In 2021, chef Bas van Kranen was tasked with opening a new concept to replace Bord'Eau, the flagship French restaurant of Amsterdam’s famed De L’Europe hotel. Planning to build a more sustainable dining model that could be both socially and environmentally conscious, van Kranen teamed up with Bord’Eau wine director Wouter Denessen for the overhaul. The result is Restaurant Flore, an ambitious farm-to-table restaurant offering a tasting menu that changes weekly and is based on ingredients from local farmers and foragers. The 1,200-label wine list, which highlights bottlings made using sustainable, organic and biodynamic techniques, was recognized with a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence when the 2024 Restaurant Award winners were announced this past June.
Van Kranen draws inspiration from his upbringing among farms in the Netherlands’ rural south, where he worked at a local bakery as a child, as well as his culinary training in Thailand, Indonesia and Japan. He emphasizes “cooking consciously,” which means forgoing all farmed meat and dairy products and instead using solely organic and sustainable produce, seafood and game from small-scale purveyors and foragers in the Netherlands. Van Kranen also established a fermentation cellar beneath the restaurant, where ingredients can be stored for year-round use; here, he and his team also make juices and home-brewed drinks such as kombuchas for Flore’s beverage menu.
A New Kind of Sustainability
Flore offers an eight-course dinner menu that changes every week ($245, and an additional $104 for wine pairings), with a vegetarian variation always available at the same price, and an abbreviated version available for lunch ($162, and an additional $82 for wine pairings). Using seasonal ingredients, van Kranen looks to surprise diners with creative yet simple dishes. The menu lists only the three primary ingredients for each creation, putting a focus on how each dish is greater than the sum of its parts. Some examples include grilled whelk with pickled rose petals, green strawberries and seaweed, and tempeh cake made from buckwheat, yellow beets, saffron and mushrooms, topped with steamed leaks, a seaweed pesto and a parsley emulsion.
Emphasizing sustainability, the kitchen team reuses components from some dishes for others. Bones from a meat dish may be used to make the broth for another, or leftover house-made sourdough bread used to make pasta for dishes like caramelized artichoke tortellini in a porcini tamari sauce.
Highlighting Eco-Friendly Wine
Current wine director Antonello Nicastri focuses on accessibility as much as sustainability for the Flore wine program, with more than 60 wines offered by the glass. Flore inherited many impressive wines from Bord’Eau’s inventory, such as 21 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti vintages and more than 50 first-, second- and third-growth Bordeaux bottlings, many with notable vertical depth. Guests can also look to three Barbaresco labels from Gaja (across 10 vintages), nine vintages of Yquem Sauternes and a cache of Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port going back to 1940.
True to Flore’s ethos, the wine book features a list of bottlings made using sustainable, organic and biodynamic techniques, many carrying organic certifications from their home countries. Nicastri describes the list as “A collection of gems. Something for everyone, and many personal favorites that match the unique, clean and natural flavors of van Kranen’s kitchen.”
Indeed, here is where grower Champagnes shine alongside Alsatian pétillant-naturel selections, as well as Bordeaux from environment-focused châteaus such as Léoville Barton, Pichon Longueville Lalande and Haut-Brion. “We source our wines from both small producers and unknown wineries,” says Nicastri, “as well as famous legends that work sustainably for humans, nature and animals.”
