Home flavors: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s meals were prepared by the Indonesia Satu team during his visit to the Netherlands in April.

Culinary foundation Indonesia Satu in The Netherlands has one goal: for Indonesian food to gain international prominence.

An unexpected guest visited the Indonesia Satu team during the Taste of Amsterdam, one of the country’s largest annual culinary events, this summer: Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi.

“What a wonderful surprise it was to have Ibu Retno here! She has been such a support to us since the very beginning,” said delighted chef Eduard Roesdi.

Indonesia Satu started with a group of food aficionados in the Netherlands with Indonesian roots, such as Eduard — born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and a Sundanese father — and his wife Renu Lubis. The two met while studying at the school of Indonesian studies in Leiden.

Living in Europe, they shared a frustration that Indonesian food was so little known outside of its home base.

“It is time that Indonesia competes on the global culinary forum,” says Jakarta-born Renu, who has been living in the Netherlands since she was 10 years old.

Eduard points out there are hardly any Indonesian restaurants in Europe outside of the Netherlands, “let alone really good ones”.

He said he thinks there are a few reasons for this situation. “Indonesia has more of a warung [sidewalk shop] culinary tradition, which is quite different from the Western restaurant culture.”

Eduard and Indonesian chefs who have worked in the Netherlands for decades, like Gentur Respati and Agus Hermawan, know that how a dish is presented is important for Western eaters.

The taste and authenticity of a dish, however, is just as crucial. “Rendang [beef simmered in coconut milk and spices] should be true to its taste: hot and spicy, not sweet,” Gentur underlines.

Another key factor would be support from the government. Eduard pointed out that the Thai government spends millions of dollars to put its food on the world map.

Thus, the group — then still without an official name — sent out an email in June 2012 to the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague. “We didn’t hear anything for close to a year. Then we got our lucky break when fellow Leiden alumni Ebed Litaay started at the embassy and he made [then ambassador] Ibu Retno aware of our letter,” Renu recalled.

The ball then slowly started rolling, as Retno was excited about their idea. “Ibu Retno agreed food is a great way for the international community to get to know and love Indonesia,” Gentur says.

The group’s first activity was organizing an Indonesian cooking competition in 2013 and the next year it started participating in the Taste of Amsterdam.

In August that same year, the name Indonesia Satu was coined, after the group was asked by the Indonesian Embassy to cater for 500 people during the “Pride of Indonesian Heritage”, with guests
including Dutch ministers and dignitaries.

Indonesia Satu has remained busy since then: In the Netherlands its activities range from cooking demonstrations and classes to catering for the Indonesian Embassy’s special occasions.

It also crosses the border and participates in programs such as the International Frankfurt Book Fair and catered for an exclusive lunch hosted by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his last European visit as president in September 2014. It represented Indonesia during the Top World’s Cuisines Festival in Egypt in December last year.

Sometimes, Indonesia Satu members have to think on their feet, like the time when they received a phone call on April 18 from the State Palace in Jakarta to provide dinner, breakfast and lunch on April 21 and 22 for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during his visit to the Netherlands.

“And at the last minute, Ibu Iriana Widodo made some adjustments. It turns out she always checks his menu,” Renu laughs. “What an honor it was to serve him his meals.”

One extraordinary point, given its busy schedule, is that Indonesia Satu is a non-profit organization with volunteers as members, all of whom have busy, full-time jobs.

Gentur echoes the sentiment of other members, whose professions range from the culinary field to translations and IT. “Indonesia Satu is a passion. We are not paid for it and do it on our own time.”

Renu pointed out that “payments we receive from catering and other programs are used to finance our next activities”.

Surprise: Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (center) makes a surprise visit to meet the Indonesia Satu team at the Taste of Amsterdam culinary event in June.The team consists of (left to right) Eduard Roesdi, Renske Walsarie Wolff, Gentur Respati, Renu Lubis, Ida Rosanti and Nina Roesdi.

Indonesia Satu aims to become a platform that can help others who aspire to become active in spreading the delights of Indonesian food abroad. “We are here to share our experience. We look forward to answer questions from serious aspiring chefs and culinary entrepreneurs,” says Agus Hermawan.

Looking forward, Indonesia Satu plans to participate in Horecava, the Netherlands’ largest annual culinary fair in Amsterdam in January 2017.

“We aim to be at the fair’s Asia Pavilion, together with colleagues from China, Thailand and Japan. We want to show that the Asian kitchen is more than just Chinese food,” Renu explains.

Members also make an effort to maintain regular contact with their home country: Renu and Eduard were present at a meeting earlier this month with Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Puspayoga at the embassy in The Hague.

The organization also hopes for further active support from the Indonesian government for their future activities. Gentur laments that South Korea has a 15-story building housing a foundation solely devoted to culinary promotion. “That’s my dream.”

— Photos courtesy of Indonesia Satu

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THE CHEFS

Agus Hermawan

“Courage, patience and love: These are the ingredients that make a true chef. Dare to try new things, have the patience to experiment until a dish is perfect. And most importantly: You have to love food.”

This recipe has certainly worked for self-taught chef Agus Hermawan, a native of Tasikmalaya in West Java. In his two decades in the Netherlands, he has climbed up from being a dishwasher to becoming one of the country’s most celebrated Indonesian chefs.

Agus’ mother, who had 12 children, was his first teacher: “She really knew her spices and how to use them properly. I helped out in the kitchen from a young age.”

After high school he began studying finance — his father was a tax officer — but soon after he chose to help out at his family’s vacation rental, where he would sometimes cook for guests.

Following his heart, Agus moved to the Netherlands in 1996 to be with his Dutch girlfriend. “I started working at restaurants, doing anything, including washing dishes.”

His big break came when he was accepted at Spandershoeve, a renowned Indonesian restaurant in Hilversum. Less than a year after he started, Spandershoeve received the first Michelin star ever given to an Indonesian restaurant. Its head chef resigned only months after that and Agus was given the responsibility to take his place. For the next six years, he proved himself by maintaining the Michelin star.

Agus did not sit on his laurels and continued to look for new challenges. In 2007, he started out at Blauw, an Indonesian restaurant that aimed to make Indonesian dining more sophisticated. During his time there, Blauw was praised by local and international food critics, including The New York Times and The Guardian. Last year, he appeared on the popular TV show Masterchef Holland to give a demonstration of Indonesian cooking.

In the past year, Agus has been asked to join the team of Ron Blaauw, a multiple-Michelin chef and one of the country’s most successful restaurant entrepreneurs. In May, Ron Gastrobar Indonesia — with Agus running the kitchen — opened at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel near Amsterdam.

“I was surprised that we were already busy within the first week,” he laughed. “One customer has been coming twice a week, saying that my rendang is addictive.”

Gentur Respati

“My dream was to become a soldier like my father.”  Life, however, took a very different turn for Gentur, as he reflects back on three decades in the kitchens of the famed Hilton hotels on two continents.

After finishing high school in Jakarta, Gentur’s mother sent him off to the Netherlands where his sister was already working as a nurse. “I think she hoped I’d change my mind about joining the military.”

There he met a relative who was working in the kitchen of a cruise ship. “That caught my imagination: sailing and discovering the world. Then he suggested that I go home and attend hotel school.”

Gentur then returned to his hometown and enrolled in Jakarta’s International Hotel School to get a food and beverage diploma.

“Remember, this was the 1980s: Most of the people in my class were housewives. Becoming a chef was not taken seriously then.”

Soon after, however, Gentur started getting focused on his career choice. “My first internship was at Hotel Indonesia and I loved all aspects of the job: the cooking, decorating banquets and the whole buzz that surrounds it.”

In 1985, he was offered a job at the Hilton in Jakarta. “In the first few years I concentrated on the French kitchen.”

After some time, Gentur started looking for opportunities within the Hilton Group. “However, to get
postings abroad, I needed to gain knowledge about Indonesian food.” Thus, he started using his free time to learn from the Indonesian specialists at the Hilton.

In January 1990, Gentur took a big step and moved to the Hilton in Amsterdam, one of the city’s most prestigious hotels.

He said he counts himself lucky to have worked there for many years under general manager Roberto Payer, who in the mid-1990s started Roberto’s, now still one of the most well-known Italian restaurants in Amsterdam.

“I had to learn from scratch about Italian cuisine,” Gentur recalled. “I learned a lot from Roberto, who  was very critical and an absolute perfectionist.”

In the past decade, he has been overlooking the kitchens at the Hilton Amsterdam Airport, where Asian cuisine is prominent.

Eduard Roesdi

Eduard Roesdi has a rather unusual background for a chef and toko owner: His father was a neurologist, while Eduard studied Arabic, Indonesian and Islamic law at Leiden University and the State Islamic Institute IAIN in Yogyakarta.

His Sundanese father, born in the West Java capital Bandung, missed the food from his home country, “and had no choice but to cook his own nasi goreng (fried rice), tofu, or gado-gado (vegetables served with peanut sauce)”, while living in Den Bosch with his Dutch wife and four children.

“He was actually quite good at it. He would scrutinize Indonesian cookbooks and give his own twists on certain dishes.”

Eduard landed into the culinary world by coincidence. To earn extra money during his studies, he started helping out at Iboe Tjilik, an Indonesian take-out place in Leiden. The kitchen was run by Bandung-born Tilly Kloër and her three friends.

“These four tantes [aunts] gave me a thorough introduction to the richness of the Indonesian kitchen. Each of them was a specialist in a different region: Bandung, Padang, Manado and Jakarta.”

Five years later — in 1999 — Eduard took over Iboe Tjilik from Tilly. The toko, like most similar establishments in the Netherlands, sells Indisch cuisine.

While deriving from Indonesia, Indisch cooking is not identical to the Indonesian kitchen. It is a mix of Indonesian, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese cooking, reflecting the social structure during the colonial times in the Dutch East Indies.

Most of those cooking at Indisch establishments, however, “only know about half of the spices used in Indonesian cooking. It is, indeed, difficult to be knowledgeable about them if one did not grow up with lemongrass in your backyard”.

Eduard counts himself lucky that he had such a thorough education from the four tantes who preceded him at Iboe Tjilik. Since then, he has also continued to visit Indonesia to deepen his culinary expertise.

Eduard continues to nurture his passion for cooking by organizing Indonesian fine dining events every other month together with his wife Renu Lubis and other members of Indonesia Satu. Guests are served multiple-course dishes “combining Indonesian ingredients and flavors with techniques from the French kitchen”.

It results in small gems such as Moluccan Tuna Ceviche and Risotto Uduk, a variation of the traditional nasi uduk (rice cooked in coconut milk).

He also regularly gives demonstrations and classes at culinary schools.

— Linawati Sidarto

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