Egon van Hoof MOS Amsterdam

Atmospheric

“You can come in jeans or a three-piece suit. The atmosphere is informal: it feels like a living room, albeit a very large one. There’s lots of light by day, and you can enjoy the view of the water. In the evening it’s very atmospheric with all the lights outside and the music gradually getting slightly louder. It’s very much an afternoon or evening out. You’re constantly stimulated by the quality of the food, the surprising combinations, the service, and the experience in and around the restaurant.”

Always changing

“Our cuisine is French, with international influences such as Japanese and Spanish. I like to contrast specific flavours so that they explode into even more wonderful ones. Our menu is always changing because we believe standing still means going back. We have a new dinner menu every six weeks, and the lunch menu changes every ten days, so there’s every reason to keep returning month after month.”

Distinctive and exciting

“I absolutely love combinations of fish and meat, like liver pâté with langoustine. They’re so exciting in terms of flavours. One of my signature dishes is sepia. I cut the squid very thin to make a kind of tagliatelle, then put it in a pan with beurre blanc, fenugreek, a little bit of ink, and roasted sunflower seeds. I serve this with a cream of crispy chicken skin and caviar. It’s very distinctive, and they go wonderfully together.”

Egon van Hoof was born in Amsterdam in 1979, and earned his stripes at Ron Blaauw and Aan de Poel. He became patron cuisinier of MOS Amsterdam, a gastronomic restaurant with a spectacular view of the IJ, in 2015, and earned a Michelin star within eighteen months.