Restaurant De Leest is the gastronomic child of Chef Patron Jacob Jan Boerma and Lady of the house Kim Veldman. Together they transformed an old shoemaker’s shop in Vaassen into a top restaurant where quality and top ingredients form the basis of a great culinary experience.

The restaurant is located in the quiet town of Vaassen in the Gelderland province, which is often referred to as the green heart of The Netherlands. The abundance of the fields and the many rivers in the region are reflected in the chef’s cooking philosophy, and a wide variety of different herbs, vegetables, fishes and meats are used in the dishes.

The interior of the restaurant is luxury decorated with modern art and has a warm and cosy feeling. The dining room boasts a lot of wood and the use of dark colours, luxury chairs and beautiful pillows makes the guests feel relaxed and offers the ideal environment for a great meal.

Owners Jacob Jan Boerma (Chef Patron) and Kim Veldman (Lady of the house) have been travelling the world in search of culinary perfection and are still spending every free moment to discover new restaurants all over the world. This gastronomic experience is used in the kitchen to create diverse and interesting dishes with international influences.

Chef Jacob Jan Boerma hails from Austria and became obsessed by gastronomy at the age of 16. After gaining experience in top restaurants in Belgium, Germany and England he decided to start his own restaurant in 2002, together with his wife Kim Veldman. Quickly gaining international respect and recognition, the chef

serves beautifully presented food based on the traditional French cuisine, prepared with organic and mainly regional ingredients. It’s quite remarkable that he does not use any butter in his preparations: different kinds of (flavoured) oils are used instead. This way his kitchen becomes lighter, healthier and the flavoured oils (with vegetables or herbs like verbena) give the dishes another taste dimension. Together with his Sous-Chef Ewout Eleveld and the rest of the team, the chef creates menus that stand out in abundance, with many appetisers, great dishes and a parade of sweets to accompany your coffee.

An incredibly tasty starter is the shortly roasted langoustine with braised young leek, sweet and sour mushrooms, young sprout of green peas, its own gravy and summer truffle. The langoustine is perfectly cooked and the seasoning gives this beautiful ingredient another dimension with sour accents and oriental flavours. Another terrific dish is the lobster preparation with tandoori, summer vegetables with soft cream of potimarron, poudre d’or and nuances of tarragon. The subtle Indian tandoori flavour matches perfectly with the sweetness of the lobster and makes this another dish to return for.

Wines are presented by Lady of the house Kim Veldman and she prefers to work with mainly European and organic wines. A selection of wines is presented in a beautiful glass cabinet at the entrance of the restaurant, but the main wine collection can be found in the cellar underneath the restaurant.

Restaurant De Leest offers a great dining experience in the centre of The Netherlands with an outstanding price-quality ratio and a beautiful setting. Jacob Jan Boerma and Kim Veldman successfully managed to build a great gastronomic restaurant that is really worth the journey.

Written by Sven & Adriaan