Djailany van de Laarschot NASTRIUM

French basis, Moluccan roots

“If you want to know what makes us unique, you have to experience it for yourself. The cuisine is fairly classical French, but all the dishes contain Indonesian influences. The food is spicy, but not overly so. Moluccan cuisine is quite a bit milder than in the rest of Indonesia.

A lot of people assume I learned cooking from my Moluccan family, but that’s not strictly true. I’m self-taught. When I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be a chef – you feel it in yourself.”

Cross fertilisation

“Our signature dishes remind many guests of Chinese cuisine, but that’s not the case. Nasi rendang and babi pangang really do come from Indonesian cuisine, as do sweet and sour pork and egg fu yung. That’s why so many restaurant windows in the Netherlands call themselves Chinese-Indonesian. Our cooking gives a very distinctive twist to authentic Indonesian dishes. One real must-try is our seabass baked in banana leaves with homemade tomato sambal and seaweed salt, which we serve with a fluffy coconut rice and gulai ikan sauce. It’s a kind of Indonesia fish curry made with the same spices that we use for rendang. I often joke to guests that these are the spices they once took away from us, like cloves and cinnamon.”

A fun afternoon in Helmond

“We have a party from noon to 6 pm on the last Sunday of every month. There’s a DJ, and we serve a six-course lunch on a particular theme: a product such as king crab or lobster, or a cuisine such as Spanish or Italian. I really recommend it if you like eating and letting your hair down.” 

Djailany van de Laarschot (b. 1984) began his career twenty years ago in the restaurant that he now owns. It used to be classic French, and that is still the basis of his cuisine, but with influences from the Moluccan islands and elsewhere in Indonesia. Van de Laarschot learned a great deal from various kitchens, including De Lindehof in Nuenen, and has been patron cuisinier of Nastrium, in Helmond, since September 2017.