The Dutch Culinary Tradition

Honestly, I can be quite short about the Dutch and their culinary traditions. The basic approach to food was very crude (dare I say Calvinistic): boil everything to within an inch of it's life, mash it up with potatoes and pour generous helpings of fat over it and you're done...

My Gran used to live by these rules (admittedly, for a very long time) and I am still traumatised by the one week I was forced to stay there while my parents were off house-hunting in the US. Thank goodness my Grandad came from a long line of fishermen and used to secretely feed me fresh pan-fried fish in the garden shed.

So with this background, how did my interest for cooking come about I hear you ask? My mother, bless her, comes from a long line of cooking enthousiasts from Germany. Her baking skills are unrivalled, she's inquisitive, adventurous and has a long list of recipes which I hope to inherit as soon as she finds time to write them down. Please Mom please, make time!!!

Having lived and traveled abroad also taught me to look further afield than the cabbage patch back home. And of course, globalisation and the internet do have something to do with it. The supermarkets offer an abundance of strange and wonderful ingredients, it seems that everyone is interested in cooking these days. One of my favourite pastimes during boring meetings is to google for recipes. Being able to read 5 languages broadens the scope considerably!

Coming back to the Dutch culinary traditions, there is a positive, one that cannot be underestimated: the Dutch have been and always will be adventurous travellers. Our 400 year old relationship with Japan, our colonies, our trade routes, all have helped the Dutch to adopt other countries culinary traditions and make them part of our own traditions.

Up till a few decades ago, this was practically only noticeable in restaurants for the less financially challenged in our larger cities. The Hague, where many families who had links to our colony days flocked together, the adventure really got started. The Hague still lists some of the best Indonesian restaurants. Surinam also contributed enormously. And last but certainly not least, the influx of new foreign residents (Turkey, Marocco, Greece, Italy, etc) has given our multi cultural traditions a new impulse.

All foreign influences aside, the Dutch have always been very good bakers. Our genetic sweet tooth has produced lovely cookies, breads, cakes and pies. Unfortunately, possibly due to our overall Calvinistic outlook on life and maybe also because of a lack of more sophisticated ingredients, we've never taken it to the heights that other European countries have. Then again, a good 'stroopwafel' is nothing to be sneezed at!