Chef Demonstrations

Food & Design

Is he a graphical designer or a culinary chef? It’s hard to say and why would we make the distinction? Bias doesn’t fit in the vocabulary of chef Naresh Ramdjas and neither does an official title. Naresh studied Design Academy in Eindhoven and has always had a great passion for food. During his studies he cooked and combined the world of food and design. Continually fascinated by food, he was enrolled as an intern at Segio Herman’s restaurant, Pure-C. His dissertation had to be done whilst he was there so he started ‘Nareshtaurant.’ This pop-up restaurant served ‘plate composer dinners’ meaning that the guest chooses all the ingredients to be used beforehand, resulting in a complete and unique design of their own. This resulted in Naresh being nominated for several awards. After he graduated, it was clear Naresh had to be in the food industry and signed-up for the TV programme, Master Chef. He came third as his bright vision, innovating food, creativity and outstanding flavour was recognised. Currently hitting the high notes and being our favourite upcoming chef, at only 27 years old, Naresh can’t wait to surprise and indulge the public of APS with his fanciful food offerings.

Creative Chef – Creative

Creative Chef, Jasper Udink ten Cate, blurs the lines between food and art. He believes barriers between art forms and standards within art forms should be eradicated. As there are archetypal buildings in architecture, Udink ten Cate thinks of the classic dining table as a conservative archetype. Questioning this archetype is how you can define the source of the stories he likes to serve his guests. His food is about the best ingredients from his own garden “The Museum of Taste” and his presentations are rooted in art, design and music. His mission is to serve delicious knowledge that speaks to your heart.

80 – 20 Green Cuisine

Willem ten Teije is both a cook and political scientist. After two years working in an office, he decided to become a chef. Having completed various courses at a cooking school and completing internships in several restaurants, he met Ruben and started to build 80-20 Green Cuisine. He intends to bring good food to good people. Ruben Cammeraat is a seasoned man within the hospitality industry; being a graduate of the Hotel Management School Maastricht and having completed internships in Malaysia and Madrid (he is crazy about Basque gastronomy, and who can blame him?!). He strives to bring the sophistication and the food culture of the Basque cuisine to the Netherlands. Together with

Willem, he launched a pop-up kitchen to serve their specials and at several events and festivals under the name ‘Willem & Cammeraat.’ He says “we cook according to the 80-20 vision. 80% natural/vegetable produce from local sources (non-dairy/fish/meats) paired with a maximum of 20% animal produce.” This way of cooking really took a lead in the Netherlands, with the movement earning the title of ‘New Dutch Cuisine.’ So far, it has been an exciting development of rediscovering forgotten produce, reinventing meals and dishes mostly based on vegetables. He goes on to say that ‘we want to show our guests, and let them taste, how nice and tasteful healthy regional food is. We want to reduce the gap between farmer, food, producer and consumer and make a real connection with food. We believe food is the future and especially how we, as consumers, relate and connect to food. We choose to work only with small, local suppliers and always put quality first instead of quantity. We always let the season decide and lead what will be on the menu.’ As you can see, his principles match many of those of the APS team, making him a great fit within our chef team.

No Waste

Dionne initially studied to be a food and cookery teacher, but after graduating went in a different direction and organised the YFM Academy. She has since produced events for the Youth Food Movement, managed the Pop-Up restaurant at the Food Film Festival 2014 and led the production of the Food Film Festival on Tour in 2015. She has also worked as a chef in sustainable restaurants such as Merkelbach, Foyer, As, Instock and most recently, Wilde Zwijnen. And to feed her mind, Dionne works one day a week at the ‘Ookboekhandel’ in Amsterdam.

Salty (veggie) Specials

After 27 years’ experience, Anneke came to realise that there are three common problems within the food industry. Firstly, a lot of people haven’t yet experienced a wide range of flavours meaning that they don’t have much experience of complimentary ingredients. Secondly, there is a lack of knowledge regarding different types of spices and flavours. Thirdly, they often lack the knowledge, skills and expertise to put this to work and play with spices to make dishes fit their palette or someone else’s. Anneke specialises in these three areas because she has found is that if people become more acquainted in these areas, a whole new world of food, flavours, possibilities, passion for cooking, inspiration and more opens up for them. Her ambition is to serve real food experiences which she terms ‘foodgasms,’ and secondly, to give Eastern cuisine the recognition that it deserves. Having spent the first 20 years of her life in Asia and the last seven in Western countries, she has gained so much knowledge, allowing her mind to be open to new kinds of flavours and ideas and it is these that she would love to share with lots of people. Anneke currently lives on the lovely Dutch island of Texel which is very rich in fresh and seasonal produce, and is mostly organic. On the island she produces her own salty green produce from vegetables to ‘zeekraal’, roots, ‘lamsoren’ and many more. During her chef demo this type of produce will be taking the lead role.

Bieterbal

Jonathan opened his restaurant in late 2007 which coincided with the birth of his son. Having become a father, he started asking himself essential questions about life. The main question was how to leave this earth behind for the next generations and more important, what will be left for my children? How can I take responsibility for this? The answer proved to be a lot simpler than the implementation… He no longer gained satisfaction from cooking with ingredients of which he didn’t know the origin. Jonathan decided to go directly to the source which turned out to be a great way for him to understand his products, their lifecycle and benefits. Jonathan started working solely with local quality products and stayed away from artificial additives. Thus began his quest for ‘Real Food’. However, finding organic vegetables and herbs proved to be more difficult than expected. This led Jonathan to start growing his own crops. The process unexpectedly brought strong awareness and Jonathan himself became a part of this important cycle. Jonathan says that ‘through observing the growth of the crops up close, I developed a new view on the products that we work with in the kitchen. The harvest determines the menu, not the other way round and it stimulates my creativity like I never could have imagined before. Sometimes I come up with ideas during sowing season, whilst at other times I accidentally harvest the crops a little later and I see something sprout where least expected. He says that for him, working with nature feels like an amazing journey full of surprises and beautiful lessons. ‘Each day is different from the next, because you never know what to expect. I truly hope we can recover our working relationship with nature and find ways to go back to eating real food again. Our food system now relies on mass industry and most are overly processed. Nature has so much to offer and I hope to show people how they can regain responsibility in eating healthy, natural food again.’ As you can see, Jonathan is a great advocate for growing your own and/or finding reliable suppliers and we’re honoured to be hosting him at the APS.

Veggie Desserts

At only 14 years old Hidde already knew his destiny lay within the world of desserts and patisserie. Due to his neighbour owning a bakery across the street he knew that his dream was to be a pastry chef. So, aged 17, he started working at one of the most famous patisseries in the Netherlands; Huize van Wely, in Noordwijk. This adventure lead him deeper in to fine gastronomy and to his role as Chef Patissier at Landgoed Duin & Kruidberg in Santpoort and later, to three Michelin starred restaurant Parkheuvel en de Librije. He has since gone on to launch his own brand; Dreams of Magnolia. Currently he is one of the most famous dessert chefs in the Netherlands. Writing pure and exciting recipes for Delicious magazine, guest hosting the TV program ‘Bake My Day’ and working on his own television programme, ‘de Brabander Bakt at 24 Kitchen.’ During the APS, Hidde will seduce us with his fine taste for desserts using mostly vegetables and flowers.