Luxury lockdown: the New Year’s Box from Michelin-starred Restaurant Vermeer
During the brutal lockdown, restaurants and even hotel restaurants are closed, so there’s only one thing to do: play restaurant at home. And we don’t mean cooking yourself. No, simply order from your favorite places and let yourself be thoroughly pampered for once. That way, you help yourself and the hospitality industry through these dark days. Today: the New Year’s Box from Restaurant Vermeer.
Vermeer classics
The only positive thing about this shitty coronavirus crisis may be that restaurants are coming up with brilliant initiatives to keep treating their guests. Even Michelin-starred chefs who would never have dreamed of doing anything with delivery are now making sure everyone can enjoy their brilliant cooking at home. Take Michelin-starred chef Chris Naylor. For Christmas, he created a menu featuring real Vermeer classics, and you could call him on his private number while cooking. How fun is that? For handy tips & tricks to prevent the menu from going completely wrong. Good news for Vermeer fans: this same menu is now also available for New Year’s Eve, so you can still end the disastrous year 2020 on a festive note.
Incredibly festive
Three large boxes, incredibly festively wrapped in Christmas paper. They come with a bag containing wines selected to go with the menu. Available for collection from Vermeer by appointment. Don’t come by bike, because the boxes are too large and heavy for that. Unpacking the boxes alone is a gift. They are neatly organized by course, and the written instructions, together with the accompanying YouTube videos, ensure that an exceptional meal is on the table in no time. ‘It can’t go wrong,’ Chris calls out. ‘Put a large pan of water on the stove and enjoy.’ Full of confidence, we get started.
Magnificent cheese sauce
It starts with the ‘snacks,’ as Chris calls them—a British understatement, because in another restaurant these would be two courses. The celeriac hummus with beetroot, spinach and sugar snaps, using chicory leaves to scoop up the hummus, is quintessentially Vermeer. Just like the sprouts, which are briefly torched at the end with a blowtorch, melting the caramel powder. They are then served with an incredibly delicious cheese sauce. In the restaurant, you have to make do with one measly sprout, but thankfully you get a little more at home. And officially, dinner hasn’t even started yet.
Helpful funeral home
Vermeer’s most photographed dish is probably the bread-crust-baked scallop with seaweed butter and celeriac jus. A dish that is prepared in the oven. Luckily, I was able to borrow one from a helpful funeral home nearby (no joke!). This oven had certainly seen hotter fires, and the crust was therefore at least as golden as I know it from the restaurant. The jus alone is so delicious that we are immediately willing to die for it.
Help line
The cod fillet on hazelnut cabbage with a powerful fish soup is only an intermediate course, but it could easily have been a main, although the glazed veal cheek with pumpkin purée, pumpkin risotto and truffle granola is also a winner. I briefly panic because I don’t have a truffle grater in my collection, but luckily I can call the help line. Chris Naylor reassures me by telling me that I can also finely chop the truffle and sprinkle it over the tender veal.
Quince purée
To finish, the famous chocolate cake with rum sorbet and quince purée, followed by the friandises: a passion fruit choux pastry, a torched marshmallow (watch your eyebrows and your figure), a macaron with tiramisu cream and pale gingerbread figures that seem to have secretly wandered in from another century.
Abundance of deliciousness
The boxes for two are overwhelming, both in terms of quality and quantity. The portions could almost feed an entire family. It’s wonderful to see that you can finish such star-quality dishes at home with just a few simple steps. If you want to impress as a kitchen whiz, this is the moment. The box isn’t cheap: 299 euros (gulp!), but in addition to a four-course dinner, it also includes two bottles of wine—and therefore two elaborate amuse-bouches, as well as an abundance of treats to enjoy with coffee and liqueur, because even that is included. So don’t complain. The exceptionally rich flavors of all the dishes and the special experience make it absolutely worthwhile. You can order until Monday, December 28 at noon at the latest via info@restaurantvermeer.nl You really couldn’t wish for a tastier start to 2021!
Also read:
