„How a Dutch
When I was 14, I had no idea what I wanted to do. But my brother is a chef as well and has his own restaurant in Holland. When he came home, he was always so enthusiastic about his work, it was amazing.
I began my journey by helping my brother at the restaurant and, just after a year of work, came to a realization that becoming a chef was my life’s dream.
As a chef, you have to be baker, a fisherman, a butcher, a gardener. You have to acknowledge so many different things, you always have to learn, and for me, it was very exciting.
Over the course of my career, I worked for many different places, from catering companies to Michelin-star restaurants. Shortly after taking part in the culinary competition held by Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, I received my first experience with a Michelin-star restaurant. Soon, I was offered a position at a different restaurant in the Netherlands, De Librije, which by the time also held three Michelin stars.
The job at De Librije demanded working up to 80 hours a week, in which I had to cut vegetables into cubes and sort through herbs. At first, I was discouraged. In my previous jobs, I was doing much more, and I was convinced I could handle more complex tasks as a working chef.
Everything changed when, one day, I was allowed to take part in plating dishes with twenty other chefs at De Librije. This was the moment I finally saw what I was cutting vegetable cubes for every day. Something changed, and I realized that this was exactly what I wanted.
Since that day, I spent over eight years at De Librije, gradually working my way up from a junior chef to a station chef, and then to the sous-chef. In my last year at the restaurant, I finally became head chef.
My career at the Hotel Vitznauerhof was a result of a coincidence. While traveling around Switzerland in 2017 with my girlfriend, we decided to take a detour and visit the place. It is a magical place. When you walk in, it’s like a fairy tale.
March 2018, my adventure in Switzerland began.