Everything starts somewhere. For us, it began in the 1970s.
An era when buffets in Limburg were still something truly special. Long tables, loaded with cold dishes, decorated as if they were works of art. Think stuffed eggs, shrimp-stuffed tomatoes, ham rolls with asparagus, and of course, the Belle Vue salmon – the crown jewel of the buffet.
As a child, I was in awe. To me, this wasn’t food, it was magic. Filling my plate felt like digging for treasure. All those shapes, all those colors, everything neatly arranged. I ate it with the blind enthusiasm only children have.
Looking back now, I see it differently. Many of those dishes were too heavy, too clumsy, too overloaded. Flavors that never really connected, but stood side by side as if they were fighting. That Salmon Belle Vue? More of a showpiece for the eye than a dish for the mouth. It was all about appearances, not about harmony.
But there was one exception, and I’m not ashamed of it: the peach stuffed with tuna salad. So wrong, yet so good. The creamy, the salty, the sweetness of that canned peach – somehow, it worked. It’s the kind of flavor memory that never lets go.
And that’s exactly where our curiosity begins. Because nostalgia has value. There’s a story inside it. Food from the seventies may feel outdated, but it tells us something about that time, about people, about what was considered luxury and tasteful back then.
We love prying those kinds of stories loose and putting them back on the table. Not to make fun of them, not to cling to them blindly, but to bring them back to life.
We want to revive those dishes – but differently. The authentic flavors remain, because that’s the memory, the soul. But the execution? That’s where we break it open. No more rough puzzles of taste, but refinement. Harmony. New combinations that make sense, yet still give you that same feeling of “back then.”
Because food isn’t fixed. It shifts with how we live, think, and feel. And we believe those old classics can shine again – without losing their soul.
In the coming months, we’re taking the retro kitchen into our hands. Think of cold buffets, Salmon Belle Vue, or stuffed peaches – but through our lens. With respect for what was, but with the guts and nerve to do it differently.
No makeup over food, no façade – just real flavors telling a story again. That way nostalgia doesn’t stay trapped in an old cookbook, but becomes something you can experience all over again today.
This is the start of a series where we pull old recipes off the shelf and give them a new twist. After all, food is always a story – and some stories deserve a second chapter.
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