Dinner at De Echoput, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Website: https://echoput.nl/en/
De Echoput is a luxury hotel and restaurant found in the middle of a large forest that was once a hunting ground for the royal family (Royal Game Reserve Het Loo). Until 1955, this was a stop along what was the main west to east road through the country, and it was the site of a famous ‘Echoing Well’ that had been constructed back in the early 19th century, and which drew many tourists.
Then it was bought by the Klosse family, who developed it first into a restaurant and later into a restaurant and hotel. They achieved a Michelin star in 1967, and became famous for their game. They treated game like serious meat, rather than hanging it for extended periods, and this became a bit of a destination. [At one stage they had two Michelin stars, but of late they don’t have any; they hope this will change with their new venture Wild Atelier.]
Peter Klosse, the current proprietor, started working at the restaurant and developed a keen interest in gastronomy. He ended up doing a PhD on the classification of taste, and is a strong proponent of the importance of mouthfeel. He classifies mouthfeel into three dimensions, and his theory is that if you want to understand which flavours go together, then bear mouthfeel in mind. And this includes food and wine matching.
You can read more about his approach here.
So last night’s dinner wasn’t about drinking the best wines with the various dishes we tried; it was about understanding mouthfeel, and why this is the key to successful pairing. As an example, we had monkfish three ways. The first was the regular dish, which is quite rich, paired with a smooth, textural Mâcon Chardonnay. Then we had a stripped down simple monkfish dish, just in a stock, which we compared with monkfish fried and then presenting in a very rich hollandaise sauce. With these we had an inexpensive reduced-alcohol (9%) Chardonnay and a bold 2019 Champalou oaked Vouvray. The mouthfeel of the simple monkfish went well with the lighter Chardonnay; the mouthfeel of the rich monkfish went well with the Vouvray. The other way round, and it didn’t work at all.
The venison was a stunning dish: it’s so hard to cook a low fat meat like this and keep it very tender, but they know how to do things with game here.
I’ve come away with a couple of Peter’s publications to look more into this mouthfeel classification of flavour. And the hotel is stunning, with some beautiful forest and heathland surrounding it. As well as the main restaurant, they also have a new venture, a tasting menu restaurant called Wild Atelier.
