With the restaurants closed yet again, we are trying out fine dining food-boxes the entire month of November.
First up was Olivijn* in Haarlem, which was one of our best dining experiences of 2019, that we wanted to share with Koen and Erica as now available at home as a food box.
For our Olivijn Thuis box, we had elected their weekly changing 5-course menu (EUR 62), one more than the standard menu (EUR 50) as it had one of our favourite dishes from the restaurant, the truffle gnocchi, as the additional course. We ordered the vegetarian menu for Chantal, of course. We also ordered some Friandises (EUR 4 per person) to conclude dinner, but Koen and I raided our cellars for the wine pairings.
I ordered via Olivijn’s website and picked up the food up at the restaurant in Haarlem, but you can also have it delivered at home (Groot Randstad, Amersfoort and Den Bosch regions) via Thuis uit Eten.
While kicking-off with a glass of 2013 Vintage Brut Rosé by Graham Beck, a Methode Cap Classique predominantly from Pinot Noir, and with a hint of Chardonnay (Western Cape, South Africa), we started unpacking.
As you can see, each 4-course meal came in it’s own paper boxes with all components packed in numbered containers. The extra courses, friandises and Olivijn’s special Citrus 10 Gin (still untouched) came in a separate paper bag.
The instructions (with links to an instruction video and a Spotify playlist) were obvious and straight forward, and we gladly concluded that there wasn’t very much preparation needed for each of the dishes. Apart from 2 saucepans (for reheating the bouillabaisse and the caraway sauce for the main dish) and the oven (to bake off the bread, and warm through the duck, “steak-carrot”, and gnocchi in their paper containers), there was no additional kitchen equipment or washing up needed. The pictures of the final dishes were tiny, so there was quite a lot of room for interpretation on how the plates should look like.
As to be expected, the food was delicious, easy to prepare and assemble and therefore the Olivijn Thuis food box is highly recommended.
While Koen excelled with plating with oversized bamboo tongs, Chantal “accidentally” tipped her box with the spicy fried tempeh salad on her plate and was still pretty content with the result. The full-bodied and complex (peach, melons, raisins and spice) 2015 Luddite Chenin Blanc by Niels Verburg (Botrivier, South Africa) was an ideal accompaniment to this starter.
Accidentally, Olivijn had forgotten to put Chantal’s Pumpkin Soup in her box even though its accompaniments, Ginger and Potato, were included. Menno Post actually offered to bring the Pumpkin soup (and another portion of the Bouillabaisse) to our home the following week. A very attentive gesture, but we declined as having him drive an hour for the special home delivery didn’t make much sense to us. We paired it with a 2019 Mas des Mas Limoux by Jean Claude Mas, a rich and tropical chardonnay from the Languedoc region in France.
This dish was every bit as delightful as we remembered.
We paired it with another South African Chenin Blanc. This 2019 Inspector Péringuey from Stellenbosch was much fresher than the Luddite, which nicely cut through the richness of the truffle and hollandaise sauce.
Instead of the duck, Chantal got a delicious smokey and charred carrot that was prepared as a steak.
We paired this course with a delicious fruitforward 2011 Franc de Pied by Domaine des Roches Neuves – Thierry Germain. A brilliant biodynamic Cabernet Franc from Saumur Champigny, (Loire, France).
Crème Chiboust is a relatively unknown vanilla flavoured pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue.
We paired the dessert with two completely difference dessert wines; a light and refreshing 2017 Le Petit Saint Louis by Château de Montguéret, another Chenin Blanc, but this time a dessert wine from the Côteaux du Layon (Loire, France) and a more sweet yet citrusy 2012 Torontel Late Harvest by Erasmo (Maule Valley, Chile).
The friandises were a Raspberry Macaron, a Madeleine and a Bonbon lolly.
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