- 2 hours ago
Chef Yotam Ottolenghi joins Condé Nast Traveler as he explores his favorite Amsterdam food spots. From the innovative fermentation-led kitchen at Uncommon Bar and seasonal Dutch cooking at Café Binnenvisser, to comforting Japanese dishes at Gifu Ramen Bar, discover the restaurants shaping the city’s exciting food scene.
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00:00This is the best day I've had in a long time.
00:02All I do is eat.
00:03What a life.
00:04What a life.
00:14I'm Yotam Otelenghi and I'm taking you to some of my favorite places to eat in Amsterdam.
00:20This is where the chefs eat.
00:25I used to live in Amsterdam 30 years ago
00:27and I've recently opened a restaurant here
00:30so I've been spending more and more time in Amsterdam
00:33reconnecting with the city, getting to know its vibe, its great restaurants.
00:37It's really nice to be back to experience the city as it has kind of shifted and changed.
00:43I started actually cooking obsessively when I was living in Amsterdam before I moved to London.
00:49So I used to go and buy great produce here.
00:51They've got wonderful vegetables, there's wonderful cheese and fish.
00:55Some of my earliest experiments with cooking actually happened here when I used to live
00:59on one of the canals, getting to know ingredients in general, but actually Dutch ingredients.
01:04We're outside Uncommon Bar, this wonderful innovative place that does fermentations and great wine.
01:12The ferments are often using local ingredients, but at the same time using like super interesting techniques to create something
01:20which is really, really, really special.
01:24What is your order, Yotam?
01:25Can I have at this point of the day some black coffee?
01:28Yeah, would you like a filter coffee?
01:29Filter, yeah.
01:30We've been working with this producer in Colombia for the last two or three years.
01:34They have a lovely Ethiopian variety and they do a 72-hour aerobic fermentation and it's just delicious.
01:40So everything is fermented. The wine is fermented, the coffee is fermented, the pastries are fermented and the food is
01:46fermented.
01:46Yeah, we're unlocking a lot of cool, interesting flavours through our pastries and with fermentation.
01:51It's amazing.
01:52This is also a beautiful space and it's lovely to see those jars there, which we also have in our
01:59restaurants,
01:59with all the ferments and pickles and things that are just waiting to find a home or waiting to find
02:06a plate or a dish.
02:07Yeah, isn't that cool?
02:07It's so cool.
02:12Here we go.
02:13So we have two dishes to start with.
02:15This is our Jerusalem artichoke dish.
02:18We have a Jerusalem artichoke puree.
02:19Inside there is a chickpea buckwheat miso that we made last year.
02:23This is just some artichoke crisps.
02:24We have elderberry capers, which is the seed pod from the elderflower tree,
02:29which we've done a caper process with.
02:31Those are from two years ago.
02:32Also, they're about to celebrate their second birthday tomorrow.
02:34So this is like their birthday party?
02:36Yeah, almost. Very special day for everyone.
02:38And here we have our wild garlic and stinging nettle gnocchi with hazelnuts.
02:43On some pickled asparagus, we have the wild garlic flowers which were foraged
02:46and just the crispy potato skins from the gnocchi themselves.
02:49It looks beautiful.
02:50I love how they sit in these gorgeous, the bowls, I'm so jealous.
02:54I love how thin and elegant they are.
02:56We work with a forager.
02:57His name is Jona L.
02:58We've been working with him since the beginning,
02:59mainly around Amsterdam, but generally in Nord-Holland,
03:02to pick all of these wonderful local, really fresh ingredients for us.
03:07So for instance, this morning, he brought in some stinging nettles and the wild garlic,
03:11which we turned into a pesto for our gnocchi sauce.
03:14And also these flowers, which are from the wild garlic.
03:16That's just before they turn into a seed pod.
03:18Wild garlic was picked yesterday and it's on the plate now.
03:23And it's on the plate today, yes.
03:24You don't get more fresh than that.
03:26No, absolutely.
03:26So this is one of our favorite dishes that we've made so far.
03:29I love it because I think it's a nice sophisticated twist on this idea of chips and dips,
03:34which is very casual.
03:35Those are berries?
03:36It's the fruit from the elder tree.
03:38So it's after the elderflower has flowered, it's the seeds that come after.
03:42It's a labor of love, these, because you have to sit there for hours,
03:45picking them off individually. We used to take them home from work and sit in front of the TV
03:49at night time, just mindless because it takes hours and hours and hours.
03:54But that's foraging and fermentation.
03:56You get that kind of balance of acidity and richness through the pickling.
04:00When you have the gnocchi on its own, you go like, okay, that's beautiful,
04:05but I need some kind of acidity.
04:05It's very round of flavor.
04:07And then you hit on that and you go like, bing!
04:10Yeah, exactly.
04:11Absolutely.
04:11All those beautiful greens that have been foraged,
04:14it's like the freshest pesto you'll ever get, right?
04:17Yeah, yeah.
04:17Everything comes through.
04:20What's the fronty stuff?
04:21That is the potato skins from somewhere.
04:23When we make the gnocchi, we roast them on a bit of salt.
04:25It's my favorite way to get the nice clean, not wet potato middle.
04:29So we scoop it out and then we roast those and we use them as a crunch.
04:32Otherwise, normally they would just be thrown away, which is a real shame.
04:34Yeah, because potato skins are so good.
04:37Yeah, and it just gives another dimension.
04:39I started out with my journey with Uncommon in the cafe,
04:41where the idea for the menu was an uncommon ingredient or process.
04:45And that really kind of lit a spark in my head of how strange can I get
04:49before the people of Amsterdam start to go, are you sure?
04:52It's very eclectic.
04:53I love to take two cultures and smash them together.
04:56Same.
05:03Let's start with this one first.
05:05This is one of our desserts on our menu.
05:07It's all about quince.
05:09That was lacto-fermented in a 3.5% brine for about six months.
05:14So that's the jelly?
05:15No, that's the sorbet.
05:17Oh, that's the sorbet.
05:18And this on top, it's been fermented and then we dehydrated it.
05:20So it's a little bit crispy.
05:21So the jelly is the...
05:23The jelly is the European quince.
05:24And these flowers are currant flowers that are in bloom right now.
05:28It's just so quincey.
05:31In the best possible way.
05:33Now, I was kind of trying to draw some stuff out of this in a pastry.
05:38What is in there?
05:40This is all about pine, this one.
05:42Pine.
05:42Pine.
05:42So it's foraged pine.
05:44We make a pine custard that goes inside.
05:47There's a 70% chocolate creme, which also has pine in there.
05:50We use a pine syrup and a pine sugar.
05:52Wow.
05:53I didn't expect pine.
05:55So the first thing I thought, oh, I'm eating rosemary.
05:57Oh yeah, similar.
05:58And now you're saying it, of course, it's not rosemary, it's pine.
06:02So good.
06:04Gosh.
06:05In this place, you're coming in to be surprised by what Matt and the team have created for you,
06:11because it is about the unpredictability of nature, right?
06:15Like whatever that's going to come into the door, the ingredients will dictate what you're going to have on the
06:20plate.
06:21The idea of having pine inside a Danish pastry with chocolate is like so clever and so good and so
06:27uncommon.
06:43I love coming back here and see what people are doing because just like there's this kind of explosion
06:50of great ideas and some great people doing great things all around.
06:54How are you?
06:55So good to be here.
07:02I find it so amazing, like this place and the other places I'm visiting,
07:06how much Amsterdam changed since I used to live here, which was in the late 90s.
07:10Yeah.
07:11When I was here, there used to be like high-end restaurants and some simple places.
07:16Yeah, we designed it like the back is more like a dining room and people can actually secure a table,
07:22maybe for a date.
07:23And then at the front, we have this more feeling where you usually see for ramen bars.
07:27We're trying to find that sweet spot, not too bougie and not too simple.
07:31I think you did because it's not intimidating to come here.
07:34Yeah.
07:35It's very open.
07:36Yes.
07:36But on the other hand, you also feel like there is so much attention to detail.
07:41Yeah.
07:42And to get the attention to detail and still feel welcomed is an art form.
07:46Sometimes you go to stuffy French restaurant, excuse the French, and you feel like I'm not
07:50allowed to breathe here.
07:52But here is this just like beautiful openness, which is kind of traditional Japanese.
07:56Kind of like the alleyways.
07:58The alleyway space.
07:59The hidden spaces, yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:00And it just does that so well.
08:02And also, it's so Amsterdam in a way because you walk off the street.
08:06Yes.
08:06It's on the same level, on one of these canal sides, and the buildings are narrow.
08:11So it kind of tells the story.
08:12It's a Japanese story, but it's also a Dutch story, which is what I love.
08:22Hi, this is ramen tofu.
08:26We're using Japanese tofu and salted enoki and crispy rotas and homemade dashi sauce.
08:32Did you make the dashi vegan?
08:35Yeah, yeah.
08:36It's vegan.
08:36It looks delicious and beautiful.
08:38Oh, thank you.
08:40Enjoy.
08:40I just think this is such a lovely presentation for something so humble.
08:44It really is elevated through the broth and the tofu looks so beautiful and shiny.
08:50And then the enoki, it just looks like there's so much wonderful texture in there, right?
08:55Yes.
08:55We tried to combine it because tofu is a very simple ingredient and we had to find other
09:00ingredients to complement the texture as well and make it a little bit more interesting.
09:04And that combination of tofu and enoki is almost like a classic, but the presentation
09:10here is so different because it feels a bit more refined.
09:13Yes.
09:13And also very comforting because the broth makes it really juicy as well.
09:17Yeah.
09:18And the crisps, they add a bit more texture even to it.
09:20We've come down to try it.
09:22Let's go.
09:23Shall we do it?
09:26Wow.
09:28This is so delicious.
09:30I find it pretty incredible that it's vegan.
09:33It was really a challenge for the chef to make it vegan because in Japanese cuisine,
09:38yeah, there's always going to be fish.
09:40Yeah, because of the dried ingredients.
09:42But he made it work, so.
09:43It really is so good.
09:45It's very hard to resist.
09:47Compliments to the chef.
10:04So this is the famous non-kotsu ramen.
10:06And then broth is pork and chicken.
10:09And then we don't boil it in like 20 hours.
10:1420 hours?
10:15That's why it's really creamy.
10:17And then topping with marinated egg, spinach, and pork char siu.
10:22We're grilling with pinchota.
10:24It's like Japanese charcoal.
10:26So it's really smoky.
10:29Oh, nice.
10:30It looks so beautiful and welcoming.
10:32And also so elegant with a dark bowl.
10:35Enjoy.
10:36The whole idea of holding a bowl in your hand, I find it so comforting.
10:41My idea of comfort food is texture, getting up close to the food.
10:46Yes.
10:46And I like that you mentioned the bowl because we actually sourced this from Kifu,
10:51which is the name of the restaurant, but also the hometown of our chef.
10:55And we went there together to also look at the materials and the craftsmanship.
10:59So these bowls, yes, especially because we got it from there, actually.
11:03And also, I just love dark bowls.
11:06They just bring out the colors of whatever sits in them.
11:09So nice.
11:09It's just another contrast.
11:14Oh my goodness.
11:16That bra is just to die for.
11:19I feel so privileged to be here and getting that.
11:28Even for me, I had it so many times.
11:31Yeah.
11:31It's still like, it's so satisfying.
11:33So satisfying.
11:34The smokiness really comes out of the pork.
11:37Like it's so beautifully smoking on the grill.
11:50Misso eggplants.
11:51And at first, we de-prime eggplants, groomed with vinchotan.
11:57And then we put charcoal on the eggplant for the extra smoky flavor.
12:03And then you put miso.
12:05Yep.
12:05I love eggplants.
12:06Me too.
12:07Actually, this is my favorite dish of the menu.
12:10Is it?
12:10Yes.
12:10I'm just so happy we got an eggplant because I love cooking eggplants.
12:14It's like, I suppose my favorite vegetable really.
12:16And I do so much with it.
12:17So to get it here in your version, it's just, it feels really special.
12:21Yeah.
12:22Me too.
12:22I'm very excited for you to try it.
12:24Shall we just dig in?
12:25Yes.
12:28Oh my gosh.
12:31The smokiness and the sweetness.
12:35Wow.
12:37Nothing stays on this plate.
12:38No.
12:39It's all going, it's all going.
12:45I'm outside Café Binnenfesser.
12:47It's a beautiful place and they've got like comfort food and some great, great wines.
12:53I can't wait to go and see what they've got there for me.
13:01Cheers.
13:01Cheers.
13:02Have a good one.
13:07Mmm.
13:09Wow.
13:09It's like honey.
13:10Yeah.
13:11Oh my God.
13:12I have such a soft spot for natural wines.
13:15I just love how alive they are and how well they work with food.
13:18It's such a great combination.
13:25Soup is something we always start off here.
13:27It's like in the summer, it's cold soup.
13:29And in the winter, it's hot, of course.
13:30And it's always vegetable based.
13:32So it's something quick, something nice to start with, something warm and welcoming.
13:36Looks beautiful.
13:37I love the fact that all the bits of the leeks are used, including the green for the oils.
13:40And I love the fact when something is all about leeks, roasted or grilled on its own.
13:45And it's, it's just got, it's kind of got that beautiful sweetness.
13:48I'm going to have to try.
13:51Mmm.
13:52Oh, I love it.
13:53I love all the coconut there.
13:55It's a little bit of an Asian touch to it.
13:58It's so good.
13:58You stay hyper-seasonal, right?
14:01Yeah.
14:01We wait until the produce locally is ready.
14:03We're starting to go into the spring season with white asparagus.
14:07Very famous here in Amsterdam and in Holland.
14:09Everybody's getting crazy about it.
14:12It's a sign of spring and everybody just, you know, awakes.
14:15Flowers and asparagus.
14:17Yeah.
14:18Vegetables are so interesting to cook with because you can take chicken,
14:21you put it in the oven, you get a chicken when it comes out of the oven.
14:25But with vegetables, you can, the process is just so...
14:27Fermenting or drying or the different ways of roasting it.
14:31You can really tease out flavor.
14:41Wow, it's beautifully smoked, huh?
14:43Yeah, it's a smoked curd.
14:47Oh my god.
14:48The pistachio.
14:49I don't know if to eat it with a spoon or with a fork.
14:52You need to eat it with a spoon.
14:53I don't want to miss it.
14:54I love it that it's a kind of a combination because it's so, it's quite special.
14:59There's a lot of layer of vegetable going on with the pistachio broth.
15:04And the beet that's been kind of like, has like this wonderful texture from the salting.
15:09And the padron that's fried.
15:11So you get a lot in there.
15:13Plus the cheese and everything together.
15:15It's like, it's so rich.
15:16It's like a main course.
15:17Flavor-wise, it has a lot.
15:19But we love to cook with a lot of like explosive flavors.
15:22Yeah, I like that too.
15:23I know.
15:37It looks so beautiful.
15:38I love how you put the vegetable in the center.
15:41And this is a dish that has a cabbage at the very center.
15:43Like a nice, beautiful, big wedge.
15:45Like a celebration of that particular vegetable when it sits there right in the center.
15:49Nice acidity of the gooseberry.
15:51A really nice acidity.
15:54You need it with the richness of the sauce.
15:56And it's rich and buttery.
15:58But it doesn't feel heavy.
16:00No.
16:00It's just so satisfying because you have the layer of the mushrooms and tahini.
16:04And it's so beautiful and buttery.
16:06Yeah, it's super full of umami.
16:07Congratulations.
16:08This is so good.
16:11Restaurants and bars are like the modern community center.
16:14Like people spend more and more times at home or in front of screens.
16:17And a place like this with its kind of generous proportions.
16:21The light and then obviously the generosity of the hospitality.
16:25It's kind of the antidote to all this kind of like us with ourselves.
16:29Which is the world that we kind of need to get ourselves out to.
16:38I've been to three incredible places.
16:41Each one in its own way.
16:42They do great innovative things that combine tradition with innovation.
16:47And it's just so many good things.
16:49So many great people doing new things.
16:51And it feels very special to be joining this group of people with my restaurants
16:55at Mandarin Oriental here to do what we do well.
16:59It just feels very, very special within this incredible city and incredible food scene.
17:04Here we go.
17:07You have a really special place to work in the area.
17:07So many tons of people like us.
17:07And a lot of people like us.
17:07So many people like us.
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