Special hospitality concept: Het Keunenhuis in Winterswijk
I’m often asked: “What are some truly cool hospitality concepts?” Here’s my answer! Every week, I take you to the most special restaurants, bars and hotels at home and abroad. This time: the ‘culinary laboratory’ (sounds good, right?!) Het Keunenhuis in Winterswijk.
If I may give all foodies one piece of advice: go to Winterswijk! And here’s why: one of the Netherlands’ newest culinary hotspots can be found here. Something truly special is happening at Nel’s culinary laboratory Het Keunenhuis, where top chef Nel Schellekens is at the helm.
Farmhouse
First, the incredible location. Het Keunenhuis is a Natuurmonumenten estate featuring, among other things, a day labourer’s cottage, barn, water point and authentic farmhouse surrounded by meadows and hayfields, fields, hedgerows, an orchard, woodland and a swamp forest. The restaurant can be found in the rear house of Het Keunenhuis farm. The location alone makes the trip to Winterswijk worthwhile.
0% waste, 100% taste
Who exactly is behind the pots and pans? Nel Schellekens, former owner of restaurant De Gulle Waard in Winterswijk. At Het Keunenhuis, Nel works with her husband Henk den Herder and initiated the restaurant in collaboration with Natuurmonumenten. Now for the food. You enjoy it very intimately at the so-called ‘cooking altar’, where Nel works exclusively with local produce and new technologies. Everything is transparent and everything is open. Nel is also known for her nose-to-tail cooking style: waste has no place in her kitchen: ‘0% waste, 100% taste’ is her motto.
Cookery school
You can do much more here than enjoy Nel’s delicious creations, by the way. Guests can also cook along during a workshop. The adjoining cowshed, with a bakery and butcher’s section, maturation room and vegetable and fruit stall, is used as a cookery school. MEST (Maak En Smaak Theater, or Make and Taste Theatre) is an inspirational space in the former pot stable/manure area. Nel also gives tasting lectures and special guest classes here.
Micro-economy
Nel Schellekens is focusing on the future of ‘the restaurant’. As she puts it, she is creating a micro-economy for the immediate surroundings, so the countryside does not become even more depopulated. And so that butchers, bakers and ceramicists, among others, can maintain their livelihoods, which in turn attracts other small businesses and brings the entire region to life. The participants in this micro-economy help one another move forward, for example by revaluing less popular food and even food waste, which Nel processes through fermentation, brewing beer and even making perfume. These products regain a saleable value and are sold by the various businesses in the area.
Next generation
That Het Keunenhuis is truly worth a visit became clear at the presentation of the Entree Awards at the end of last year. Het Keunenhuis won the award for Next Generation, for which the jury looked at pioneers who lead the way by cooking excellently with their own innovative vision, independently of prevailing trends—one about how hospitality can and will be practised and how the next generation can and will eat.
Would you like to eat at Het Keunenhuis? This is only possible by registration, so don’t forget to do so well in advance.
Het Keunenhuis, Nel Schellekens’ culinary laboratory, Wooldseweg 127, Winterswijk
Iris Kranenburg is editor-in-chief of hospitality trade magazine Entree Magazine and chair of the jury for the annual Entree Awards (industry awards for the best new bars, restaurants and hotels in the Netherlands).
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