Star chef Joris Peters (Aan de Zweth) seeks successor
Chef-owner Joris Peters announced last week that he is looking for a successor to run his restaurant Aan de Zweth in Schipluiden. Until then, he will continue to cook. BOIDR spoke to him just before he made this choice.
DATE
23 November 2023
TEXT
Frank Verhoef
IMAGE
Brian Mul
Star chef Joris Peters (Aan de Zweth) seeks successor
Chef-owner Joris Peters announced last week that he is looking for a successor to run his restaurant Aan de Zweth in Schipluiden. Until then, he will continue to cook. BOIDR spoke to him just before he made this choice.
'You need each other, then as a chef you shouldn't shout'
Since 2015, Peters has owned Aan de Zweth in Schipluiden, and within a year the establishment already received a Michelin star. That star did not come out of the blue. Hard work and long hours is the norm. By the way, without being a whole or half Gordon Ramsay. "You need your team and your team needs you. Then, as a chef, you shouldn't start shouting. You really can't do that in this day and age."
He gained experience throughout the country: at Wolfslaar in North Brabant, Lauswolt in Friesland and Michelin-starred restaurants De Librije in Overijssel and Inter Scaldes in Zeeland. Now, he serves 35 to 40 covers per round in South Holland: both lunch and dinner are popular with guests from the region and abroad, who visit restaurants with high ratings from the illustrious inspectors, Michelin booklet in hand.
Never eating out
With such a career in the hospitality industry, you would think that the good life and good food was instilled in Joris at an early age. Nothing could be further from the truth: cooking was not a pleasure at home. The Peters family hardly ever ate out anyway. "My mother could make food, but it was never that special.
In the Libelle, I saw a salad of green beans with goat cheese. So could I make it? I made an incredible mess in the kitchen, but it was great fun to do." At 14, he decided: I want to be a chef.
His parents wanted him to do mavo first. "I did that reluctantly. After mavo, I went straight to work at the cookery school in Breda." The basic training takes two years, the advanced training too. It wasn't challenging enough. "Then I responded to the star class, in which eight cooks a year from all over the Netherlands can participate. The ball started rolling. It inspired to be in the same class with all other enthusiastic top chefs."
Lobster salad with peach
The salad of lobster with peach, foam of curry, ground lovage and ginger vinaigrette Peters normally makes with North Sea crab. People have been coming to Aan de Zweth for it for years. By far most guests, about sixty per cent, come from South Holland. The other forty per cent come from elsewhere in the country or from Belgium, Germany and France. There is plenty of parking around the corner. "It's a draw, many people are looking for a place to sleep around here. Then they can quietly drink a chablis on the spacious terrace by the calmly rippling water, the Delftse Schie."
'Classic French, but with today's techniques and ingredients from the Méditerranée'
The basis of Peters' cooking style is classic French. "But with today's techniques as well as ingredients from the Méditerranée. I love fish, seafood and shellfish, combined with fresh notes."
One of his favourite dishes is the crispy fried sweetbreads with a vegetable gravy of barbecue vegetables and a cream of celeriac. Another is the dish with fried scallops, lukewarm foam of Parmesan cheese, a salad of cauliflower and hazelnut and a truffle vinaigrette. "Regulars never want to see this disappear from the menu," he says.
A new adventure
Aan de Zweth is a fifteen-minute drive from The Hague, twenty minutes at most. A city where now only one restaurant (Calla's) has a star. That could be better, right? Joris Peters nods, as he sits at his chef's table behind the kitchen. "I want to be in the business for another 20 years. The hospitality industry is tough, there are serious challenges. I'm not running away from that."
'I sometimes philosophise about The Hague'
How should we interpret the nod? "I sometimes philosophise about The Hague. I find it hard to let things go, I don't just leave here." A second business then, in the heart of The Hague, so we bring some more stars to the unofficial capital of the Netherlands? "Who knows," he laughs.
text Frank Verhoef image Brian Mul
'You need each other, then as a chef you shouldn't shout'
Since 2015, Peters has owned Aan de Zweth in Schipluiden, and within a year the establishment already received a Michelin star. That star did not come out of the blue. Hard work and long hours is the norm. By the way, without being a whole or half Gordon Ramsay. "You need your team and your team needs you. Then, as a chef, you shouldn't start shouting. You really can't do that in this day and age."
He gained experience throughout the country: at Wolfslaar in North Brabant, Lauswolt in Friesland and Michelin-starred restaurants De Librije in Overijssel and Inter Scaldes in Zeeland. Now, he serves 35 to 40 covers per round in South Holland: both lunch and dinner are popular with guests from the region and abroad, who visit restaurants with high ratings from the illustrious inspectors, Michelin booklet in hand.
Never eating out
With such a career in the hospitality industry, you would think that the good life and good food was instilled in Joris at an early age. Nothing could be further from the truth: cooking was not a pleasure at home. The Peters family hardly ever ate out anyway. "My mother could make food, but it was never that special.
In the Libelle, I saw a salad of green beans with goat cheese. So could I make it? I made an incredible mess in the kitchen, but it was great fun to do." At 14, he decided: I want to be a chef.
His parents wanted him to do mavo first. "I did that reluctantly. After mavo, I went straight to work at the cookery school in Breda." The basic training takes two years, the advanced training too. It wasn't challenging enough. "Then I responded to the star class, in which eight cooks a year from all over the Netherlands can participate. The ball started rolling. It inspired to be in the same class with all other enthusiastic top chefs."
Lobster salad with peach
The salad of lobster with peach, foam of curry, ground lovage and ginger vinaigrette Peters normally makes with North Sea crab. People have been coming to Aan de Zweth for it for years. By far most guests, about sixty per cent, come from South Holland. The other forty per cent come from elsewhere in the country or from Belgium, Germany and France. There is plenty of parking around the corner. "It's a draw, many people are looking for a place to sleep around here. Then they can quietly drink a chablis on the spacious terrace by the calmly rippling water, the Delftse Schie."
'Classic French, but with today's techniques and ingredients from the Méditerranée'
The basis of Peters' cooking style is classic French. "But with today's techniques as well as ingredients from the Méditerranée. I love fish, seafood and shellfish, combined with fresh notes."
One of his favourite dishes is the crispy fried sweetbreads with a vegetable gravy of barbecue vegetables and a cream of celeriac. Another is the dish with fried scallops, lukewarm foam of Parmesan cheese, a salad of cauliflower and hazelnut and a truffle vinaigrette. "Regulars never want to see this disappear from the menu," he says.
A new adventure
Aan de Zweth is a fifteen-minute drive from The Hague, twenty minutes at most. A city where now only one restaurant (Calla's) has a star. That could be better, right? Joris Peters nods, as he sits at his chef's table behind the kitchen. "I want to be in the business for another 20 years. The hospitality industry is tough, there are serious challenges. I'm not running away from that."
'I sometimes philosophise about The Hague'
How should we interpret the nod? "I sometimes philosophise about The Hague. I find it hard to let things go, I don't just leave here." A second business then, in the heart of The Hague, so we bring some more stars to the unofficial capital of the Netherlands? "Who knows," he laughs.