Have you ever wondered what is the story behind the fine dining, Michelin star restaurant Eindeloos and its sustainability? The restaurant is located in the center of Leeuwarden, stay with us for more!
Even though Eindeloos is a fine dining restaurant, its main focus is still on local products and close collaboration with local farmers and producers. The owner has a long history working in restaurants, both in the Netherlands and outside of it, learning from the best. Along the way, he has learned how to cook and how to be sustainable, which is now an important factor of the restaurant. We had the pleasure to interview the owner of Eindeloos, Willem Schaafsma.
Could you introduce yourself?
I am Willem Schaafsma, 38 years old and I’ve been the owner of restaurant Eindeloos in Leeuwarden for over 12 years. Restaurant Eindeloos is all about fine dining with local based products.
What was the reason you wanted to become a chef?
I didn’t want to become a cook at first. My dream was to become a vet in a zoo with big cats and wolves. At the timeI really wanted to go to IPC Barneveld, however there was a draw system.I didn’t get selected for the school, so I had to make other plans. I went to a hospitality school with my friends. I became a chef, they became something else.The hierarchy in the kitchen, the working pressure, fresh and local products, different tastes ad that you can prepare one single ingredient in so many different ways were triggered to start a career in the hospitality sector.
Has sustainability always been a key factor at the beginning of your career?
No, I learnt everything about tactics first. I worked in the best restaurants and I was really competitive. I always wanted to be better, faster and more beautiful than my colleagues. Bad and good ideas about recipes started to come very early in my career, but I choose to ignore them because I just wanted to focus on cooking at that time. When I started off my own restaurant, a lot of things changed for me. I started to think about where products come from, what my style would be and how I would lead people that work for me. In the months before I opened the restaurant, I visited a lot of local farmers, bakers, fishers, hunters and butchers. They became the basis of restaurant Eindeloos and still are until this very day.
With what ingredients do you enjoy cooking when cooking sustainably?
A few favorite ingredients are parsnip, radish, chicory, mackerel, Frisian lamb and Frisian deer. But what is sustainability? It is one of the more difficult topics to understand and for it to understand sustainability, you have to delve into sustainable for now and how sustainability will look like in the future.For example; is bio sustainability and can biologic products feed the mouth of the earths population? 10 Pigs on a field may look sustainable, but it weighs harder on the earth than 1000 pigs on a 500m2 field.The same thing could be said about tomatoes; tomatoes from Spain are growing out in the open air while the tomatoes from the Netherlands are growing in greenhouses. Here at restaurant Eindeloos we choose for animals with a good life and buy our vegetables local. Both these products are not sustainable friendly if you look from a certain perspective, hence our motto: “Sometimes BIO, Sometimes Logical”.
When a recipe is not sustainable, do you still like to eat it then, does it still taste good?
Yes, I love fresh Tuna. Is fresh tuna sustainable? Mostly not, but when it is on the table I really enjoy it. Tuna is a quality product that should be left alone in the sea and increase the amount of tuna.
Which dish do you no longer prepare in the restaurant because it no longer fits in with the spirit of the times, because it is not sustainable?
We stopped making tuna at the restaurant. Tuna does not live in the North Sea anymore so instead of tuna, we are now using mackerel. Funny fact: Tuna and mackerel come from the same ‘fishing family’ with mackerel being the ‘head’ of it. However, we only use sustainable fish here at restaurant Eindeloos. We decide what fish with the help of the (local) fishermen and fish suppliers.
Does sustainable food always taste good?
Sustainable food always tastes good, but we need cooks in order to make it taste good. Cooking a steak is easy; Put it on the grill and put some seasoning on it. In other words: everyone can do it with a bit of help. However, dishes with more steps and flavors require more skill.
What do you find difficult when cooking sustainably? Are there extra challenges you face?The extra challenges I face are that the consumer is not always willing to eat sustainable (or vegan) and the uncertainty whether you’re cooking it right or wrong. We do what we think is right and we’re making conscious decisions about meat, fish and vegetables.
How would you rate yourself compared to other restaurants on the sustainability scale?
That’s a difficult question to answer. Everyone has their own opinion on what they value and then give a score for that. We are being sustainable in our own way and we are growing by doing so.I would personally rate my restaurant above average because we have the knowledge for it.
In a nutshell, Eindeloos is a restaurant that has knowledge about sustainable food and puts it into practice in its own way since it is opened. Their motto is “Sometimes BIO, Sometimes Logical”, which means they do not only just buy locals, but also consider how they are grown and impact the environment. They make conscious decisions about the products they use based on what they think is right. For example, Eindeloos choose for animals with a good life, buy local vegetables and sustainable fish that are decided with the help of the (local) fish suppliers.Therefore, their menu is sometimes changed to be more sustainable without losing the quality of the dish. Eindeloos have focused on eco-friendly products and is still growing to follow the social trend.
