Michelin-starred restaurants in Zeeland

When you arrive at De Kromme Watergang in Slijkplaat, on your left you’ll see the restored school which now houses the restaurant. On your right, De Zilte Hof, a kitchen garden key to the cuisine of Edwin Vinke. Some 260 jostling crops fill a palette of scents, colour and flavours. His cuisine combines the earthy and the briny, with his infinite and creative pluck.

Just a few metres removed from the Flemish border in Koewacht, Eric van Bochove creates with pure produce at Restaurant ’t Vlasbloemeken. He is a poet too, describing his policy of sourcing the best of the sea, local livestock and farm fields in a lyrical string of “zee, vee en veld”. Zeeland has, he says, so much to offer that sourcing food from afar is unfit for purpose. His presence exudes onto his food, and the pleasant feel of the place. In the summer, your table awaits, very well laid, at the pond in the courtyard garden.

As well as its ferry harbour, commercial harbour and fishing harbour, Breskens has a modern marina. It is onto this and the Westerschelde that you can feast your eyes from Restaurant Spetters. The owner Laurent Smallegange works with local produce like fish and shellfish from the North Sea. To this basic palette, Laurent add flavours from all the world. On the quayside, next door, is Eb&Food, a relaxed and more informal showcase of Spetters.

Irreverently uncomplicated, this ‘republican’ brasserie AIRrepublic is where the science of the simple is applied by the old master Sergio Herman. His roots surely show—local Zeeuwse produce is served in classic form. Here familiarity breeds content: the chef Alex Buiten is an old (right-)hand of Sergio, spending five years together at Pure C.