Zal I tell her about that time I threw a pheasant at your head?", chuckles Marcel van der Kleijn. His wife Sharon van Tongeren, who had been quietly following the conversation until then, frowned. "Well, that's quite a story, isn't it." The chef, sitting at the cognac-coloured corner bench in Tapisco restaurant, continues. "So I was filleting a pheasant in the kitchen of Calla's, when I saw out of the corner of my eye that Sharon was skewering a plate. Immediately I then threw that animal at her. I did that to more people, you know. Yes, when you have a star business, everything has to be perfect."

Van Tongeren: "I was used to something, but that pheasant, that was the last straw. People asked me: 'How do you put up with that man?'" Van der Kleijn nods. "Yes, I also realised I had to change."

In almost a quarter-century, Marcel van der Kleijn built up the respectable number of five restaurants in The Hague: Calla's*, BIT, Goed Volck, Oogst and Tapisco.

Zeeland-born Marcel van der Kleijn built up the respectable number of five restaurants in The Hague in almost a quarter of a century: Calla's*, BIT, Goed Volck, Oogst and Tapisco. The latter two received a Bib Gourmand from Michelin. He built his empire through hard work. Van der Kleijn demands a lot not only from himself, but also from his apprentices. He has since trained hundreds of them. In the beginning, he kept 'a Brevet method', referring to Jannis Brevet, chef of the three-star restaurant Inter Scaldes (Zeeland).

Michelin star

"With Jannis I worked for four years. First at Chagall in Leidschendam and then at 't Koetshuis in Rhenen. Both restaurants had a Michelin star. He followed, well I call it the German method. Just don't talk in the kitchen. No, not cosy. But back then, you didn't cook for fun either. Jannis talked and we just said, 'Bon, chef.' Every day at 11.30, we had to present on a plate something that would be cooked that night. If he didn't like it, it had to be redone. A costly affair. Later, when I was allowed to work at Hotel Corona, I was actually the same: no nattering in the kitchen, just work. Then, when something went wrong, I turned out to be a kind of Gordon Ramsey: cursing, ranting, yes, even throwing things."

Iberico ham

He looks smiling at his wife, who is imperturbably tasting a freshly brought iberico ham. "One of my first students had messed something up once. I was so angry about that that I made him redo the dish after working hours. 'No, chef,' he said. 'I'm going out after work.' Well, pretty much not. The good thing was: he never messed anything up again after that."

Van der Kleijn grabs a piece of bread and dips it in the oil. "Oh well, it could always be worse. With Jannis you had to look at his shoes for five minutes if you had done something wrong, I haven't adopted that tradition, mind you. And nowadays you can't do that at all." As he picks up the plank of ham hocks, he addresses an imaginary chef in a soft voice: "Say, would you cut the slices a little thinner from now on, please? Then: "You have to continuously stroke someone's shoulder. Is not my style at all, of course, but those who shout at their staff now are losing people."

Ronald van Roon

His opposite number is Ronald van Roon, chef of Calla's. "That's a very gentle chef. He has that by nature. Yet he has that drive to want to reach the highest level. Kyan van Bommel, chef at Oogst, is also like that. He cooks for a star. The other day I received a Spanish applicant: Eduardo, fantastic. He is now enjoying himself at BIT, but I see him moving on to Tapisco. And Stefan Rog was seventeen when he took over the vegetable side at BIT with two fingers in his nose. Am very happy that he is now the chef at Goed Volck."

From left to right: chefs Bas Kamsteeg (BIT), Marcel van der Kleijn, Jeroen Stok (Calla's), Ronald van Roon (Calla's) at Tapisco restaurant.

The advantage of so many things is that people can grow. The downside: people also get snatched away. Van der Kleijn suffers from that. "I'm going to talk to my lawyer anyway to see if we can revise those contracts. For example, that they repay the training costs if they leave here after a year or that the other party pays a transfer fee, just like in the football world." He takes a sip of his verdejo. "What are you saying? Yes, you are right. I should take it as a compliment."

www.restaurantcallas.nl, www.restaurantoogst.nl, www.restauranttapisco.nl, www.goedvolck.nl www.bitgrill.nl