Last year, I arrived at a crossroads in my career. I had just graduated with a Master’s degree in International Business and was expected to build a career in marketing or consulting. I remember thinking that perhaps I could find a way to combine my intellectual interests with my passion for food by working for an F&B company. There was one company in particular, Upfront, where I thought I had found that path.

After two months of interviews and applications, I received the email telling me to look elsewhere.

I knew what I had to do.

I told my parents: I am going to become a cook.

For a long time, I had tried to find a way to combine my education with cooking. I thought that might be the best way to keep both worlds in my life. Looking back, I understand that sometimes you have to choose one thing, commit to it fully, and see where that takes you.

Over the past year, I have grown from a decent all-round cook into a much more structured and professional one. I have learned how to organize my work, build a reliable mise en place, perform under pressure, and work effectively within a professional kitchen. At the same time, I know that my technical level is still far from where I want it to be. Compared with the best cooks in the Netherlands, I still have a great deal to learn. That is part of what makes this profession so exciting to me.

I believe guests should come to a restaurant because they genuinely want to be there. They should feel welcomed from the moment they walk in, and leave with the feeling that they have experienced somewhere they will remember. For me, hospitality is about much more than simply getting the job done. A restaurant should have a character of its own — something people can feel, and eventually associate with memories.

At this stage in my career, I believe the quality of a cook is shaped by two things: what you are able to build when there is time and space to think, and how well you can hold onto that quality when the pressure rises. Every day, I try to become better at both.

Cooking is beautiful when everything flows.