Seven-Course Dinner at 't Diekhuus

Yay! In celebration of my recent graduation, my parents and inlaws gave me a slip course as a gift. Afterwards, N took me for a full-featured seven-course dinner at our favourite restaurant 't Diekhuus in Terwolde, near Deventer.

Like I promised in a previous post, when picture taking would be allowed, I'd blog about this unique visit. It was allowed, so here it is!

The funny thing was, when we arrived at the restaurant, the entire parking lot was stuffed with cars, so we expected the restaurant to be very full. However, when we entered the restaurant, we appeared to be the only guests (and would keep on being the only guests). The other guests were a separate party who had a private room upstairs. This made for the extra luxurious experience of basically a private dining dinner. On top of that, we were exclusively waited by the chef / patron-cuisinier, the amicable mr. Jan Klercq himself! This promised to be a very exciting culinary event.

The restaurants' formula basically comes down to the guest stating ingredients he / she doesn't want to eat, and the staff will adapt their dishes to your liking. There's no menu, so there's nothing to choose from. Each course will be a surprise. N indicated that her food needed to be free of lactose, which posed no problem at all.

On top of that, the restaurant works with as much local and regional produce as possible, including fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs from their own garden, adjusting their menu to fit the season's produce. Each morning, the chef will pick fresh produce and base the day's courses on that.

To start with, we got the trademark homemade bread, from a flowerpot. It was served with three kinds of salt: from Hawaii (finely ground, spicy, red), from the Himalaya (flakes, somewhat pink) and from Ireland (flakes, white) and butter.

First amuse bouche: a jelly of green apple, on which there was a small mousse of red beets for me and a jelly of red beets for N, accompanied by some salted popcorn for N and a small pipette of horseradish dressing for me.

Second amuse bouche: a small soup of celeriac topped with a foam of lettuce for me, and a slightly thickened game bird stock with very finely chopped vegetables for N.

Then, our first course: fish. Mine consisted of a very light roll of salmon mousse, with two flakes of cured salmon, spinach salad and two goat's cheeses covered in black sesame seeds. N's consisted of a tartar of cured salmon, with a gherkin jelly and some violets (the flowers).

The second course, fish again: a roll of very finely sliced sole filet with a very delicate persillade crust and a sprig of julienne celeriac, served with a tomato compote, in a bath of warm gazpacho.


Then, course number three: redfish (some kind of perch) from the North Sea, served with a delicate witloof (chicory) top, tempura of cabbage and foam of goat's cheese for me and balsamic vinegar for N.

Goat cheese foam

Next up, a course in between: pearl barley with local mustard from Deventer, with some Jerusalem artichoke mousse. The caviar-like shaped mousse turned out to be prepared with an unusual molecular cooking technique. When I dared to ask, mr. Klercq told me they used a pond pump. Seriously! Apparently, when you mix your fluid with some lecithin and put the pump in it, the pump creates the little balls and the lecithin then holds them together, so they'll float to the top. Amazing. He confirmed that this was a molecular cooking technique. All the other foams we were served earlier turned out to be also created using the pump.


Whew. Course number four: A leg and breast of quail on spinach, with black carrots (actually a very dark purple), apple quince and ever so sweet walnut caramel.

Main course, course number five: very, very delicately stewed beef. Now, if you remember the beef stew your grandmother used to make, with tender meat falling apart when you just looked at it -- this is in a different league altogether. The beef was oh so succulent, tender, tasty and exactly right, but not falling apart! Amazing again.

The beef was served with red cabbage (probably perfumed with cinnamon, amongst others), some tiny pumpkin slices, chanterelles and salsify. Exquisite.

Sixth course. The first dessert. For me, this was a apple strudel with Limburger cheese and whiskey jelly.

I'll be the first to say I don't like stinky cheeses, amongst which I tend to group Limburger. Smelling this dish indeed made me think of sweaty feet. No matter, when tasted, the combination was very good, especially combined with the whiskey jelly.


N got a millefeuille instead, made with thin strips of white bread and pear, also served with a whiskey jelly.

Then, the final, seventh course: For me, a delicate mousse of honey, with baked granola and a tuille-like, rolled up cookie.

For N, a cucumber granita and an orange granita, also with baked granola and cinnamon-basil.
The seventh course came with a refreshing, small glass of tonic-flavoured water.


Amazingly, after these ten dishes we still had room for coffee with sweets. There was nougat...

...a lolly with a very crunchy, airy egg-white foam (different from your typical meringue) with pistachio, covered in chocolate....

...another egg-white foam, covered in chocolate, and finally a very exquisite small piece of walnut-pie made of a sable pastry with a walnut-caramel filling.

The sweets were presented on some glass trays.

So, that then concludes this celebratory blog post. Thank you N, for this very fine dinner! Thank you, mr. Klercq and staff for this fine dining experience!

If you find yourself in the neighbourhood of Deventer, looking for a recommendable place to eat, be sure to visit 't Diekhuus!