‘Starting over: cooking with conscience’ was the title of the presentation given by Bas Van Kranen in the auditorium of Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España. It would be difficult to better express the gastronomic philosophy of this chef, whom the pandemic helped to reinvent himself and focus on defending producers and local raw materials.

But his story began much earlier, as he had ‘a highly developed love of cooking’ from an early age. So much so that at the age of 15, he began working in a Michelin-starred restaurant, where he wanted to ‘find out what went on in the kitchen’ because he longed to ‘be a chef’. There he discovered ‘the work ethic required to create a dish and give pleasure to customers’.

So, he began to learn cooking and expand his knowledge in small restaurants and cafés, at large events, ‘to learn about all areas’ of gastronomy. Over time, he also realised how ‘Amsterdam and other cuisines were inspired by French gastronomy’, or in other words, using ingredients such as ‘cream and butter’, that allow you to create ‘beautiful, but dense sauces’.

Later, the Dutchman had the opportunity to take over the Bord'Eau restaurant in Amsterdam, but after a year he grew tired of ‘working with the same ingredients. I like to surprise people with things they haven't tried before’.

The pandemic, a turning point

Perhaps for many it was the death knell for their businesses, but the pandemic shutdown meant a change of direction in Van Kranen's professional life. ‘We started a project with farmers, livestock breeders, and people who harvest food in the countryside. An open conversation to see what they need to produce that food’, he explained on stage in the auditorium.

One of his most influential encounters was with Jan Dirk, from De Groote Voort, the Remeker cheese manufacturer. The chef explained that ‘he inspired me to review all my ingredients and think about where they come from and whether they are harmful to the ecosystem’. In short, he was captivated by his philosophy. So much so that he decided he didn't want to ‘reopen as before, with customers expecting caviar and sauces, so it took me a while to think about what I wanted to do and how I could do it’.

That's how Flore was born, which started in 2021 and required ‘investing a lot of time in research’ because he wanted to make sure they used ‘seasonal products. He wanted to maintain the same quality of ingredients, but ensure they were locally sourced’. Based on this concept, a menu has been developed that starts with ‘the ingredients. First, we research them and then we create the dish. To do this, we learn how they are harvested and how the people in the area live and eat’.

Although his dishes change with the seasons and micro-seasons of the year, ‘there is one dish that will always be on our menu’. This dish is made up of 25 vegetables, and is inspired by ‘Michel Bras' vegetable salads’. In the case of the Dutch chef, ‘every bite is different; it's a dish that is always different’.

Flore is, therefore, a restaurant ‘with a lot of personality’, offering ‘a herbivorous and an omnivorous path’ because they want ‘diversity when it comes to eating’. They argue, however, that herbivorous customers can ‘have the same pleasure as eating meat and fish’.