Bas Diepenbroek and Reza Mintjes
Bas Diepenbroek and Reza Mintjes are the head chefs at restaurant Jacobsz in Amsterdam
Two captains behind the stove?
Bas: ‘At the moment we have a clear division of tasks. Reza has been working at Jacobsz for a long time and has great organization skills. He provides structure.’ Reza: ‘Bas is the creative one: he comes up with all the dishes and creates the right team spirit. Together we’re a good team.’
On your Facebook page i saw salted mackerel, raw and roasted beets, cream of goats cheese, salted lemon and horseradish…
Bas: ‘At the moment we have a dessert of yuzu, jerusalem artichoke and dulce choco. From the yuzu we maken a cremeux that we put between the jerusalem artichoke and dulce. Chocolate is salty, but also bitter and with an earthy side. We make a cream out of that. The jerusalem artichoke goes in the oven and turns into some kind of caramel thanks to the natural sugars; that becomes a parfait. The entire dish gets covered in crisps made out of jerusalem artichoke. The dish is, kind of, hidden. But no matter how important the look is, we want to distinguish ourselves with flavor. We love bitters, like beer and cardoon. Preferably in combination with the salty seaweed, we use very often, or for example fried capers.’
I saw a lot more of interesting dishes, like celeriac in a salted crust, crumb of peanuts, cream of celeriac, kimchi of rhubarb, roasted cassava root and vegetarian tom kha kai…
Bas: ‘Whether a dish is vegetarian or not, we always look at the vegetables first. We never boil our vegetables; you will lose all the flavors. We roast or puff them. Everything to preserve those pure flavors.’ Reza: ‘We have a very nice vegetarian in-between course: we roast yellow beets and finish it with a sauce of capes, cream of rye bread, foam of buttermilk and fried capers.’ Bas: ‘We only use five components. Most of the time we opt for the intense flavors, but make sure they fit nice together. The balance is very important. With every bite you can taste the right ingredients and the perfect seasoning. That’s Jacobsz.’
You’re doing really well. At the Foodbloggers Awards you received the titles of Best New Restaurant and Best Social Media of 2017!
Bas: ‘Of course we’re super excited we’ve won that first title! Reza: ‘But you also need that second one to become ‘best new’. You just need social media nowadays.’
What do you look forward to in the kitchen?
Bas: ‘Ramson is coming: i’m a big fan of that. I also like oxalis. And tomatoes on the bunch. We make the most beautiful juices or stocks out of them which we use in our dishes.’ Reza: ‘I’ve never liked asparagus, but we prepare them sous vide in the Röner, this way the bite is retained. Delicious.’ Bas: ‘And in terms of fruit: berries and strawberries. After a period of heavier dishes we will be working with lighter ingredients.’
Why Rungis?
Reza: ‘Why not?’ Bas: ‘Quality always comes first, we run so many couverts, you can’t enter any cooperation with farmers that way…’ Reza: ‘Rungis is very constant and has a huge assortment. There’s just a lot possible with them.’