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Only six months after opening his restaurant Create in Oost-Maarland, just south of Maastricht, top chef Guido Braeken was recently awarded two Michelin stars at the MECC Maastricht. A rare double whammy, as he had also previously been awarded two stars at his previous employer Julemont in Wittem, South Limburg. The 41-year-old chef remains down-to-earth: “In every profession, the rule is: only through repetition and dedication do you become really good at something.”
After three and a half years at restaurant Julemont Château Wittem, where he achieved two Michelin stars in 2022, Braeken opted for a radical move. „I always enjoyed working there, but I had one more dream: to build my own restaurant, from scratch,” he says. “For that, I had to leave something behind. I was just 40 and thought: if I don't do it now, I might never do it again. I am still young, fanatical, and wanted to start all over again one more time. And that's what I did.”
Preparations for Create, which opened in April, took a long time, Braeken says. “We spent over nine months on it. Instead of working from five to midnight, I was suddenly in meetings with architects and suppliers from nine to five. That took getting used to, but I learnt a lot from it. My wife and I have been able to decide everything ourselves: what we put on the plate, but also the decoration of the restaurant. Every detail is right now. No one will take that special experience away from us anymore.”
Restaurant Create is located on the grounds of Van Oys Maastricht Retreat, the first five-star superior hotel in the southern Netherlands, which also launched this year. Braeken stresses that his restaurant operates independently, but there is a clear interaction. “Guests who stay overnight at Van Oys often come to eat with us. And vice versa, people coming from far away reserve a table at Create and immediately book a room at Van Oys. That reinforces each other. The Michelin stars thus put not only our restaurant, but also the hotel on the map nationally and internationally.”
The efforts of Braeken and his team were rewarded with two Michelin stars after only six months. “The inspectors have to be ‘blown away’ with what you serve them,” he says about it. “But we don't cook for Michelin stars. We cook for our guests. They have to go home with a good feeling; that they didn't just eat good food, but experienced something special.”
Asked what his secret is, Braeken soberly replies: “The plate has to be right. Look, anyone can make a sauce or fry a piece of meat, but the dish has to be balanced with the rest. The sauce, the garnishes, the creams; everything has to form a whole together. You have to do that thousands of times until it feels right by itself. Whether you are a cook, a carpenter or a musician; only through repetition and dedication do you become really good at something.”
That dedication also translates into his signature style as a top chef. “You can always work with luxury products like langoustine and oysters, but for me it's mainly about fresh, honest ingredients. Coming from suppliers who are as fanatical as I am. That has been quite a search, but once you have those people, you know what you have in common.”
Cooking is more than a profession for the top chef from Limburg, it is his way of life. “I don't really know anything other than the catering industry. School books were nothing for me, and an office job certainly not. But in the kitchen I can use all my creativity and energy. Cooking calms me down, it makes me happy. It's my passion.”
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