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A luxury spa resort with a star kitchen
Myra Prinsen-2009-10-06
Long before its opening in September 2007, there were lofty ambitions for the cooking that would take place at the Cour du Nord restaurant. The ambition was realised almost immediately. In November 2008, barely a year after its opening, the restaurant received its first Michelin star.
The lofty ambitions of Cour du Nord have everything to do with its beautiful surroundings. The design of the restaurant had to fit into a larger overall concept as Cour du Nord is part of the luxury Hof van Saksen holiday resort in the heart of the beautiful Drenthe region. The resort boasts 634 Saxon-style farmhouse cottages, some of which have private saunas and whirlpools.
The resort’s main building, the Havezate, houses a large Spa & Wellness Centre, complete with Finnish sauna, Turkish steam baths, Jacuzzis, a fitness room and solarium. Guests can be pampered with pedicures, massage and beauty treatments. Use of the Spa and Wellness Centre is not exclusive to resort guests and the same open access principle applies to the restaurant.
Most reservations are actually from non-residents and the people of the Northern provinces are clearly prepared to clock up some mileage for the chance to sample food from one of the region’s top chefs.
Light eating
Ultimately, however, Michelin stars have nothing to do with a restaurant’s surroundings. What counts in the business of Michelin inspections and awarding stars is a chef’s ability to perform and the end product on the plate.
Head chef, Pieter de Ronde, has devised a two-page menu that is updated 6 times a year. Certain luxury items are ever-presents: caviar, oysters, 36 month-dried Jamon Iberico. "The left side of the menu offers inventive variations on French classics that we prepare for enthusiasts of this kind of food," says the head chef. "The right side offers more creative dishes. We work with ingredients of the highest quality. Fresh and in season which we give the best possible preparation. The structure of our menus makes it imperative that we know what is and isn’t in season over the course of a calendar year."
Finesse, lightness and a feeling for texture are the keywords used by the Cour du Nord kitchen to characterize itself. Pieter de Ronde enjoys cooking with vegetables but is economical in his use of dairy products: “I have no real specialties but I strive to achieve light touches as this enables people to sample more. The Menu Découverte offers 6 or 7 courses that typify our offering very well. This menu enables us to show who we are and will satisfy guests without leaving them feeling bloated when they leave the table."
Well-known names for the kitchen and interior
The design brief for the new resort was the inclusion of a high-quality restaurant. During the earlier development phases, Chef Robert Kranenborg, a long-time holder of 2 Michelin stars with La Rive restaurant in Amsterdam’s Amstel Hotel, was brought in to advise. Kranenborg and de Ronde had worked together previously, maintaining close contact ever since, and the two men continue to work together devising a menu for Cour du Nord. "We taste dishes and discuss the menu together. This works very well as it helps us to maintain focus," says de Ronde.
The task of overseeing the development of the restaurant’s interior attracted another well-known name, Netherlands designer, Piet Boon, who conceived the overall design concept for the Havezate prior to the 2007 opening of the resort. A Havezate is the term given to the large country houses formerly inhabited by the region’s more wealthy farmers and Boon’s vision was to create a calm and natural feel combined with an almost tough and robust restaurant interior.
So with a first Michelin star for the restaurant under his belt, where does that leave de Ronde’s ambitions for Cour du Nord? As de Ronde explains, "Will we work for a second star? Our team is growing month by the month and people are working with each other even better than before. We will continue to work hard together in what can be demanding environment and, in the first place, our priority is to maintain the first Michelin star. After this, who knows what the future will bring."
Cour du Nord
Hof van Saksen
Veldweg 22-24
9449 PW Nooitgedacht
Tel. 0592-243830
