Cooking & EatingToday is Pancake Day for the fifteenth time. Then the traditional Dutch delicacy based on flour, milk, egg, salt, butter or oil is in the spotlight.
How is the pancake doing, is it still the same? Does he change according to taste and eating preferences? And how many pancake restaurants does the Netherlands have today, on Pancake Day?
The answer to the last question: 450. Of these, 80 are members of the Vereniging Van Erkende Pannenkoekenrestaurants, an entrepreneurial club where knowledge, trends, new ways of doing business, communication and purchasing benefits are shared.
And just to clear up the first misunderstanding: 100 percent exclusive of Dutch, you cannot call the undiminished popular gastric filler. With that you waltz over the American pancake there, but also the Japanese okonomiyaki , a savory variant with a filling of pork, cabbage or squid. Or, to look closer, French pancakesGerman PfannkuchenGreek tigatines and Russian blinis.
You cannot call 100 percent exclusive Dutch a popular gastric filler
Flavors change over the years, but for some pancakes they seem like cast in concrete. Paul Mahieu from Arnhem sees that too. He and his wife Hetty have owned the famous pancake house Den Strooper for 26 years. “Bacon pancake or pancakes with apple are mainly ordered by older guests. Without them even throwing a glance at the map. This makes them our permanent runners, just like variations we have had for the youngest guests for years.”
At the same time, new flavors are indeed being added, matching the taste development that is taking place in a broader sense. “In the past you could only go to the Chinese for a dish from far away, now we have a choice from all continents. You can see the reflection of this on your plate in pancake restaurants. Make it up: it can be on a pancake! It forms a neutral base, just like a wrap. It is a rewarding base on which you can play with ingredients. Additions make the pancake, which in itself is not very exciting in terms of taste.”
Pancake with figs
Ten years ago Mahieu could not imagine anything with a pancake with figs, today he knows that there are enough enthusiasts to put it on the map. The fig variety does not yet belong to the category of runners, but pancakes with spinach and goat cheese, pine nuts and arugula do. “The variant with brie and honey is also often reserved and the demand for the one with Italian raw ham and burrata (mozarella filled with cream, ed.) is growing rapidly.”
Although cutting back on meat is a trend, Den Strooper also has variants with rendang and shoarma in addition to the bacon pancake. “There is certainly a lot of demand for that,” says Mahieu, who, by the way, prefers shawarma on a pita bread. What he notices is that more and more people are asking for pancakes without the addition of milk or egg, as well as gluten-free variants.
“At least ten guests a day fill out an allergy form. These wishes are taken into account in the kitchen. We work with different types of flour, can bake without egg and milk. It remains especially challenging to work 100 percent gluten-free in the kitchen of a pancake restaurant.”
“Guests with severe allergic reactions to gluten usually don’t choose to go to a pancake restaurant,” says Hetty Mahieu. “We bake as cleanly as possible, of course, we bake gluten-free in a special pan. But give guarantees? You simply cannot do that in a pancake kitchen. Vegan is occasionally requested. We don’t offer that at the moment, but we are investigating whether we can expand our card with it.”
The Mahieu family has long known that pancake restaurants are of indestructible value for the Dutch catering industry. “Even without the familiar farm atmosphere, the formula is rock solid. Most restaurants, including ours, have a modern interior.”
New pancake shop focuses on champagne-sounding millennials,
and dares to choose new flavours.
“The industry continues to grow,” says Janneke van den Ham of the Association of Recognized Pancake Restaurants. “Restaurants are becoming more and more hip and come up with innovative concepts. World of Pancakes in Haarlem is an example of this. In its communication, it focuses on champagne-sounding millennials, but also dares to choose new flavors. For example, there is an Asian pancake on the menu.”
That is a rather laborious dish that is for that reason only available one day a week and is therefore becoming a hype. “And Pancakes in the Park in Utrecht is striking because of the communication that is used. I also like Pancakes Amsterdam, because of the focus on tourism and take-away.”
Van den Ham sees a need for succession within the sector. “Most restaurant owners have been in business for 15 years or more. Illustrative of the industry is that restaurants continue to do well with and without innovation. Even for farm-style restaurants with red and white checkered curtains, it still works. In the meantime, we see that older entrepreneurs in particular are eagerly looking forward to young successors who want to step into the pancakes.”
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