When Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opens on the 6th of November a new restaurant will also appear on the culinary map. On the top floor of the depot well-known Rotterdam chef Jim de Jong will be in charge of the kitchen.
Visitors of the depot can enter the restaurant for lunch during the day. In the evening, De Jong offers guests a casual fine dining experience. The museum is proud that a talent such as Jim de Jong is connecting with the depot and that he will be responsible for the culinary creations in the restaurant and during events. Details about the concept and the name of the restaurant will be revealed shortly. The depot is currently still busy recruiting staff for the restaurant and kitchen. More information about the vacancies can be found here.
The view of Jim de Jong
Jim de Jong: “For me, the depot has a real cosmopolitan feel. I fell for the building like a log. With this place we really want to blend in with the good restaurants that Rotterdam has to offer.” Thirty-three-year-old Jim de Jong is known for his award-winning restaurant De Jong in Rotterdam’s Hofbogen, which he owned and ran until earlier this year.
In his early years, De Jong worked at star restaurant Le Cirque, then headed by chef Robert Kranenborg. He was chef-de-partie at the two-star restaurant Jardin Des Sens in Montpellier, France. Before becoming co-owner and chef of De jonge De Jong in Rotterdam in 2009. In 2013, he opened his own restaurant in the Hofbogen. GaultMillau named him Young Top Chef of the Year in 2019.
The restaurant is located on the sixth floor of the depot, at a height of 34 metres and has a breathtaking view of the city. From 5 PM, the entire sixth floor is also accessible to restaurant guests without a ticket.
The design by architects MVRDV has a small floor area due to its bowl shape, but the widest possible roof area. The fully mirrored façade consists of 6,609 square metres of glass, divided into 1,664 mirror panels that ensure the building blends in with its surroundings. The roof garden contains 75 metre-high specially cultivated multi-stemmed birch trees and 25 pines. Seen from the sky, the green of the roof garden flows into the green Museumpark environment.
Breaking a hidden tradition
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen will make the entire internationally renowned art collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen accessible to the public. Museums around the world usually display just 6 to 10 percent of their collections; the rest lies in storage. It breaks with this hidden tradition and makes all the invisible artworks visible – a world first. In the iconic, mirrored art depot you can find the museum’s 151,000 artefacts. The visitor can observe what happens behind the scenes at a museum, what the conservation and stewardship of a collection entails. Besides the various spaces for storage and care, the Rotterdam art depot accommodates various private depot compartments.
