A chef from Druten cooked for Suzan & Freek in Gelredome for ten days. A different dish every day, completely according to the paleo diet. They ate it in their dressing room. “High table.”
Freek Rikkerink, half of the singing couple Suzan & Freek, follows the paleo diet. It is a diet based on how our ancestors ate in prehistoric times. Lots of vegetables, fruit, nuts, fish and meat from grazing animals. No potatoes, no grains, no dairy products. And it is not without reason that Freek follows this diet.
Chimichurri
According to Freek, it is useful for his diagnosis of metastatic lung cancer. Chef Johan Visser from Druten was recently allowed to cook for the duo for ten days during their concert series in the Gelredome, and started his preparations two weeks in advance. In other words: an extremely lucrative assignment that involved a lot of money.
Johan chose to cook on site, in a mini kitchen in the stadium. Every morning he left early, arrived at 9:30 am and was busy cooking the rest of the day. The first evening he served asparagus soup, a salad with chicken and avocado, a smoothie in between and in the evening a steak with chimichurri and sweet potato.
Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes do fit into the paleo diet, Johan had sorted out all those details. He did not have much contact with Suzan & Freek. “They were far too busy for that. You may think it was a very luxurious evening, but it was not so bad. They ate in their dressing room at a high table with two bar stools.”
He only briefly told us what was on the menu each time. “We didn’t talk for long, but it was always fun.”
Evening job
Johan was not present during the concerts themselves. “Around the time that all visitors arrived at Gelredome, I drove back to our restaurant in Druten.”
He spent the rest of the evening working in his own kitchen. “It was very nice to do. And everyone was super nice. Ten major concerts in the Gelredome stadium, that is really quite an organization. I am grateful that I was a small part of it.”