Star chef goes small and intimate

At the beginning of 2017, food editor at large Marjan shared a plate of comfort food with two-Michelin-starred chef Richard van Oostenbrugge from Amsterdam hotel restaurant Bord’Eau. He admitted that if he were ever to start his own place, the food here would resemble it: high-level comfort food in an informal setting. Something Marjan wrote about earlier.

Not that starting out on his own was in any way on the cards, he assured her at the time. Last week, it became known that after seven years and two Michelin stars, Van Oostenbrugge is leaving Bord’Eau to start his own little restaurant somewhere along the Amstel together with his regular sous-chef Thomas Groot. Where exactly remains under wraps for now.

Up to 24 guests on stools at a bar around the kitchen.

The now nameless intimate eatery is due to open at the beginning of 2018, without tables, but instead with stools at a bar around the kitchen and its modest cooking team. ‘Intimate and fun; an experience’, Van Oostenbrugge calls the idea in Het Parool. An idea he says he picked up in New York and Hamburg.

Interaction

It’s not that Van Oostenbrugge no longer aspires to Michelin stars, but the initial focus will be on an informal, intimate atmosphere and plenty of interaction with the maximum of 24 guests per service. Naturally, combined with cooking at a high level. Good plan!

Dish photo: Marjan Ippel