Dennis Huwaë Daalder

Anything that’s not allowed

“I don’t want to put any particular stamp on my cooking, so I can do whatever I like whenever I like. Sometimes I describe my signature as Moluccan cuisine and everything that’s not allowed. Then nobody knows what I’m talking about, which I think is great. Whatever we do, we always put our own twist on it. My Italian chef went up the wall when I made fregola with Korean-style baked octopus and seaweed. ‘If my mother sees this, she’ll murder you,’ he said. Eventually, everyone loved it.”

Cheese sticks and anchovies

“The menu is a mix of memories, travel, and leaps of the imagination. Once I was eating cheese sticks and thinking of anchovies, and I turned those flavours into an aperitif. Or there’s our chicken satay amuse-bouche, which is not something you expect to see in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The kitchen can’t really be called a kitchen, because everything is all mixed up. I might like something today, but still do it differently tomorrow. Every day is a party here, a really fun party.”

When Dennis Huwaë (b. 1983) met Belgian Michelin-starred chef Guy van Cauteren at an early age, the encounter taught him the difference between a cook and a chef. He promised his father (who died much too early) that he would take the latter path, and never wavered from it. For years, he cycled the six miles from Zaandam to Amsterdam in the dead of night to make breakfast at the Hotel Okura. From there, he worked his way up to the starred kitchens of Ciel Bleu, ’t Brouwerskolkje, and &samhoud places. In 2016 he became patron cuisinier of Daalder in Amsterdam, where he earned a Michelin star in 2021.