The Netherlands’ most pure restaurant; Natuurlijk.

Lisette Kreischer (Check HERE my previous article about her ), organised and thus invited me to the election of the The Puur Restaurant Week (Pure Restaurant Week), which took place yesterday in Restaurant Proef in the Westerpark in Amsterdam. The election took place for the 3^rd time and there are 324 participating restaurants. Proef has been founded 7 years ago by Marije Vogelzang and Piet Hekker in Rotterdam (he’s also founder of the Bakkerswinkel, which is just like Proef situated in the park). They moved to Amsterdam in 2006 and since last month Marije focuses on her work as a designer and Piet is running the restaurant on his own now. The restaurant looks industrial, cool and yet warm like a homey livingroom.

The audience was a mix of amongst other restaurant-owners, culinary journalists, biological ingredient suppliers, sponsors, bloggers and writers and other foodies. At 15.00h the guests received a welcome drink. Rabarbarella is a cocktail which reminded me of a smoothie, it had a beautiful texture and a very girlish-pretty-pink-colour, consisting of rhubarb, banana and  a hint of… vodka. The meeting started with an introduction by Jeannette van Mullem, the initiator of the Puur Restaurant Week, with a welcome-word and an explanation of the Puur Restaurant Week. All participating restaurants offer a 3 course honest, fair and pure menu. The Ambassador of this one-week-lasting event; cook and tv- maker Ramon Beuk, was unfortunately not present, but we were shown a short movie he made to promote the week, check below (in Dutch);

Jeannette told us; “I hope the culinary journalists present, will spread the word about the Puur Restaurant Week. Everyone should know about this election and about the Pure Week and about how honest and pure the nominated pure restaurants are. While showing a Powerpoint presentation, she informed the audience more in-debt about the the Puur Restaurant Week and also pictures were shown of the dishes the jury-members had tasted. These dishes will be the same dishes you can eat when you visit and choose the pure menu! The participating restaurants were assessed by questionnaires filled in by guests and the goals was to pick out the 5 best, but the jury had such a tough job they decided to make it 6. All the conditions of the Puur Restaurant Week had to be taken into account; biological ingredients, fair-trade food and sustainably caught fish; also the menus  were evaluated on flavour, quality and presentation of the dish. The jury consisted of Jeannette van Mullem, Jeroen Thijssen, culinary journalist of Dutch newspaper Trouw, the Chief editor of Misset Horeca; Martine Zuil, Chief editor of Dutch foodie magazine Delicious; Makkie Mulder and of course the ambassador of the week; Ramon Beuk. During the event we were offered fairtrade, organic and sustainably prepared drinks and snacks. I tested a banana-beer… very interesting but perhaps more suitable for a tropical beach than a fall day in Amsterdam.

The nominees were;

• Aangenaam in Haarlem. The jury was impressed by a quinoa salad.  Aangenaam is the Dutch word for agreeable, pleasant, pleasing and the jury said that that’s exactly what their dinner in this place was.
• De Culinaire Werkplaats from Amsterdam (The Culinary Workplace; See my previous article about De Culinaire Werkplaats HERE). Eric Meurs and Marjolijn Wintjes were the only restaurant-owners who could unfortunately not attend this event. De Culinaire Werkplaats is a restaurant where you experience food, where you learn about food, where food and art are one.
• Fifteen in  Amsterdam prepared a bruschetta with tomatoe, olive oil and basilicum. This place, founded by Sarriel Taus, cooks tasty, is sociable and sustainable according to the judges.
• In Merkelbach in Amsterdam, Jeanette herself was the lucky jury-member to have dinner and she tried seabass, puree of parsnip, “oerwortel”  (which is translated as prehistoric carrot, but I have no idea if that is also the English name) and pancetta. She said this place has an elegant way of cooking.
• Natuurlijk in Egmond presented a loin beef carpaccio with old cheese, pineseeds and applesirup. The judge (Dutch newspaper Trouw culinairy journalist Jeroen Thijssen) described this place as Ridder in de orde van duurzaamheid  (In English this would be translated as “Knight in the order of Sustainability”, derived from The Order of Orange-Nassau, in Dutch: Orde van Oranje-Nassau, which is a military and civil order of The Netherlands, created on April 4 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of The Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina.
• De Veldkeuken (The Fieldkitchen) in Culemborg, presented their assigned judge with bread with seeds, goat-cheese, walnuts and honey. The judgement was that the restaurant is very special on a very special spot.  A pearl in Culemborg, situated next to the river the Lek.

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The winner was Natuurlijk in Egmond aan Zee. Natuurlijk means natural or of course. Natuurlijk took the concepts of sustainable, fair trade and biological and presented them in an approachable way. They stimulate sustainability in every way and are very accesible. The winners Niels en Mirjam Gouda,who opened their restaurant only 7 months ago, and the other nominees, received awards and of course great fame and publicity. The owner of winning Natuurlijk mentioned her restaurant is only open for 7 months. I saw on their website that on top of the food the offer some extra’s I’m definitely interested in! As a goodbye we received a pure bonbon made by Van chocolade. On their website I see they make chocolates from amongst others salvia, wasabi and even gorgonzola. Wow. I’ll definitely keep you updated about my opinion on those!

What do you think of the Puur Restaurant Week? Would you go? Did you try any of these restaurants? What was your experience?

More info;
Lisette Kreischer has got a new website and it’s gorgeous; http://www.lisettekreischer.com
All about & to make reservations Puur Restaurant Week http://www.puurrestaurantweek.nl
Restaurant Natuurlijk in Egmond aan Zee http://www.natuurlijk-egmond.nl
Restaurant Proef in Amsterdam http://www.proefamsterdam.nl
Restaurant Aangenaam in Haarlem http://www.aangenaametenendrinken.nl
De Culinaire Werkplaats http://www.deculinairewerkplaats.nl
Fifteen Amsterdam http://www.fifteen.nl
Restaurant Merkelbach in Amsterdam http://www.restaurantmerkelbach.nl
Restaurant de Veldkeuken in Culemborg http://www.veldkeuken.nl
Van chocolade http://www.vanchocolade.nl

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Puur Restaurant Week

Puur Restaurant Week

The Puur Restaurant Week (The Pure Restaurant Week), is a week in which more than 300 restaurants in The Netherlands offer a “pure” menu next to their regular menu as well, in which biological, fairtrade and  sustainably caught fish play a central role. In this week the price of the menu is not relevant,but the story behind the products is. The Puur Restaurant Week takes place in The Netherlands from 14 until 20 November 2011.

On November 9 the election of The Netherlands most pure Restaurant will happen, and I will keep you updated about that! (Thx again, Lisette! )

OOOow ooops and Happy , beautiful, healthy & tasty birthday Lisette ( http://www.lisettekreischer.com/ & http://twitter.com/#!/veggieinpumps )!!!

Don’t know who Lisette is? WHAT? You haven’t read my articles.
Check this one out; https://dlcsmanagement.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/i-want-it-all-inspired-by-holland%e2%80%99s-sexiest-vegan/

Puur Restaurant Week

Puur Restaurant Week

More info; http://www.puurrestaurantweek.nl

All the participating resturants; http://www.puurrestaurantweek.nl/restaurants.html

Pure Pact by Veggie in Pumps at De Culinaire Werkplaats

As announced, Lisette Kreischer of (amongst others) Veggie in Pumps (http://www.veggieinpumps.com), invited me to the official presentation and Dutch product- launch of Pure Pact; a new organic haircare productline (http://www.purepact.nl). Last Tuesday this happening took place at De Culinaire Werkplaats in Amsterdam (http://www.deculinairewerkplaats.nl).

 

I can’t give you my opinion on the products yet, I’ll take my time to test them and will keep you posted. Everyone who I’ve met who tried the products though, was super-enthusiastic, amongst which Dianne te Mebel, director and owner of Instituut Haar en Gezondheid (http://www.instituuthaarengezondheid.nl), a hair-saloon in Amsterdam which specialises in working with (and particularly painting with) natural products. They are one of Holland’s first saloons to use Pure Pact.

If Pure Pact is as good and honest as they say (100% purity allows raw material to activate long after application. 100% pure organics – from herbs, plants, flowers and fruits – extracted with the newest technologies for the purest result, preserve the maximum from nature’s gifts for cosmetic use), I’ll become a fan. I’ll let you know! My comment so far is that I wonder what is the meaning of all those ingredients on the packages… is it all truly biological and ecological? Minus; I want to know what’s in the products I use and I’m not a scientist.

BUT;

Lisette, now I’ve met you live, I’m even more impressed with your style. You know how to market a product and organise an event. No, to create an experience! Of course she didn’t do it alone, so big up for the whole team of Veggie in Pumps; I also had the pleasure to meet Amadea, Dieke and Marloes.

As expected, I love the location the event took place at; De Culinaire Werkplaats is a beautiful experience on its own, their team made very good vegan snacks to trigger all senses, with flavours connecting to the Pure Pact products. For example;a “cocktail” of black carrot, lime and cres, a “spoonfull” explosion of chocolate, strawberry and mint, or vegan “bitterballen” with quinoa and sesame and soy-yoghurtsauce- very impressive! This has been the first time I liked a soya-“dairy”-product. My favourite snack was chips made of lotus root. I’d never seen a fresh lotus root so I asked Eric Meursing (together with Marjolein Wintjes he is creator of de Culinaire Werkplaats), where I could buy one and he gave me one. I’ll also let you know what I did with it soon! Also I would like to thank the beautiful “Kleine Medewerker” of De Culinaire Werkplaats, because she seemed to put passion and love in the lovely snacks she was making. They turned me on!

I met some interesting and inspiring people at this excellent networking event ; June, with her stylish blog on tips and ideas on ethical fashion, eco beauty, fair food en eco travel;   (http://www.followjune.nl) , Liv, a “beautyblogger”, who blogs about natural cosmetics, ethical fashion and pure food; (http://puraliv.blogspot.com), I also met two lovely ladies from Den Haag & Rotterdam (forgot your names, sorry!), one of them is working together with Lisette to develop an innovative and unique concept, I’ll see if they’ll allow me to write about that when the development hits a next stage. And last but not least, thank you Dieke for the nice head & shoulders massage! Very relaxing and very recommendable(http://www.salonphysique.nl).

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“Kind of a journalist” & organic haircare

Remember the sexy vegan (Lisette Kreischer, check here )? She contacted me to invite me to the official exclusive Dutch presentation of a new vegan/ natural/ biobased, ecofabulous hairstylingbrand! Ofcourse I’m pretty excited to get to meet Lisette, PLUS, she asked me to write something about all this..  “because I’m kind of a journalist now” she said… WOW, pretty cool huh?

The ladies of Veggie in Pumps (One of Lisette’s initiatives) promise to seduce all invitees with a selection of pure products from purepact and vegetarian fingerfood, and the location will be the winner of the prize  Benelux’ best vegetable restaurant of 2011; “De Culinaire Werkplaats” in Amsterdam. I’m definitively curious about this place too! It’s not a restaurant, this “culinary workingplace” seems to be a place to experience food.

 

 

Organic haircare by purepact
Purepact is the organic and aromatherapy division of PACT. PACT is leading the way with innovative products, derived from safe renewable natural resources and already well established in twenty European countries. Products from PACT are derived from safe renewable resources, contain no animal ingredients and are not tested on animals. TO BE CONTINUED!…

 

 

My question to you; do you care what kind of cosmetics, beautyproducts and haircare you use? Do you mind putting chemicals in your hair or on your body? Do you prefer to use natural products only? Do you purchase your beauty-stuff with awareness? Or do you really not pay attention to what kind of beauty products you buy at all?

For more info check; http://www.veggieinpumps.com , http://www.pactuk.com/purepact , http://www.purepact.nl 

 

I want it all. Inspired by Holland’s sexiest vegan.

After hearing an interview on Dutch radio 1 with Lisette Kreischer on June 30 (click) , I was impressed.
 

This woman seems to know her food.

In fact, she seems to LIVE FOOD too.

PLUS she has ideals and communicates these.

On top of all this she sounded very happy, intelligent and approachable and after listening to the interview a few questions arose to me.  On the radio they mentioned how sexy she is and that she participated in the “sexiest vegetarian of 2010 election”. Of course after hearing this I instantly googled her and wow.. I read some articles, checked her sites, her work, some clips….. from that moment on, she’s a total source of inspiration to me. I thought; why not just try to ask her the questions that came up to me? In the worst case she just doesn’t want to answer them…  

Unfortunately Lisette  didn’t win the sexiest-vegetarian-competition though (Re-run in 2011? Let’s all vote for her!),  the winner was Sanne Vogel. I had to look her up too.. doesn’t look bad, seems talented, but I’d still vote for Lisette because after speaking to her I figured out one can’t be more aware of food than she is! She was the only vegan (For the layman, check what that entails here on Wikipedia -click- ) entering the competition so let’s just call her Holland’s sexiest vegan. Initially I just wanted to ask her 3 foodie-Q’s, but after some research I figured out she has many passions and interests and that she found a way to professionally combine these. That is exactly my goal in life. I am currently trying to figure out how to shape this.

Anyway…
She indeed turned out to be as nice & communicative as I thought (and yes, I did honestly tell her I’m a meat- lover. I also told her that I try to eat meat -and anything else- consciously.) so here’s the result of my talk to her;

LISETTE:
…Funny! I just talked about this with a friend; Roos (click). She’s capable, brilliant, she can do so much, she wants a lot, and she asked me; Do I have to put aside everything I like to just focus on one thing? I told her that I think if you keep track yourself and have an overview, and keep 1 vision in mind in everything you do, even when expressed in different ways and shapes, those ways and the outcomes will be pure. As long as you have a clear image of what you want yourself.

DLCS:
I was one of the people with the prejudice that all vegetarians look unhealthy. You look healthy and even sexy! What is your secret? I mean…I’ve never met you, all I know of you could be photo-shopped or adapted, but I don’t get that impression..

LISETTE:
Everything you see, everything I present, is real-life. The pictures have not been photo-shopped, the food is real, there’s no hairspray over it, we just eat it after making pictures of it.

Humans are not meat-eaters, nor plant-eaters. Man can perfectly well live on any kind of diet. Shortages have often been discussed in the medical world: everyone is ill, allergic, sensitive.. I just see the possibility, the option of taking care of myself well. I’m just a human. I don’t eat healthy and balanced because I have knowledge, but because I listen. I didn’t study for this or anything like that. I listen to myself. To the signals my body gives. For example; what do proteins do to me? What gives me energy? What is the effect of certain nutrients? Is my stomach bothering me? You feel that. You listen to it. I’m vegan for 10 years, vegetarian for 20 years and I’m almost 30. Food is energy. I have no ailments, no illnesses… I do have to knock on wood now. I consume enough vitamins and feel good. I can enjoy everything. I am the human I am,  a phenomenon on earth, a creature, an animal.. I need energy and make sure I get it down. I’ve gotten stronger and more resilient in the past few years. I do Yoga, dance and in the most recent years even feel the desire to practise active sports such as surfing and kite-surfing. When I want some extra energy I have nuts, grains or extra Spirulina. If your diet is good and balanced you don’t miss out on anything else.

DLCS:
I do think you have much more awareness of what you eat than some others…

Lisette:
More aware.. well yeah it’s my profession. You have to think about what’s your mission on this earth. What is your dream? Who do you want to be? What would you like to do as a human? I think about these kind of things since I was little. I used to really think about the big questions-of-life; What is life? How does nature work? Many people are disconnected from what it’s really about. Food is very important. You put it in your mouth, so you have to know what it is.

DLCS:
I really love tasty, good and healthy food but do catch myself on sometimes being too lazy or undisciplined when it comes to food. You know; I work, I have a busy social life… Do you think that even the lazy-and-always-busy-youngsters-of-today could be vegetarian/vegan?

LISETTE:
5 years ago, my goal was to reach “The Mass”. Now I’ve reached everything but the mass. Of course I got through to the “cultural creatives” first. They are first in line for everything that’s hip AND they are aware. I also want to reach those crazy, busy sweet-tooth’s, hence my next upcoming cookingbook; “Ecofabulous, wat de pot schaft”. I was writing just now, today is my writing-day. This book will contain simple but tasty and healthy dishes such as the Dutch “Stamppot”. Many youngsters ARE interested in the background of food, but the background is not always clear nor easy to check. Here for I would like to reach a wider target-group, hence the stand on Mysteryland (Are You going to Mysteryland on August 27 (click) ? Visit Lisette in the Ecofabulous Area!) . There you find the “mainstream audience”, the “snelle Jelle” (Snelle is the Dutch word for quick and Jelle is a Dutch boy’s name. Dutch expression for person in a hurry). I would like to make them aware of what they eat. I DO understand why they are so busy, but I always did what I wanted. Never got “stuck” in a job. I don’t recognise being lazy related to food but when it comes to Yoga or sports I do. That is for me less natural than being aware of what I eat. I know it’s good for me. The easy way has less and less power for me. The escape of the easy way out doesn’t do it for me anymore then.

DLCS:
After my first question you have actually already answered my 3^rd one…

LISETTE:
Oh but I have more to say about this, ask me!

DLCS:
Ok. Why would you convince me to not eat meat anymore anyway?

LISETTE:
It’s just Win-Win. You spend less money, you can buy more products, you can keep your products longer. I buy a lot in bulk, for example big chunks, grains. I live by the seasons. Digesting meat and dairy costs a lot of energy. Plants are much easier to digest. 45 billion animals die a year because of meat and the bio-industry. The Meat Industry is responsible for 18% of the total CO2 emissions and 13% of the transport sector. Eating meat is also very environment-unfriendly! It creates a giant part of the climate change problem. If we would all consume plants it would matter so much! In 2050 we’ll have to feed 9 billion people and we are already low on food! If we would all only consume plants, there would be many more possibilities for use of the earth, we could for example feed 4 billion people extra.

There are many sensitive people like you, people who think about what they eat, who are aware of what they consume, if they would all quit eating meat to make a statement, it would still not be enough. Most people don’t know that because of animal-consumption we also waste a lot of water. If you really want to know what you eat as a consumer, you would have to study this 7 days a week. There is too little knowledge and information is tough to find. On top of this, the government already subsidies the dairy and meat industry. From being small and onwards, one hears that drinking milk is good, but IS milk suitable for human consumption? We could completely live on vegetable food; seaweed is the future. It is easy to produce on small scale. You just need water and sunlight! The protein-level in seaweed is very high and easier to take in by the body than proteins from meat. Calcium from milk is for example not easy taken in by the body. Calcium from broccoli on the other hand is. Are we meant to consume diaryproducts? Because of the surplus of milk, we even over-consume it. Does this have anything to do with all those allergies people have? I’m not a dietician so I don’t know this but I do wonder…  

DLCS:
Do you use supplements on top of your regular nutrition? How do you make sure you take on everything?

LISETTE:
I use Spirulina (click for Wiki) and eat a lot of seaweed. I also take vitamin B12 (click), because usually we take this on from animal consumption. It’s for example produced in the stomach of the cow. I could also retrieve it from cow-manure, but I doubt that it will be very tasty with some salt and pepper..

For more info on Lisette Kreischer, her activities & living Ecofabulous, CHECK; www.veggierose.nl 

   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Lisette for your time, info & pics

& Thx Wikipedia for making us wiser !