He brought the restaurant to two stars in its first year. Guido Braeken (1984, Maastricht) has immediately put Julemont, beautifully located in the stately Château Wittem in South Limburg, on the culinary map. “Man, I was so proud! To the whole team. These stars belong to all of us.”
After a two and a half hour drive we arrive at our destination: Château Wittem in the South Limburg town of the same name, located between Maastricht and Aachen. On this early morning the estate exudes tranquility. The three-hundred-year-old plane trees in the castle garden are doing what they have been doing all their lives: standing. There is no rush here. The castle goes far back in time. Charles V still slept there. And also William of Orange, before he went to fight against the Spaniards with his troops in Maastricht. A hotel room has been named after both since the castle was purchased by the Dutch-German couple Alexander and Nicole Wilden in 2018 and transformed into a boutique hotel and fine dining restaurant. The former's sister, Victoria Wilden, general manager of the castle, gives us a short tour of the twelve luxury suites, which are primarily intended for guests of the restaurant. They now know where Wittem is located: Julemont restaurant was world news in the Netherlands last year, when it was awarded two stars in one fell swoop during the Michelin ceremony. The architect of this success is just walking in, Guido Braeken: “Sorry I'm a little late, but I wanted to take my son to Easter breakfast at school.”
With a strong espresso we take a seat in the Private Dining, where he takes us back to his younger years. “I was never the best student at school and had difficulty sitting still. I would rather work and earn money. I went everywhere in the village on Saturdays, washing cars and doing odd jobs. If I had earned anything, I would cycle to the record store to buy CDs – music was my great passion. From the age of fourteen I was really allowed to work. From Friday to Sunday I could go to my cousin's business, De Poshoorn in Maastricht, which was the cafe of the year at the time. I started by washing dishes and after a year I was allowed to help out in the kitchen, for example making satays and toasted sandwiches. I thought the vibe there was very special, much more fun than at school. That's where my love for the catering industry came in. I stayed there for four years. At that time I also sometimes worked in service, which I also enjoyed. Ultimately, I had to choose a direction and decided to do the four-year Host course. My first training company was Auberge De Rousch in Heerlen, a very large business with an à la carte restaurant and rooms where meetings, weddings and parties were organized. There was also a friendly atmosphere there.
After a few hotels, in my final year of study I chose restaurant In De'n Dillegaard in Nuth, which had one star, as a training company. That's where things got really serious. Setting tables for twenty place settings is more difficult than for a wedding with five hundred people: everything neat and in order, the sheets ironed, perfect down to the last detail - I thought that was absolutely crazy. When I finished school, the sous chef of In De'n Dillegaard left. The chef asked if I wanted to help him in the kitchen. Although I worked at the front, I had never been able to let go of the kitchen completely. It was a bit harder and rawer there, which suited me. That's why I agreed. And then never leave the kitchen again. Of course, I had no training for the kitchen and therefore enrolled in an accelerated private chef training course. In De'n Dillegaard gave me the opportunity to develop myself. There I learned to handle ingredients such as sea bass, turbot, lobster, tuna and lamb. And bought my first cookbooks, from which I started cooking everything. This is how I made the macarons from Sergio Herman's book – I didn't even know how to pronounce it at the time, haha.”
After four years in De'n Dillegaard, Guido went to De Leuf in Ubachsberg, the star restaurant owned by Paul van de Bunt at the time. “If you work in fine dining, you also want to look at other cuisines. I was curious how restaurants with two and three stars were doing. My wife and I once had lunch at De Leuf, which had just won a second star in 2007. That was so good! I said to my wife: 'If I can come here, I will do so immediately.' Afterwards we walked outside and I bumped into Paul in the hallway. I said to him: 'Mr. Van de Bunt, I would like to leave my number in case a spot becomes available with you in the future.' To which he asked: 'When can you come for an interview?' So that was quickly arranged. I did a combination of kitchen and service there for the first year, but after that I wanted to focus entirely on the kitchen. When the sous chef, one of my best friends, left, I was given the opportunity to take over his position. Paul gave me a lot of freedom. I was allowed to come up with my own ideas and develop them. He was also very innovative himself and, for example, wanted us to delve into molecular cooking during the heyday of elBulli.
“He gave me what you need to perform optimally as a chef”
I worked there for five years, which was very good for my development. You can't master a kitchen in a year, you really have to give yourself that time. That's why I stayed long at all my work addresses. After those five years, however, I thought the time was right to take a new step.” One of his colleagues from De Leuf had gone to La Source, at the hotel La Butte aux Bois in Lanaken, Belgium. He called him and asked if he would also like to come to La Source. “I didn't know the restaurant, but it was quite close to me. And that colleague had convinced me that the chef, Ralf Berendsen (whose name the two-star restaurant now bears; ed.), cooked wonderfully. I had an interview and eventually started there quickly. He indeed cooked so well! Due to illness, the sous chef resigned after six months and I was able to move up again. That's when I really learned to cook. Berendsen is such a perfectionist, so keen on taste. He has given me what you need to perform optimally as a chef. In seven years we have cooked La Source to two stars. Fine dining is top sport: you want to win that medal. And you have to do a lot for that. It was also quite a tough kitchen, although we had a very good connection together. It was a busy place, you couldn't give up. Ralf demanded the utmost from you and wanted perfection on the plate. Whether you had three or eight chefs in the kitchen, it always had to be quality. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it, it was perhaps my most important learning experience, but it did demand a lot from us. I would have really liked to work in a three-star restaurant: Oud Sluis. The first time I ate there, I knew: I will never experience anything like that again! I can still taste the pigeon with pumpkin, so to speak. But Sluis was two hundred kilometers away from me. I became a father at a young age, my wife had her own job. For practical reasons I did not do that.”
It made more sense to go to Beluga Loves You in Maastricht. After seven years at La Source, Guido wanted to move up. When Servais Tielman offered him to become a chef, he didn't have to think long. “I started on September 1, 2019, a day after Hans van Wolde said goodbye. His old team continued to work until February, there was Servais' new team, and I was in between. If I wanted my dishes to take effect in September, everyone had to do as I wanted. Quite a challenge, but it actually went quite well. That gave me an idea of where I stood, how far I was. The first six months I was searching, I would never make the dishes of that time again. But that's mainly because there was pressure behind it: in three weeks I had to put together a five-course menu, an eight-course menu and the à la carte dishes. In the meantime the case was open, so I didn't have the time to test. In the end, what we served was not bad, because after three months we immediately received a star. Yet it didn't feel like it my star. With Servais there was always an owner in front of me who is also a chef. I had been working there for six months when corona broke out. Not the best time, but educational.
In lockdown we are one delivered started. We started with ten orders a day and at one point there were as many as five hundred. This involved a huge organization: you have to manage very differently, purchase differently, work differently. Good to experience that side.” Although things are going well, Guido chooses to accept the offer to become chef at Restaurant Julemont of Château Wittem a year and a half after his appointment. Suppliers had dropped his name there. At Beluga Loves You he still felt like a sous chef, so he accepted the invitation to come for an interview. “It was always my goal to one day run my own kitchen, a place where I would have full responsibility over the menu and execution. Victoria Wilden offered me this opportunity. I had to grab that one. Moreover, I was able to bring my two sous chefs, Norris Neutelings and Max van der Sterren, with whom I had already worked in previous cases in addition to Beluga Loves You. We always felt like: if a new challenge comes up, the three of us will take it on. The three musketeers of the Heuvelland: one for all, all for one! Everything was completed in two days.”
Curious about the rest of the article? The summer edition is a fresh cocktail of entrepreneurship and sport. In this edition, several entrepreneurs from the Champions League of business are reviewed. Including Freddy Heineken and hospitality tycoon Richard Caring, whose expanding empire has been called the 'restaurant equivalent of LVMH'. Doing business is top sport, but top sport is also doing business. Take Formula 1: the sport is increasingly developing into an octopus with arms that touch all aspects of our society. Jaap de Groot investigated how millions are converted into billions. Also interviews with gymnast Sanne Wevers, two-star chef Guido Braeken, hotelier Robert-Jan Woltering, designer Maarten Baas and Rico, together with his Naomy. The 'King of Kickboxing' also turns out to be an octopus (with very strong arms): as an entrepreneur he is active in various industries. “When I look back later, I don't want to think 'I wish I had this or that'. I just want to, boom, accelerate, do fun things, enjoy.” Boom, the new MASTERS: enjoy!
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