VATupdate Newsletter Week 28 2023

CUISINE

The Netherlands is not known for its great cuisine. Simply said, the best a cook in the Netherlands can do is put potatoes and vegetables in the same pan, boil it and then mash it to pieces. Serve with some grease or perhaps a sausage.

In the past, I had meetings with foreign clients or colleagues, and almost all of them remarked on the specific tastes of ‘the Dutchies’. For lunch we usually stick with a sandwich, consisting of bread with cheese, on the side we have an apple, and we complete it with a glass of milk. Often, we eat this behind our desks, and just continue working.

It’s not that we don’t like food. And some people even like to cook and spend time in the kitchen. But apparently, it is caused by the industrialisation and religion.

In the 19th century, when the Dutch Golden Age of exploration and colonization was over, the Netherlands lost many territories to England, and frugality became fashionable. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, girls were sent to special housekeeping schools, where they learned to cook simply, cheaply, and quickly. Experimenting with tastes, ingredients, and cooking methods was seen as frivolous, and therefore was frowned upon. As a result, the Dutch culinary culture lost most of its early adventurousness and became known for the bland and mashed concoctions we find today.

But it started much earlier, during the 16th century. The Netherlands has been a Protestant nation since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Martin Luther and John Calvin’s teachings were very popular among the Dutch. In fact, William of Orange was a Calvinist. Furthermore, the Eighty Years’ War wasn’t just a war of independence. It was also a war between the Spanish Catholics and William of Orange’s Protestant Calvinists. The Calvinism influence on the Dutch is that they took a view that the world should be simple.

Meanwhile, the Dutch people invented their own favourite food styles. You can’t get the same Chinese or Italian food anywhere else but here. If you visit the Netherlands this summer, try our Babi Pangang!

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