Q&A with Yvette van Boven
If you still don’t know who Yvette van Boven is by now, you must have been living under a huge rock. For years, she’s been creating our favourite cookbooks and programmes, and last month she released no fewer than two new books in quick succession.
Home Sweet Home, in which she takes you to Ireland, where her roots lie. In Home Sweet Home Xmas, she makes sure you get through the Christmas holidays worry-free but thoroughly culinary. And she can also be seen every Monday evening on Koken met van Boven. High time for a Q&A, then.
Which food trend should we put an end to immediately?
As far as I’m concerned, all of them: just eat what you enjoy, act normally and alternate in good conscience: rich versus a leaner day. Eat meat occasionally, but not every day anymore.
Most memorable food experience?
Gnocchi with cheese sauce in a tiled dining room lit with neon lights in a small hotel in Tuscany. We were the only guests and the room was quite large. At first, we didn’t feel very comfortable, but then the gnocchi arrived at the table and I slid out of my plastic bucket chair with delight.
Favourite drink?
Red wine, negroni, single malt whiskey.
I thought it was too much theatre, and they tasted like old hats
Indispensable kitchen gadget?
My Benriner: a small Japanese mandoline. It works wonders on every vegetable.
What would you never eat again?
Deep-fried grasshoppers. I really didn’t see the appeal: at Coba (a truly fantastic Mexican restaurant in Amsterdam Noord: people, do go there!) they serve them with a glass of mezcal. I thought it was too much theatre, and they tasted like old hats. I do enjoy eating whole fried prawns, on the other hand.
Which country is your favourite when it comes to food?
Ireland… no, Italy, Italy I think, yes.
It was so sweet that it brought tears to my eyes
What should everyone have eaten at least once?
Fresh broad beans from my garden, just double-podded. Raw. Or let me put it this way: everyone should taste vegetables picked straight from a kitchen garden at least once in their life. The first time I ate lettuce, for example, freshly picked with the soil still on it, it was so sweet that it brought tears to my eyes.
What is the best product from the supermarket?
Crackers. I’ve eaten thin rye crackers for as long as I can remember. Preferably Ryvita, but for some dark reason they’re no longer sold in the Netherlands. The Fjord brand comes closest now. The blue packets. Incidentally, I take Ryvita home in bulk whenever I see it in a supermarket in Ireland. That keeps me going for a while. Oh yes: and thankfully my Jumbo now also sells Maldon salt, so I no longer have to cycle elsewhere for it.
What’s still on your food wish list?
I’d always wanted to eat at Osteria Francescana in Modena. I’ve now made a reservation there for my birthday. I’d also love to travel to Mexico one day; then I’ll definitely go to the restaurant Hartwood in Tulum, but I think that in that country I’ll end up eating a great deal everywhere anyway. I’m very fond of chillies.
Which cookbook should everyone have on their shelf?
Goodness. Does it have to be one? Then Forgotten Skills Of Cooking by Darina Allen. I learned a lot from it. Darina is Ireland’s Delia Smith. She has a wonderful cookery school with breathtaking gardens and a restaurant in Cork. Her former mother-in-law Myrtle Allen was more or less the first woman to document Irish cuisine in modern times, and Darina has taken all of that from her.
Forgotten Skills is a wonderful book: not only is it filled with excellent recipes, it also explains methods and techniques well—a foundational book. How do you make cider? Butter? Where can you find hawthorn, and what do you do with it? Essentially, the real Home Made.
What do you like to make at home when you want to eat quickly and well?
Some kind of hearty Italian vegetable soup: whatever vegetables I have from the kitchen garden or vegetable drawer; tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, pearled spelt or farro cooked in it, a splash of olive oil, chilli flakes and grated or crumbled cheese on top. I always have all of that at home.
Which dish makes you lose all self-control?
Cassoulet.
