The NetherlandsDutch Food Culture
We travel through the Dutch regions to explore small-scale quality food productions that belong to the culture, history and traditions of the Netherlands. An extraordinary heritage of fruits, vegetables, animal breeds, cheeses, breads, sweets and meats, to name a few. Every region has his own distinct local character and food culture. Due to the trading history with the rest of the world the Dutch food culture is enriched with exotic products of all corners of our globe.
Think about spices, fruits, tea and rice from the East-Indies. Coffee, potatoes and chocolate from the West-Indies and all the old fashioned ways of conserving goods like fermenting; cured herrings, dried meat and pickled cabbage are all outcomes of the rich Dutch food heritage. These ‘old age and forgotten’ consumption methods have made a great comeback and proven to be healthy and sustainable.
Our current tours take you to the region of North-Holland. Although it looks like a flat and crowded area, is very rich and diverse with all kinds of unique products. Heirloom potatoes, special beef, cheeses from the polders, divine beers and of course sweet and salt water life.
Province of North Holland
Producers
The people we work with are all passionate food professionals with a strong love for local quality products.
These magicians can turn beautiful produce into fabulous products. With dedication, specific knowledge and a splendid feeling for balance and taste. Only by the use of other fair ingredients and a little help of nature’s chemistry. Their call for freedom, their stamina and hardworking hands are at the base of taste.
“The cheeses in our store are selected piece by piece by their taste and with respect for small producers. We buy our products directly from the farm, as much as possible, to maintain a good personal relationship with the farmers and get to know the way they work. We choose farmers who work in a sustainable, animal and environmental friendly way.”
Cheese Store Haarlem
“The vast majority of what we sell is made by ourselves. A high quality of ingredients is used like fresh fruit and real butter. The fruit that we use in our cakes and pies comes from the local fruit and vegetable store in Alkmaar, buying organic as much as we can.
We import the chocolate that we use, to make our bon bons, chocolate figures and other chocolate products, from Callebaut Belgium, the world finest chocolate. The chocolatier Callebaut was founded in 1911 and ever since sells the highest quality chocolate. Callebaut invests in sustainable development in the cocoa regions of West Africa and by doing so contributes to improving the circumstances in this sector.
For our typical French bread we use a floor oven that is imported from France. This gives the characteristic crispy crust to the bread. We import flour and yeast from the French family company Soufflet. A number of our breads are made with organic flour. The recipes of our croissants are from a Meilleur Ouvrier de France – a baker who has won a national prize”.
Patissier and Boulangier Alkmaar
Products
All produce our partners serve comes from local Dutch farms, ranches, orchards, fields, gardens, air and waters. The producers’ passion creates high quality products with distinguished local flavors. Fresh and pure produce, preferably with a low food mileage, organic or biodynamic. This produce is preferably heirloom and without poison, hormones, antibiotics and other unnatural and undesirable additives. Pure stuff!
We think food biodiversity is very important to keep a healthy planet. This is why we support small scaled diverse quality products that contribute to culture, history or tradition of a region or country. By doing so these products will be conserved for next generations and we encourage people to buy these foods, to tell the stories and to support its producers.
Place
Our Dutch soil is the starting point. If the soil is healthy, we get quality food. Each Dutch region has its own type of soil; salty soil at the coastal areas, humus-rich soil at dry swamps, sandy soil coming from old dunes and rich clay soil in most polders.
The other natural elements also play a major role: the air; is it dry, damp or salty? The water is it rich of chalk, minerals or salt? And of course the amount of sunlight and the temperatures. This means that in everything we eat, we taste the influence of the earth, the water, the wind, the sun and the labour of the producer. The French call it ‘terroir’.
We think it’s very important to know where our food comes from, what differences in taste and quality mean, the labor that’s done and how it comes to your plate. Only then you are able to make real conscious choices about what you put in your mouth and what enriches your health and life.
