4 - Recognised
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Chef Rick Geven builds the monthly menu around named regional producers and the harvest from the restaurant's own kitchen garden, five minutes from the dining room.
Local and direct sourcing anchors the kitchen: named producers include Crole Natuurrund Vressel in Sint-Oedenrode for beef raised on Dutch nature reserves without artificial fertilisers or antibiotics, and De Duroc Hoeve in Son en Breugel for Duroc pork from free range pigs kept outdoors year round with straw bedding and uncut tails. Sourdough comes from Jurgen's Desem. Vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers are grown in the restaurant's own kitchen garden.
Seasonal cooking is a guiding principle: the menu changes every month and follows Dutch seasonal produce alongside the garden's evolving harvest. Fermenting and pickling in house let the kitchen preserve the season: ingredients that are available only briefly, or harvested all at once, are conserved and drawn on over a longer period, so the restaurant can keep working with local, seasonal ingredients even in winter, when regional supply is naturally scarcer. Reducing waste is a welcome benefit too.
Two named suppliers provide the restaurant's meat, both with documented animal welfare practices: conservation grazing for the beef from Crole Natuurrund Vressel, and outdoor year round rearing for the Duroc pork from De Duroc Hoeve.
The impact dimensions
Sustainable animal products✓
Named producers include Crole Natuurrund Vressel for beef, De Duroc Hoeve for Duroc pork, Jurgen's Desem for sourdough, and the restaurant's own kitchen garden for vegetables and herbs.
Strong local and direct sourcing across several categories. Named, traceable producers include Crole Natuurrund Vressel (beef, Sint-Oedenrode, approximately 10 km from the restaurant) confirmed independently by the producer's own customer listing; De Duroc Hoeve in Son en Breugel (Duroc pork, in the same village as the restaurant); and Jurgen's Desem for sourdough. Vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers are sourced from the restaurant's own kitchen garden five minutes from the dining room.
The We're Smart Green Guide profile and Brabant regional press both characterise the kitchen as built around regional products. Direct producer relationships are evident across meat, bread, and produce categories.
Menu changes monthly around Dutch seasonal produce and the garden's evolving harvest; the kitchen also ferments and pickles produce to use it later in the year.
Seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle. The restaurant's About page states 'a new menu every month with surprising flavours from the Dutch season', and the We're Smart Green Guide profile reinforces this with the description that chef Rick Geven lets 'the rhythm of the seasons and the generosity of nature guide the menu'.
Specific seasonal ingredients on the current menu (sloe blossom, rhubarb, snap beans, fennel, sucrine lettuce) are consistent with Dutch spring and early summer produce. Most dishes change with the season. The kitchen also ferments and pickles produce in house to preserve the season, conserving ingredients that are available only briefly or harvested at a single moment so they can be used over a longer period, into the winter when local supply is scarcer.
Beef from conservation grazing; free-range Duroc pork with documented welfare practices; dairy from Het Zuivelbos; eggs from certified sources; seafood with stated certifications.
Two named animal product suppliers with documented welfare and sustainability practices. Crole Natuurrund Vressel raises robust cattle breeds under conservation grazing partnerships with Staatsbosbeheer and Natuurmonumenten on Dutch nature reserves; artificial fertilisers and antibiotics are excluded by the producer's stated policy, and 't Kleijn Geluck appears as a horeca partner on the producer's website.
De Duroc Hoeve raises free range Duroc pigs outdoors year round with straw bedding and uncut tails, located in the same village as the restaurant.
Fully vegetarian garden menu (five courses) runs parallel to the omnivore regional menu; vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers are equally featured.
Meaningful plant presence with a mixed menu structure. The kitchen runs two parallel five course tasting menus: a fully vegetarian garden menu built from vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers from the restaurant's own kitchen plot, and a regional menu that adds fish and meat.
The vegetarian option is structurally equal in length and presentation to the omnivore option, not an afterthought. Chef Rick Geven is profiled in the We're Smart Green Guide which observes that 'several creations are purely plant' and characterises the restaurant as 'a serious contender'. A fully plant-based menu is not available.
Sourcing signals
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Direct named-farm sourcing
Own kitchen garden established in 2022, five minutes from the restaurant, supplying vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers that form the core of the plant-forward menu.
Multiple named direct relationships: Crole Natuurrund Vressel (beef, Sint-Oedenrode), De Duroc Hoeve (Duroc pork, Son en Breugel), Jurgen's Desem (sourdough).
