IN CONVERSATION WITH JORIS BIJDENDIJK
Interview by Samo Šajn
Joris Bijdendijk is one of the most influential voices in Dutch gastronomy. As executive chef of the Michelin-starred restaurants RIJKS and Wils, and founder of the acclaimed Low Food movement, he combines a deep respect for local ingredients with a bold, modern vision. Named Chef of the Year 2025 by Gault&Millau, Joris continues to shape the future of food in the Netherlands.
As a child, you spent weekends on a farm in the Belgian Ardennes. How did those early experiences with food and nature influence you as a chef today?
My early experiences in the Belgian Ardennes are truly the foundation of who I am today. I believe it's incredibly important, especially when you grow up in a big city without much nature, to see how things grow and to cook as much as possible when you're young. For me, living in a big city during the week and always being in Belgium on the weekends was a perfect combination.
Our farm was a self-sufficient, authentic place. We didn't even have tap water; we'd go to the source to get our mineral water from the mountain, and we had our own vegetable garden. It was built as a truly self-sufficient environment. It's still super cool, and I love bringing my own kids there now so they can experience the same things. There's a river where we catch trout, and we cook everything over a wood fire.
RIJKS is located in the Rijksmuseum and has held a Michelin star for years. How do you mix Dutch tradition with modern cooking in your dishes there?
It all starts with knowing the people who produce our beautiful ingredients, knowing the fishermen, the farmers, and telling their stories. Without our great producers, I'm just a clown in a chef's jacket. But because of them, I'm a chef who can be proud and promote this restaurant. I essentially act as the podium for the people who bring me all these incredible foods and wines. We give those beautiful products a podium.
You’ve said you want to help create a new food identity for the Netherlands. What do you think Dutch cuisine should be known for?
A lot! First, for the amazing products we can find here in the Netherlands. Second, we have incredible influences in our Dutch culture due to our history. While that history isn't always "amazing," it has shaped who we are today. For me, the two most significant influences on Dutch cuisine are Indonesian and Surinamese cuisines, and all the ingredients associated with those cultures.
You can see this subtly reflected on our menus. My right-hand person in the kitchen at RIJKS has Surinamese roots, and my left-hand person has Indonesian roots. It’s amazing! We make beautiful Indonesian sambals as compliments to our dishes, and we use Surinamese dishes as inspiration for new creations.
Your Low Food movement focuses on sustainability and innovation in the kitchen. What changes do you think the food world needs most right now?
It needs innovation to improve, and that means focusing on research and education. We need to bring different groups of people together: chefs need to connect with policymakers, who need to connect with farmers, who need to connect with scientists. All these groups must work together to generate new, great ideas to make our entire food scene more dynamic, diverse, and innovative.
Wils is all about cooking with fire. What makes cooking over open flames so special to you?
An open flame is like a beautiful bag of spices. It seasons your food in a way nothing else can. Fire isn't just for cooking; it's a flavour maker. You can use it in so many ways to impart so many distinct flavours. You can create intense smoke, or a subtle, long-lasting smoke for cold smoking. You can char-roast or blacken things. You can use it in such a dynamic way. Cooking on open fire requires feeling and emotion, it's not like an induction burner where you just set a timer and temperature. It's about cooking with your senses, and I believe everyone should learn that. It's real cooking.
As a Master Chef and founder of the Low Food Chefs Academy, what advice do you give young chefs just starting out?
What we try to achieve with the Low Food Chefs Academy is to help young chefs create their own vision for what they want to achieve with cooking. Instead of just being a line cook, peeling 100 kilos of potatoes every day, you can tell your story through the plate and achieve things far bigger than you might imagine.
Also, strive to become a better chef every year. Just take a small step forward annually. Keep learning, look around, work together, and share your secrets! This is how your entire region can grow. When you share all your knowledge, people will do the same with you, and you'll all thrive much more.
You’ve written several cookbooks. What do you hope people feel or learn when they read and cook from them?
My cookbooks are primarily focused on home cooking because I believe that if we want to truly change our gastronomy, we need to reach a broad audience. This means motivating people at home to buy unprocessed products. A raw carrot, for example, not a package with carrot puree inside.
The more people cook at home, the more food culture develops, and the more people will discuss food quality. Criticism is actually very good; it helps to improve food quality. In the 80s, it was perfectly normal to open a can of beans and serve that in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Luckily, people don't accept that anymore. So, the more knowledge people have, the more critical they can become, and the better your overall food culture becomes. My books are focused on home cooks, teaching them everything I know and giving them more knowledge about quality and nice tricks to make amazing food at home.
You were just named Chef of the Year by Gault&Millau. What are your next big dreams or projects?
We're focused on making RIJKS and Wils as successful as possible. We have a lot of ambition and are working to keep them fully booked in the coming years. I'm a person who prefers to focus on a project for a long time, rather than just a year and then moving on. Everything for me is about long-term thinking. My goal is for RIJKS to remain one of the top restaurants in the Netherlands for the next 50 years. There are many other projects underway, but our overarching goal is to spread the word about Dutch gastronomy.
