Hi, I’m Marianne
I’m the beating heart of The Dutch Foodie. And guess what. I’m Dutch and I’m a foodie (You’d never have guessed, right?).
My passion is to help people connect through cooking and sharing food. Because food brings people together.
That’s why sharing and enjoying food is central to cultures, celebrations, and day-to-day family life across the globe.
Through cooking and sharing food, you can not only find a deeper connection with others, but also with yourself.
So whether as your private chef, your virtual cooking coach or through one of my interactive cook-alongs, I help you to enjoy food and cooking, so that you can create priceless memories with your loved ones.
So how did I get here?
I wasn’t born a chef. No one is. Nor was I one of those miracle kids cooking my socks off from the moment I could say the word “EAT”.
I was a late starter and am mostly self-taught. I spent 35+ years learning and honing my cooking skills and knowledge. So I’m a home cook like you!
My family moved just over the border into Flemish Belgium when I was a toddler.
As the daughter of a butcher’s son, with my uncle Jan continuing the family butcher tradition, we enjoyed the most glorious BBQ feasts.
So I learned the importance of real food, the role of food as a means of sharing love and a deep care for quality ingredients and provenance from an early age.
During my time at Drama School (the Belgian equivalent of RADA, but that’s another story), I was the proud owner of a single electric cooking ring, no fridge and no hot water. You soon learn to be resourceful to cook semi-decent meals despite a limited budget with limited means.
This reminds me of the very first 3 course meal I cooked for friends in my very first flat in Antwerp where I was a freelance journalist (yep, that’s yet another story!). The long delays between courses are ridiculed to this day.
In my defence, I was juggling multiple processes without experience, work surfaces or equipment to speak off, plating up on the (squeaky-clean) kitchen floor.
When studying in Brussels, I was lucky enough to have a BF with an expense account. So instead of the usual student debauchery, I was introduced to the most fabulous restaurants and beautiful wines.
I was hooked!
Dutch and Belgian cuisine are much underrated, and I still have a deep fondness of stamppot, bitterballen, waterzooi, brown shrimp croquettes and stuffed tomatoes. And proper chips with lashings of mayonnaise!
Love at first sight drew me to England in 1990. (“He” is long gone, I’m still in England. Surrey nowadays)
BF usually arrived home before me. He was a student, I had a proper job. So he did the daily low-budget shopping: Ready steady cook every single day!
Lots of baking too, including mum’s infamous Dutch apple tart, “mon chou taart” and “Schwartzwalder kirsch torte”. Sadly I soon realised weekly baking just for the two of us was overkill. And not kind on the waistline either.
Around this time, the first Masterchef series arrived in the UK, BBC Good Food magazine was first issued, and I started traveling more in my professional work in corporate legal. The rest is history: kitchen cupboards exploding with gadgets, a cookbook library bursting at its seams, and a nigh-on obsession with anything and everything foodie.
As a hobby-cook, I enjoyed 35+ years of countless cooking classes, masterclasses, workshops and courses in my spare time, both in England and abroad in places like Brussels, Miami, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Cape Town, Rome and Mauritius.
In my spare time I’ve helped out in professional kitchens too, behind the scenes, in the kitchen as well as front of house to create, manage and support award-winning food events, International pop-ups, kitchen take-overs, charity events, a gastro pub and a fine dining restaurant.
I’ve been involved with the organisation of London Diner En Blanc 2012 – 2017, including as co-host and volunteer manager. I was hugely honoured to join Diner en Blanc Paris in 2019 as volunteer manager too. I’m the enthusiastic one holding the bread and the knife. Go figure! It’s the ultimate dining pop-up!
Friends urged me to set up a recipe blog too, as they kept coming to me for recipes, tips and tricks.
I did most of this while being a jet-setting business woman in legal corporate for over 25 years, regularly travelling throughout Europe and beyond (Including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa)?
So I get the pressures of balancing a busy job and a busy life, yet still trying to fit in what is important to you.
But in return I am blessed to have experienced and learned about global cuisine, from the simplest to the most elaborate.
All of this has helped me to hone my knowledge, understanding and skills, so that when I was made redundant a few years back, it was obvious that I simply had to share this passion for food and cooking with you full-time!
Being a home cook at heart, mostly used to cooking in a domestic kitchen, enables me to be your ultimate private chef and virtual cooking coach at home.
My first venture into the profession was as Executive Head Chef and Dutch Recipe Consultant of Lekker Bun, introducing hand-made Dutch Street Food to London.
Following numerous residential fitness boot camps and detoxes, continuing research and a nutrition course, I also have a deep appreciation of clean eating, healthy food, juicing, avoiding processed foods, refined sugar, chemicals, and white starchy carbs.
So I admittedly dilly-dally between health and indulgence.
What is constant though, is REAL FOOD. Good, fresh, mostly organic or free-range and sustainable ingredients, preferably locally sourced and seasonal, cooked with love, care and attention.
Smakelijk & Selamat Makan!
Marianne x
