De Kas: Restaurant Inside a Greenhouse
De Kas is a large restaurant and nursery located in a former
greenhouse on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Back in 1926 the greenhouse
was built to house Amsterdam’s municipal nurseries. All of the plants
and flowers used for Amsterdam’s municipal plantings were grown on these
grounds and in greenhouse. Over the decades, the nurseries were shut
down and the buildings and greenhouse became dilapidated. About 10 years
ago the greenhouse was scheduled for demolition, but chef Gert Jan
Hageman saw the building and decided it would be perfect for a
restaurant and vegetable garden. Hageman approached the city with the
proposal and ended up buying it for just 1 Euro, which he renovated it
completely into the restaurant it is today.
Located inside the
Frankendael Park, the 8 meter high greenhouse restaurant stands out as a
majestic building. The dining room is spacious and beautifully lit
trees intersperse the tables. Every seat has a clear view of the garden,
the sky and the semi-open kitchen, thanks to the glass ceilings and
walls.
The restaurant has a garden nearby where it grows most
of its own vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They also have a large
field about 10 kilometers from Amsterdam for seasonal vegetables, which
are harvested at sunrise everyday so that guests can enjoy the freshest
possible ingredients. Anything else they can’t produce themselves, they
buy it from local farmers and suppliers around the city.
The
restaurant has no “regular” menu. It changes constantly, so they don’t
even print it. Once you get seated at DeKas, the only question that is
asked is whether anyone has dietary restrictions.
Chef Gert Jan
Hageman sums up the nature of his restaurant as, “A kitchen surrounded
by fertile soil where vegetables and herbs thrive. Where daylight shines
in from all sides and where the chefs are free to express their
creativity daily using the best the season has to offer. It seems an
obvious concept, but I spent twenty years surrounded by white tiles
under fluorescent lighting before I came up with it.”
