De Librije, Zwolle - a ‘mini-menu’ that’s an 8 course feast

With Sergio Herman of Oud Sluis announcing he intends to close his restaurant at the end of 2013, Jonnie Boer’s De Librije could be left as the only 3 Michelin-starred restaurant in Holland. So what makes it so special?

First of all the building - a dramatically converted monastery library (de Librije, pronounced ‘leebraya’, means ‘library') in the attractive Dutch town of Zwolle. The soaring, high ceilinged room creates a theatrical background for Boer’s food - not that it needs much supporting theatre.

Dining with one of his collaborators, academic Peter Klosse, we were treated to a spectacular succession of dishes each paired with a matching wine from a new menu concept called a mini menu where you chose four dishes and they offer four others from ingredients that are currently in season - i.e. eight in all (so not so 'mini'. . .). There’s a vegetarian option throughout which looked really appealing - I might even be inclined to go veggie another time.

The meal started, as 3 Michelin-star menus do, with a show-stopping succession of amuses including one I'd read about where a canapé of beef tartare and oyster cream is assembled on your hand. I wasn’t convinced about that one. Nothing about textures suggested it needed to be served like that - it was just rather discomfiting and messy - although, being perverse, I’m perfectly happy to eat caviar served that way.

The others included a fermented tea of red cabbage (wonderful, I’d have liked that as a full course) and lots of delicious crisp-textured bits and pieces including rice puffs topped with cod tongue and crisp chicken skin (above), some seaweedy-style crisps tucked into a fish skeleton and a halibut fin on toast with orange cream and apricot oil.

The bread was also brilliant - warm brioche rolls with bacon dust - and a bread that was proving at the start of the meal which came back freshly baked to the table half way through the meal accompanied by a slightly sour, tangy whipped cream of goats’ butter and Rembrandt grape juice.

The main dishes were so many and varied I unusually didn’t get to try most of my two dining companions’ choices. My own standouts were a blissfully summery dish of oysters with cucumber and lemon verbena (right) - which I suspect was all the better for being served as an alternative to the usual dish which includes foie gras; a brilliantly clever dish of what looked like Wagyu but was in fact well marbled sirloin seared by Boer at the table on a hot stone, dusted with wild mushroom powder and served with bone marrow, lemon geranium sauce and crisp little potato puffs (below). a surprisingly good match with a 2009 Tim Adams Protegé tempranillo) and a sweet Thai green curry - a Thai-spiced tropical fruit salad I made this week’s match of the week.

I also liked my husband’s dish of white asparagus with hollandaise sauce and coffee, a bizarrely successful combination and a more classic dish of beautifully tender, rare pigeon with star anise, kohlrabi and kohlrabi juice (kohlrabi being much more popular in Holland and Germany than it is in the UK) which was served with a 2010 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico.

I was less convinced by a langoustine ceviche with vanilla kombucha - but then I’m not big on vanilla in savoury dishes and another sweet and savoury combination, a broth of tomato, watermelon and sweet, spicy croutons (which failed to hit it off for me with its accompanying pinot noir.) And, cheese fiend though I am, I don’t think I’d have liked the cheese course of epoisses and seared kidney that Klosse chose - an over-rich end to a long meal. There were times I felt Boer, in common with other chefs at this level, was trying that bit too hard to be innovative.

He and his wife Thérèse, though, are rightly seen as leading lights of the Netherlands fine dining scene: the restaurant is no. 57 in the World’s 50 Best top 100 list. They also have a hotel and a 2 star restaurant, Librije’s Zusje) in Zwolle, housed in a former women’s prison, and have written a number of books, published mainly in Dutch. If you’re looking to sample the best of what Holland has to offer in the way of fine dining it’s definitely worth the detour, as Michelin would put it.

But the restaurant was less than half full the midweek lunchtime we were there which suggests that others may share my feeling that this kind of meal is just a bit over the top in terms of both content and quantity for anything other than a special occasion. It could be that prospective punters think it’s impossible to get in or maybe they were down the road at the couple’s 2 star where where you can eat many of the dishes that made De Librije famous for a fair bit less and a two course lunch for just 45€. In these hard times It could be a problem for them.

Restaurant De Librije is at Broerenkerkplein 13-15, 8011 TW Zwolle
+31 (0)38 853 0001 The ‘mini-menu’ we had is 182.50€ (£155/$244)

I ate at De Librije as a guest of the restaurant

You can see an interview with Jonnie and Thérèse of De Librije in this video made by Fine Dining Lovers

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