Menno van den Berg

You’re in here early…

“I’m usually at the office at nine o’clock in the morning. But i have too, the kitchen opens at eleven and you don’t want to cook from cans and buckets!”

De Kogelvanger is located in nature reserve De Kogelvanger. How important are fruits and vegetables on your menu.

“Very important. More and more guests want a vegetarian and healthy life. I love to work with fresh fruits and vegetables. Always did. Twenty years ago, when i worked at Zeezicht on the Grote Markt in Breda, i already made vegetarian menus and fruit and vegetable skewers for the children. There are so many great thing you can do with vegetables. For example, we make a carpaccio of figs, I thought: figs are red from the inside and carpaccio literally means ‘cut paper thin’. And that’s how we serve our figs. On top of some rocket, sprinkled with a red port honey and some feta and brined almonds on top. It just fits perfectly. And that’s what cooking is about. I’m a teacher for our future chefs and i regularly learn that students have their mouth full of a vegetable garden or a cress. I always say: first try that cress. If you have your mouth full of anise, can you even still taste the rest?”

What are your hit dishes?

“There’s no way to know that, it depends on whoever comes along. De Kogelvanger is a strange little shop. Sometimes we have like eighty people coming in from the forest that want to eat a la carte… It makes you stress resistant. We can switch effortlessly from the first to the sixth gear. I’m from a kitchen where six people were working on just one dish. In here we have to be very innovative when it comes to improvising.”

How do you manage all of that?

“It starts with the right purchasing. I always look for great ingredients that are easy to prepare and are within the budget. That’s why i like to work with Rungis. They have a young, enthusiastic team who fully support their product. They inspire me and think with me; they’re standing next to you as a partner. They look at the type of your menu, also when you’re not active in the highest segment. When i want my raw salad delivers in a 250 grams package instead of a kilo, then that’s possible. Nobody else could arrange that for me, no other supplier.”

You know a lot about sports nutrition and dietetic. Do you also apply that in the kitchen?

” Laughs: Because of our location between the Markdal and the Mastbos we get lots of walkers that want to eat healthy. On the other hand, these people also want a bitterbal in the afternoon! We get all type of people. Also lots of retired people. To serve everyone, our dishes consist of three components: a main ingredient with a sauce and a vegetable and potato garnish. In the summer we make a food ring instead of the standard salad: we thinly cut some cucumber on the long side. Of that we make a circle in which we put some lettuce with a nice dressing, old cheese, cashew nuts and raisins. In the winter we’re planning to do the same with vegetables. That means homework for Rungis: we want to develop a ‘haricot vert-roll 2.0’. In other words: three long vegetables that we tie up with Parma and present in a fan shape.”

What do you like yourself?

“Thinks deeply: those small kiwis are very surprising. And i love Dutch white asparagus tips. They’re so tender, juicy and it’s something different than the ordinary asparagus. I do all kinds of stuff with it. Like our lamb burger served with stir fried Dutch white asparagus tips with a strawberry salsa. I often show a bunch at the table: when the guests taste them, they’re already in love.”

Texst: ellenscholtens.nl