centerpiece. Niet om op te eten – véél te duur! – maar om de hele avond te bewonderen.

lewis

Emma de Thouars is a culinary writer and recipe developer. She has a big preference for the Asian and Chinese cuisines and spends as much time as possible on that side of the globe. All culinary inspiration she gets there, you can see on her Instagram (@emmadethouars). Furthermore, she can be heard in the weekly podcast Opscheppers, she writes recipe columns for Het Parool, and you can become a member of her online platform ‘Emma’s Eetclub’. Before now she wrote the cookbooks Amazing Asia, Emma’s Amazing Asia Vega and Tofu, which was last on the shortlist for Het Gouden Kookboek 2022 (The Golden Cookbook 2022).

Noodles

40 Bowls Of Comfort Food

Following the cookbook

Noodles this spring. Whether they are incorporated in a steaming bowl of soup or a spicy sauce, nothing comforts more than slurping a big portion of noodles. With your mouth close to the bowl and chopsticks ready – let’s eat. Which noodle do you choose for which dish and what kind of things can you do with instant ramen? Emma will explain it all in this book. From Chinese noodles with a lovely greasy spring onion oil to ice cold Korean noodles. For the die-hards she offers step by step explanations for making your own noodles. However, just as in her previous books most recipes are easy to make, with noodles you just get from the Asian grocer’s.

‘The huge variety of dishes stands out: savoury and sweet, braised and deep-fried, stir-fried and raw. All with Emma’s well-known Amazing Asia touch. Tofu convinces with clear methods of preparation and beautiful photography. An original and well-written book that emanates passion.’

– Judges’ report Het Gouden Kookboek 2022 on Tofu

Danny Lee is co-owner of catering facilities Chin Chin Club and Mesiba and for years worked in the kitchens of various restaurants.

Yan Ting Yuen is a documentary maker and scriptwriter and maker of the earlier documentary Chinese Indonesian. The life behind the serving-hatch.

Sun Li is author of plays and books, among which

De zoetzure smaak van dromen, het familieverhaal achter een Chinees restaurant (The Sweet and Sour Taste of Dreams, the family history behind a Chinese restaurant).

Ka Fai Lee (Papa Lee) and his wife (Mama Lee) have been the driving force behind Chinese restaurant Fook Sing in Amsterdam since the nineties. They all grew up in the Chinese Indonesian restaurants of their parents.