Lisette Ernens became the leading lady of culinary Holland. Her friendship with the top chef from The Hague Marcel van der Kleijn, with whom she organises the annual festival Haagse Wereld Hapjes on Lange Voorhout, laid the foundation for this. "He gave me the idea for a booking agency for star chefs on location," she says in the lounge of star restaurant Calla's on the Laan van Roos en Doorn. "There was no such thing yet and I already had years of experience with bookings and events with my former company."

Lisette Ernens and Ronald van Roon make a dish from the Sterrenchef box.

Soon Ernens was stringing together big names from across the country. "François Geurds of FG in Rotterdam, Paul Kappé of Monarh in Tilburg, Edwin Vinke of De Kromme Watergang in Zeeland," she lists. "Everyone saw fit."

Star Chef Box

And rightly so: Sterrenchef.com proved to be a gap in the market. 'RTL Boulevard' picked up the news and bookings for private dining, galas and weddings poured in. And then: corona. "Well, everything cancelled. So we had to change tack." In no time, there was the Star Chef Box: culinary enjoyment of a menu carefully crafted by the chefs to finish at home, with the help of a tutorial.

Whether the restaurants are open or not and whether star chefs can cook at home or not, the box is here to stay. Ernens: "People often order it because they want to put something special on the table, but don't want to spend all day in the kitchen. But there are also parents who don't want to be tied down to babysitting times with their children and people who don't want to 'bob'."

She recalls one very special request. "A girl who was dying ordered a box to say goodbye to her loved ones in an intimate way. That turned into an evening with a smile and a tear."

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Brief silence. Time to don the chef's jacket to demonstrate a dish from Calla's box with chef Ronald van Roon: roasted yellowtail kingfish with green olive, a cream of wasabi and melon. "The menu consists of four courses, this is the starter. You can of course expand the box with matching wines," said the ever calm Van Roon.

Because the eye also eats along, the chef has made clear instructions. "Smearing cream like that with a convex spoon is not something people at home will think of anytime soon," he winks.

Quality

To ensure his star quality, Van Roon chooses ingredients that survive the journey well. "For example, we don't choose a crisp that quickly becomes tough or small sprigs that quickly wilt." And how are the reactions? "People enjoy doing it and experiencing the restaurant experience at home at the same time, I notice." Ernens adds: "It's also nice for the restaurants that this way they can serve more 'guests' on Fridays and Saturdays."

Once the job is done, Ernens comes up with yet another culinary news. On 25 and 26 March 2022, she and Slot Zeist will hold the SterrenPreuvenement with ten star chefs. "A culinary walk through Slot Zeist with chefs in each room presenting their dishes: from Servais Tielman of 'Beluga loves you' in Maastricht to Jonathan Zandbergen of Merlet in Schoorl. So you get a cross-section of what the Netherlands has to offer at the top culinary level." Lisette Ernens is unstoppable.

www.sterrenchef.com, www.haagsewereldhapjes.nl , www.sterrenchefbox.nl and www.sterrenpreuvenement.nl