Tommy den Hartog
Tommy den Hartog is chef de cuisine of Restaurant Moon in the A’DAM Tower
Did a supplier ever get stuck on his way to the 19th?
‘No never, luckily the logistics is downstairs. Shortly after the opening there have been some technical glitches, but at that time it was us who were the lucky ones. Then after 10 floors of dragging we were like: catch a breath and keep going. But now the elevator is doing its job.’
No fear of heights?
‘Not me, i fully enjoy the view from the kitchen to the Central Station. But there were some applicants who asked if they could sit on the other side of the table. In that case, you could better not work here. The rotation doesn’t bother at all. The guests are on some kind of carousel that rotates 360 degrees, but very slowly. We have four artworks at different points in the restaurant. For the staff, that’s the indication of where their area is. Otherwise it would be impossible.’
Jaimie van Heije is signature chef; how do you work together?
‘I make the dishes. Then we taste it together and when needed we fine-tune the dish. For example when we miss a bit of sourness. Only when we both agree on the dish, we will put it on the menu. It’s a very natural way of cooperation.’
Every month you remix a dish with a famous artist?
‘We like to get inspired by the creativity of others, from people with another field of study. This month Valerio Zeno is the point of focus, known from the tv, but also as a dj. Then we ask: ‘what if you could take a bite of the moon, what would it taste like?’ Apparantly Valerio is crazy about Oreo cookies. ‘I hope the moon tastes like that’, he said. Well in that case, we make a dish based on Oreo, vanilla and cocoa.’
What do you like yourself?
‘When it comes to fruit: all kinds of citrus fruits. From the juice to the skin. With vegetables it’s more difficult to pick one: i like all sorts. But this time a year i choose mushrooms, truffles and tubers. We now have a dish with thymus which i’m very happy with. The thymus is vacuum cooked and baked crispy. Underneath lays an artichoke cream and a citrus gel of kalamansi, ginger, lime, lemon and yuzu. On top are some slices of raw mushrooms, dried orange powder and some sauce of orange and cloves. This summer we had ratatouille on the menu, but pulled apart. The dish was made out of a compote of eggplant, zucchini and garlic, cream of puffed eggplant and tahin, grated eggplant with pesto, mini zucchini which is also vacuum cooked, skinned mini tomatoes in a marinade of basil and a reduction of tomato and basil oil. Also very tasty.’
Why Rungis?
‘Because of the personal connection i have with them and the price quality. For the same reason we work with only one menu and with the lunch you can choose from five and with dinner you can choose from seven dishes. We do this to keep the quality and the freshness as high as possible. With 160 couverts every day it works best. And you hardly have any waste. I could recommend it to everyone.’