A place you'll want to keep eating every day

After 13 years, time for a change

After 13 years, chef Schilo van Coevorden felt it was time for a change. All this time, he was responsible for the restaurants and bar of Amsterdam's famous Conservatorium Hotel. "At some point you feel: now there has to be something new. That became the new restaurant BARBOUNIA."

What do you do if you already have a successful Asian restaurant, but still want to add new flavours to the hotel experience for guests and local Amsterdam residents? Then you simply start a new restaurant. And you can safely leave that to chef Schilo van Coevorden. 

"At 12, I started at cookery school in Rotterdam," he says. By the time I was 18, I was working in a two-star restaurant in Belgium. One-star, two-star, three-star: it was in those kinds of kitchens that I really learned to cook." He learned most, however, in London, at the Hyatt Hotel. "As a chef, I not only re-learned how to cook, but also how to manage," he says. Through his own restaurants in Dubai and Marbella, he finally ended up at the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam. 

Go where the locals go

The Conservatory wants the new restaurant to appeal not only to hotel guests but also to local residents. "What do you do the first time you go to New York? Down the list, of course! But the fifth time? Then you want to be where the real New Yorkers come too. That's exactly our philosophy. For a good hotel formula, you have to develop a restaurant that makes everyone happy."

Van Coevorden explains that this is why the two restaurants are not in each other's way. "Taiko is more fine dining, you don't want to eat there all week. BARBOUNIA, on the other hand, is accessible. There you eat a pasta for lunch, and then come back in the evening for a salad or a nice piece of meat. I learned that approach in Spain: the whole table has to be full of food. You can't do that with heavy meals, then your guests are immediately full."

BARBOUNIA is a perfect example. "I named the restaurant after the red mullet. A little king fish, delicious when deep-fried in flour. Crispy fish, soft inside. That's how all the food here on the menu is: light, tasty and with full attention on the ingredients."

BARBOUNIA's sunny cuisine

Van Coevorden based BARBOUNIA's menu on Sun and holidays. "There are two cuisines that always appeal: Chinese and Italian. We already serve Asian flavours at Taiko and a pure Italian restaurant was not something I could see. That's why I complemented it with sunny French and Greek cuisine." The idea for BARBOUNIA came about in October, when it was dark and drizzly in the Netherlands, he explains. "I wanted to bring the sunshine to the restaurant." The three cuisines are a combination of all the holidays Van Coevorden has celebrated. "I took the highlights of my holidays, and put them into one menu. After all, I prefer to cook what I really like myself."

Although Van Coevorden is head chef, he definitely does not run the kitchen of the new restaurant alone. "I am surrounded by specialists. I can't make everything myself, but I do know exactly how I want it to taste. For BARBOUNIA, I therefore wanted a very good pasta chef. Our pasta vongole has to taste exactly as it does on the Italian coast."

Close? You can't

Because BARBOUNIA is located in the atrium of the Conservatory, the restaurant could not simply close for the transition. "That was a challenge," Van Coevorden explains. "We solved it by starting with a soft opening from the end of January. Trying out and fine-tuning first. Then later comes the press presentation, after which we officially open."

Van Coevorden concludes with a tip for his fellow chefs around the country. "Working hard is not always enough. You also have to work smart. Always try to find out what your guests are looking for. And really think of a hotel-restaurant as a separate business: even without the hotel guests, people should like to come and eat at your place. If that works, then you have a well-run restaurant!"