Q&A with Jonathan Karpathios

Jonathan Karpathios won the Karel de Vos Award with his bieterbal. This is an award for the most sustainable contribution to the Dutch hospitality industry, presented during Horecava, the annual trade fair for everything related to hospitality. Karpathios spent three years developing the ball, which contains beetroot, onion, garlic, orange and a little cheese.

Which food trend should we put an end to immediately?

All-you-can-eat restaurants make me so sad. The quality of the food is ridiculous and the businesses do not put the love and attention into it that food deserves. The entire going out for dinner experience is really ruined this way. I would rather go to McDonald’s than stand in line for food with so many people. Life is too short to eat badly.

Most memorable dining experience?

At Blue Hill Farm in New York. Dan Barber cooks there and he inspires me. He exposes exactly what I am also working on, but on a much larger scale and with more power. He has such a great ability to distinguish himself in the field of sustainability. I ate a mini hamburger with beetroot there and, of course, the signature amuse with vegetable crisps. The vegetables are skewered on nails standing on a small rack. The freshly turned polenta with raisins was also special; it is wonderfully mushy. The corn is only ground an hour beforehand, so it cannot get any fresher.

Favorite drink?

I drink a lot of water, because I simply like it very much. When I go to a pub, gin and tonic or beer. Just lager, simple.

All-you-can-eat restaurants make me so sad

Essential kitchen gadget?

A Chinese mandoline, because it allows you to cut vegetables into very thin slices. When you slice raw vegetables thinly, you get a very fine texture.

What would you never eat again?

In France, there is a sausage called andouillette, which is made from offal. I get shivers down my spine when I think back to it. Not tasty and completely lacking in flavor.

Which country is your favorite when it comes to food?

I visit family in Greece every year. We have goats, chickens and a vegetable garden, so I love going there. The first thing I eat when I arrive on Greek soil is the meal the neighbor always makes for me. It might be a freshly made aubergine salad with stuffed vine leaves and delicious garlic bread.

What should everyone have eaten at least once?

The bieterbal. I hope everyone gets to taste it at least once.

What is the best product from the supermarket?

I quite often eat organic peanut butter in the morning. You can really taste the peanuts and it is not too sweet. It also contains no E-numbers, which is of course important to me.

What is still on your culinary wish list?

I would like to eat at In den Wulf before they close. I am a fan of Kobe Desramaults’ cooking style. He perfects things with so much attention and love, which is what we do too. Besides, he is simply a nice person.

Which cookbook should everyone have on their shelf?

Echt Eten, my book about the source of food. I think it can be a starting point for a new way of eating, a new way of nourishing ourselves.

What do you like to make at home when you want to eat quickly and well?

When I want to eat quickly and well, I simply make a juice. What I eat afterwards does not matter quite as much to me anymore. We have a vegetable juicer at home and I drink that in the morning. I then do not need to pay attention to the nutritional value of what I eat for the rest of the day, because I have already consumed everything I need.

Which dish do you have no self-control around?

You can really wake me up for fresh fries with good homemade mayonnaise. It is pure nature, but I rarely eat it. I also do not eat anything containing E621, such as crisps. It is a flavor enhancer, or yeast extract, that is extremely bad for you. Because of this E-number, you keep eating it. It is so chemical, and I am very careful about that.

Text: Nora van den Heuvel
Image: Jonathan Karpathios