About the routes

DUTCH CUISINE ROUTES: INSPIRATION, SURPRISE AND EXPERIENCE

Our eating culture is more than the catering establishments, restaurant, and food on your plate. There is an entire experience around it, which is shaped by our culture, the landscape, the history, the story, the people behind it, the resulting products and recipes, and the movement over time. We bring this to life in the Dutch Cuisine routes by means of stories from the chefs, producers, and culture and opinion makers. We will surprise you with fun and interesting facts about each region, linking them to activities: ‘Do – See – Taste’. Decide for yourself which locations you want to visit on the route, create your own peregrinations to Holland’s taste generators and turn our eating culture into a personal experience.
 

ABOUT DUTCH CUISINE

Dutch Cuisine is a movement that puts Dutch cuisine and the Dutch eating culture on the map both nationally and internationally. The movement focuses on improving the sustainability of our food consumption. In the kitchen, vegetables are the leading stars and meat and fish play a supporting role. Dutch Cuisine stands for unexpected combinations with regional and international ingredients that are pure and good and taste of nature. Dutch Cuisine makes the unique and creative identity of Dutch cuisine visible and tangible, advocating five principles that are sustainable for man and the environment.
 

DUTCH CUISINE, PART OF OUR DNA

Out continuous stream of innovations and amazing creativity shows up in our products and on the plates of Dutch Cuisine chefs: that’s where everything comes together. The dishes not only reflect the Dutch seasons and regions, but the innovative power and creativity of our cuisine as well. Bringing it all together on the plate covers the entire process ‘from soil to mouth’—the entire food chain. All of this shapes our Dutch food culture.
 

THE 5 PRINCIPLES

Dutch Cuisine hanteert vijf principes die gestoeld zijn op de Nederlandse culinaire identiteit. Principes die duurzaam zijn voor mens, dier en milieu en leidend zijn voor ons dagelijks handelen. Deze 5 principes van Dutch Cuisine zijn gebaseerd op het gedachtegoed van SVH Meesterkok Albert Kooy en vastgelegd in een manifest.

 
1

Culture

The dish reflects where we are and which season we are in
Dutch Cuisine is here to promote the Netherlands’ gastronomic culture. Our culture has always been an adoptive one, open and connected with the world. Something we continue to persevere with. Along with that, in the Netherlands we are able to vary our food with seasonal dishes. We’re pretty unique in that aspect. As a rule, nature determines our menu and the dish on our plate reveals where we are and which season we’re in.

Our aim
80% seasonal produce with as much as possible sourced from the Netherlands / 20% out-of-season produce.

2

Health

Good for us and our world
We cook and eat in a way that’s healthy and varied. We use more fruit and vegetables, and less meat and fish. Eating healthily results in feeling good. It’s good for the body, good for the mind and good for the planet!

Our aim
80% fruit and vegetables / 20% meat and fish

 
3

Nature

Honest, multi-faceted food from what nature offers us
Nature’s biodiversity determines what we have to hand. Honest, multifaceted food from what the land and sea naturally produces through the seasons, without artificial additives. We are creative, in order to use the whole product and not just the parts which are easiest. From head to tail, without waste.

Our aim
Use what nature offers us through the seasons, avoid use of artificial additives, work right through from head to tail and waste nothing.

4

Quality

We purchase, cook and eat with high awareness
We recognise quality and taste. We purchase, cook and eat with high awareness. With respect to the ingredients, the source, the producer and the people we deal with along the way. When buying we therefore don’t just look at the price, but also at the quality. We invest in healthy produce, a healthy way of eating and the knowledge about it.

Our aim
Honest, high-quality produce which is, as far as possible, organic, Fairtrade, kind to animals, pure, fresh, seasonal and regional/local.

 
5

Value

We work towards tomorrow
As a result of the four previously described principles, we create value which is beneficial all-round. We eat and live healthier, we leave the earth in a better state, we waste less, we pay the producer a fair price and we ensure better animal welfare.

Our aim
Dutch Cuisine is the guardian of the Netherlands’ way of eating and works towards tomorrow. Everything the earth has to offer us is a gift from previous generations, which we have a duty to pass on to the generations of the future.

Read more on Dutch Cuisine on www.dutch-cuisine.nl