{"id":152383,"date":"2023-04-10T12:25:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T10:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=152383"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:37:10","slug":"alumna-danielle-van-de-geer-wants-to-become-a-chef-doing-what-you-enjoy-is-really-the-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/04\/10\/alumna-danielle-van-de-geer-wants-to-become-a-chef-doing-what-you-enjoy-is-really-the-way-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna Dani\u00eblle van de Geer wants to be a chef: ‘Doing what you enjoy is really the way to go’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dani\u00eblle van de Geer really enjoyed her bachelor in Business Administration and master in Global Business and Sustainability. All the same, she recently decided to take a new path and is now training to become a chef.<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

From the vegan restaurant, with its ceiling full of plants and pendant lights, you can see Dani\u00eblle van de Geer (26) working in the kitchen. In her dark green apron, she is working with colleagues to prepare for the dinner shift. Copper pans hang above the kitchen appliances. She does all kinds of things here, from making ice cream and butter to blanching vegetables. \u201cThis place is right up my street.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is her third week as an intern at Brasserie Amare in The Hague. The internship forms part of her Self-employed chef course at the Horeca Academy in the same city. Here, she started following a work\/learning pathway this month: she spends one day a week at the academy and the other four days working in the kitchen of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Traumatic personal event<\/h2>

Not all that long ago, Dani\u00eblle was still at university. She started her Bachelor\u2019s degree in Business Administration in 2015, and five years later she obtained her Master\u2019s degree in Global Business and Sustainability. She found the degree programmes \u2018extremely enjoyable\u2019 and \u2018super interesting\u2019, she says. After that, she also enjoyed working as a sustainability coordinator at a company where she worked for almost three years. \u201cThose were not wasted years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

But following a \u2018traumatic personal event\u2019 last year, she began to think about how she wanted to spend the rest of her life, she says. What exactly that event involved, she would rather keep to herself. \u201cI thought, \u2018Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?\u2019 What should I do to really make the most of it?\u201d<\/p>\n

She soon realised that the idea of \u2018spending her whole life behind a desk\u2019 did not make her happy. \u201cMy body had too much energy to sit in an office all day.\u201d After a day\u2019s work, she preferred to put that energy into cooking. \u201cI also found it relaxing at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social expectations<\/h2>

She always used to joke that she wanted to open something of her own \u2013 a farm, restaurant or bed and breakfast. \u201cBut it was a joke with a grain of truth in it.\u201d She developed the desire to open a vegan or vegetarian restaurant in the future. \u201cAnd if you want a restaurant, you have to be able to cook.\u201d After a trial lesson at the Horeca Academy, she just knew: \u201cThis is it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found the move to the academy quite stressful. \u201cI was afraid of social expectations,\u201d she says. \u201cI made a choice that isn\u2019t traditional for someone with a Bachelor\u2019s and a Master\u2019s degree, so I wondered: is this the right path? Even though I knew it\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her fear did not prove justified, and so far she has only had positive reactions. \u201cPeople admire my decision. I don\u2019t look at it that way myself, because doing what you enjoy is really the way to go.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Creativity<\/h2>

So far, she has \u2018very much enjoyed\u2019 the academy and the restaurant, she says. \u201cI love being busy all day.\u201d She felt that her university education lacked a practical nature. \u201cWhen I learn something here, such as a preparation method, I can immediately apply it in practice. And when I have made a dish, I can see, taste and smell it right away. At the university and in my previous job, the result was less tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure><\/div>

She can now give free rein to all her creativity in the kitchen of the brasserie. She shows a photo of the dish she most enjoys making: kohlrabi with tarragon dressing, a kind of colourful work of art with mandarin orange, thinly peeled radish, radicchio and deep-fried kohlrabi leaf on a chic blue plate. \u201cIt\u2019s cool that I also work on decorating dishes here,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I serve something, I\u2019m proud of what I\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t

De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t