New direction for restaurant Kromme Watergang

Chef Edwin Vinke, together with rising star Wouter Kik and his son Tom Vinke, is embarking on a new direction for his  restaurant De Kromme Watergang in Zeeland, which has been awarded two Michelin stars. With his three-man dream team, he wants to bring even more rebellion into his kitchen.

With this change for his restaurant, Vinke is also saying goodbye to the training institute his restaurant used to be. His new kitchen partner, Wouter Kik, cooked at De Vierbannen in Ouwekerk for almost six years. At De Kromme Watergang, Kik can work with all the ingredients he dreams of, such as lobster, game, shellfish and crustaceans, as well as a vegetable and herb garden. This allows him to add more depth to his work.

In the blood

The apple does not fall far from the tree in the Vinke family. Vinke’s son has already worked at El Cellar de can Roca, which has three Michelin stars, and at the Cliff House Hotel in Ireland. Nevertheless, he says he most enjoys brainstorming with his father at home.

He is not the only one. A love of gastronomy at star level is often passed down from father to son. For example, the son of Soenil Bahadoer (of De Lindehof**), Ryan Bahadoer, followed in his father’s footsteps and started working at the Michelin-starred restaurant De Karpendonkse Hoeve. This was beautifully portrayed in the programme De nieuwe garde. He now works at The Student Hotel in Eindhoven. But Erik van Loo’s son, Juliën van Loo, also inherited his father’s cooking gene and now works at Bennelong Restaurant in Sydney, Australia. Robin van de Bunt followed in the footsteps of Paul van de Bunt after his death and now works at De Leuf in Limburg.

Image: © Pieter D’Hoop