A celebration at the Cove

On the Island I live on, we have and celebrate a lot of different cultures, countries and the national days of other countries and islands from all around. Today our Filipino community were celebrating their 125th year Independence Day, and it was a big party at Cove Bay. My boss Vernon and I were also

Thinking of Pupusas

Hey hello and good to see you back again! I hope you liked my last two posts about Latin food. Today I am going to finish this sort of triology, with El Salvadorian Pupusas.Let me tell you about my first encounter with Pupusas and all what I discovered about this tasty food. The first time

Thinking of Empanadas

Hey hello and welcome back on my blog!I hoped you liked the previous post about Arepas and maybe you even tried to make it for yourselves to see and taste how delicious these Arepas and their fillings are. Today I am staying in the Latin Cuisine and I want to talk to you about another

Thinking of Arepa’s

Hey hello everybody,Good to see you back here, today I’m talking about the food Arepa. What are Arepas, where do Arepas come from and how to make it for yourself. But first let me explain why Arepas?As you know I live on a small vulcanic rock in the Caribbean and we have a lot of

Hello again

Hello to all who know me already and everybody new! It has been awhile that I have been writing on this blog for some reasons and maybe some day I will talk about it here but for me the most important thing is that I am back on my blog with all new ideas and

3 little pepper recipe

This is the third and last (for now) recipe of the peppers. Pickling I learned many years ago when I was still working in the proffessional kitchen. I just love the acidity and freshness it gives in my mouth when food is pickled. For me the use of spices and fresh herbs are very important

2 little pepper recipe

The second recipe is the roasted tomato sambal is made. This recipe is inspired from a little Indonesian restaurant on Curaçao where my friend and Chef at the time Hans van Triest took me on a regular basis. Called Warang djava. I always remember the flavours and delicious aroma’s floating around the restaurant. But one

1 little pepper recipe

Since the last couple of weeks I have been focussing on new and different recipes for my hot peppers. With my job and other things going on ( just moved in with my girlfriend Lonneke) it is hard to find the time. But my passion for food will always come through even when I’m really

Something about a book by it’s cover

When I worked in Curacao with my Chef and friend, Hans van Triest at the Floris Suite Hotel, he joined the Curaçao Culinary team to participte at the event for Best Chef of the Caribbean. This Culinary event was once a year and the Teams from each Island would compete against each other. Also the

Beautiful weekend

After a busy work week, it was time for Brian and me to spend some time again in the garden. Giving it some new nutricions, extra soil, cut all the bad leaves and most important harvesting the peppers AGAIN! It is now the 4th time we are going to harvest our peppers again in a

The Rose

Somewhere in my life I was working on the Island of Curaçao in the lower Antilles in a hotel called Floris Suite Hotel. I came to work there through one of my good friends Jeroen Van Der Veen. He brought me in contact on a saturday with his own Chef who was moving to Curaçao.

Doing something different

A couple of months ago I was asked to do a workshop for my girlfriend and some of her friends. As I love teaching, sharing my knowledge about food and the cooking techniques I know, I didn’t had to think very long to say yes. Being busy with different kind of recipes, classic dishes and

Another story from the kitchen

In my last year as a student, I applied for my last job for school to be in a hotel. I did some research on hotels not that far from my house where I lived at the time. Also I got advice from co-workers, past and present at the time about Hotels they worked for

Another harvest

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine, Brian and me had our first harvest of our new pepper patch. We were so happy to see that all the different pepper plants we planted were really growing very well and they seemed very happy! All those stunning colours throughout the whole patch are really a feast

My first day in the kitchen

Everyday I cook and the last couple of years since I left the restaurant busy-ness I cook at home on a daily basis and most of the time I try to make something I haven’t made before. Especially in the weekend when I have a lot more time then during the week. Using all different spices,

Cook to unwind

Happy Sunday to all!! Yesterday I had a busy but very fun workshop at home, so today it is time to unwind a little bit and make some nice food for today. My lunch for the next couple of days I will be making too, usually it is a vegan fried rice dish with all

Rise and shine

Hello, Hallo, Hola, Bonjou, Kumusta, Bon Dia everyone For the people who already know me or not yet, I am Yohan.I live on a beautiful 5 square mile Island in the Caribbean called Saba. Also known as “the Unspoiled Queen”. It is full of diverse people from almost all continents over the world and gorgeous nature

Peppers

Since I started cooking I really loved working with all different kinds of hot peppers. Scotch Bonnet, cayenne, tabasco and habanêro to name a few. I also grow them myself in my littel garden and with a friend of mine Brain, we have a big garden full of them. One I didn’t have yet was

Island fruits!

After a little hike this morning I found some wild growning lemons, a passion fruit and a bitter orange.. As it is sunny and beautiful Sunday, a nice cold drink would be nice! So here it is….. made from fresh Lemon, bitter Orange, Passion fruit, honey and a couple of splashes of Rum, I still

My first exam

At the end of my first year of cooking school, every class had to do an theoretical and practical exam. The theoretical exam was at the school on the computer, to be honest it was not that hard. Mostly multiple-choice questions. But the practical exam was at the restaurant or hotel you worked at, since

Relaxing on Sunday

Today was a little restday I needed between all the busy-ness I am working on. And what better to spend it with Lonneke, my grilfriend. It is a beautiful day today, little hot but beautiful so a good excuse to drive around the Island we live on and just enjoy each others company and all

A trip to NOLA

I love to travel ( I have to admit I haven’t travelled in awhile though). Having new experiences, learning new foods, cultures, people, arts etc… I just love it! It is the experience of learning something new that I really enjoy doing! My girlfriend Lonneke likes to travel too and travelled her whole life. She

New story coming!!!

This week another story about me, food, arts and more…….. Stay tuned for the next story! Can you guess which place I visited??

Stories from the kitchen

This is a new item on my blog. A little story of my life in the kitchen and how it all began, the jokes, the struggles, the lessons I learned, the great times I had and the inspiring people I met during all those years. This is the first short story of my life. I

So this is me….

Hi, nice to see you here! Let me introduce myself first… I am Yohan and live on a island somewhere in the Caribbean. Welcome to my blog! After years of working in the kitchen, I created a lot of memories, funny stories and off course a lot of them are about food! This is somewhat