![]() ![]() It is a wonderful space, with high ceilings that lead to excellent acoustics, and numerous windows that make the restaurant feel casual by day and elegant by night. In the early 20 th century they also designed this smaller building to the left of the main entrance to house a private collection donated to the museum and it is this building that has now been converted into the restaurant. The two other people who contributed in a major way to the success of RIJKS are father and son PJH and JTJ Cuypers, the architects who designed the Rijksmuseum in the late 19 th century. In fact they were whole heads of celeriac that, I learnt, had been steamed for an hour and had then spent a further three hours rotating gently on the spit continuously basted with butter by one of the chefs in a cooking process that probably costs more than the celeriac itself. I assumed that they had had their wings and thighbones removed to make carving easier. ![]() The ten round items, with nicely browned skins, looked from where I was standing like small, juicy chickens or poussins. His role is made easier, and his customers’ pleasure enhanced, by the presence behind the large, state-of-the-art open kitchen of the tall, blond executive chef, 30-year-old Joris Bijdendijk, whom I watched basting on the rotisserie an ingredient I had never before seen treated in such a manner. Beeren is a restaurateur to his fingertips (as were his father and grandfather before him), who patrols the restaurant with determination that the service be friendly, attentive and swift. Loek Beeren is the experienced general manager from Vermaat Groep, the company that runs all the hospitality in the museum, including the spacious café, which had a turnover of 6.2 million euros last year and is in a joint venture with the museum, and also pays it a concession under the contract. The same principle applies to their guest chef programme that had recently got under way with an appearance from Margot Janse of Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek, South Africa. ![]() Pijbes explained that their wine list incorporates wines made from around the world but only where there is a Dutch influence, such as the winemaker. On the counter in front of him was a cup of orange pekoe tea from Sri Lanka, long a Dutch trading partner, next to a plate of salt, butter and caramel biscuits from the city’s renowned Holtkamp bakery, while behind the bar the shelves are stocked with exclusively Dutch spirits. He explained how the restaurant forms part of his strategy to open up the museum and how he, as a self-confessed foodie, was determined that the restaurant should display Dutch influence on food and drink. The most influential, and the most dapperly dressed in an electric blue suit, was Wim Pijbes, the museum’s director. Lunch and dinner at RIJKS, the new restaurant in the shadow of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, not only broadened my hitherto limited knowledge of modern Dutch cooking but also introduced me to three of the five people responsible for its successful launch (photo: Rijksmuseum). ![]()
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