Michelin star restaurant Voltaire in Leersum serves light dishes with lots of flavor
Michelin star restaurant Voltaire, located in the oh-so-beautiful Parc Broekhuizen estate, is indeed part of Parc Broekhuizen, but at the same time it stands completely on its own two feet. An overnight stay at the estate and dinner Voltaire is of course the pinnacle of really getting away from it all, but if your wallet just doesn't allow that, just a visit to Voltaire is an experience in itself. When you enter you almost think that you have taken a wrong turn and accidentally walked into the kitchen, but that is exactly the intention.
Is at the helm Chef Arturo Dalhuisen (since January 2022) and we think that is quite good news. The urge to deliver every evening, to improve, to put new dishes on the table and to show themselves differently again and again is high. You will notice this in everything you see on your plate (these are works of art) and in the taste. Packed with flavor without any specific ingredient dominating, and all so fresh, so light. We think it's amazing that you can cook with so much flavor without using liters of cream and packs of butter. After a five- or seven-course dinner, you will walk away more than satisfied, without being uncomfortably full.
Culinary Estate Parc Broekhuizen achieved the Green Globe certification on Thursday, October 26, 2023: an international recognition for sustainable operations within the travel and tourism industry, and therefore an important step towards sustainability at Parc Broekhuizen. Another plus!
We can call Restaurant Voltaire a bit magical. The windows are high, so that sunlight (if it is there) always comes in and you have a view over the woods and the fen. This makes the space feel larger than it is, because the layout of the restaurant and tables has been deliberately kept clear. Intimate, but not on each other's lips. Part of the restaurant is adjacent to the open kitchen, where you can constantly see the chefs stirring pans and preparing plates. Messy, busy and noisy? Certainly not. Rarely have I experienced such a calm kitchen. Not that it isn't busy (because it is!), but Dalhuisen and team work with concentration, like a well-oiled machine. This way of working is also something that Dalhuisen has worked hard on: it sometimes takes some searching in a new team, but everyone now knows exactly what they have in common. So that professionalism is there, without it becoming stiff (one of the waiters was wearing a casual polo, which we liked).
There is a large flowing sofa with a paint-splattered fabric and a gold-colored cocktail bar with a cheerful mix of pink/burgundy red, green, and gray velvet chairs, complemented by real plants and gold-colored palm trees. Yum. Although that yum mainly goes to the kitchen.
How nice that Voltaire also has a menu legume – everything vegetarian. Although you would expect all the big names to have an equally extensive range with vegetables in the lead role, that is still not self-evident. Well, here it is. Every morning you see the chefs in the kitchen garden picking flowers, smelling herbs and seeing what they can conjure up with them. In the morning in the garden, on your plate in the evening. The dishes are colourful, beautiful and of course the most important: so. incredibly. good. The absolute favourite was the scallop with foie gras and kohlrabi (where the kohlrabi steals the show just as much as the other two).
The entire menu is artful, without being contrived, because everything on your plate is there for a reason. The tomato with watermelon and basil is genius (so light, but so much flavor: how do they do it?) and the licorice dessert (with a disk of the Napoleon licorice flavor) is the only way to describe it. Dalhuisen changes the menu regularly, or tweaks where he thinks necessary with the seasons.
Since last January, Arturo Dalhuisen has been in charge of Restaurant Voltaire. His first Michelin star was achieved in The White Room in Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam. Dalhuisen cooked in the kitchens of Daalder, was sous chef in Restaurant de Leest (three stars!) and was one of the youngest chefs to be followed in the culinary documentary 'De Nieuwe Garde'. Now the intention is of course to get that second Michelin star in the kitchens of Restaurant Voltaire. And guys, we believe it will turn out just fine.
Restaurant Voltaire and Parc Broekhuizen are magnificent, but the place did not just become that: the estate was renovated for years under the close supervision of the National Monuments Service. The historic elements of both the interior and exterior were restored and supplemented with contemporary art, custom work (no room is the same), marble (lots of marble) and modern design. And color. Hooray for color! Everything equally beautiful. The suites are dreamy, white and luxurious pied-à-terres that you will never want to leave, wonderfully soft beds, more gray-white marble and even more well-chosen modern art in lots of black and white with the occasional color pop.
Parc Broekhuizen is an estate, boutique hotel, restaurant, brasserie, retreat and your purest wedding location in one. Together with restaurant Voltaire one must go. Put it on the bucket list.
