You’d think that winning two Michelin stars and a Michelin Green Star would be the defining moment of a chef’s career. But not Bas van Kranen. The moment that changed his career was when he met a dairy farmer just outside Amsterdam.

‘I realised I had never asked myself where [dairy] comes from,’ he says, as we sit in the lobby of Nobu Hotel Shoreditch a month before Restaurant Flore, housed in Amsterdam’s hotel De L’Europe, reopens. ‘And I just thought, “I don’t want to do anything I did for the past 15 years. I want to forget everything I know and start all over again” – and see how we can do this with a goal, not to be sustainable, but to create a conscious environment.’

The “conscious dining” approach he went on to create at Restaurant Flore saw him win a trio of Michelin stars within eight months of opening. But he’s not bothered by accolades. Instead, his aim is to keep innovating – to keep researching ingredients and experimenting with new ways to cook consciously and create dishes that really interest him.

He’s also just about to reopen Restaurant Flore with a new design and refreshed restaurant concept. So, we sat down with him to chat about inventing new ingredients, what’s to come at Flore, and his go-to meals when he’s not in the kitchen.

You’re about to relaunch Restaurant Flore with a new concept – what can you tell us so far?

The ethos of my kitchen is going to come into every part of the restaurant. We work with a lot of Dutch producers, farmers and fishermen, which will be reflected in the new design. It’s built from local materials; the walls will be made from a combination of ground hemp and chalk, and we’ve found a couple of fallen trees that the tables and chairs are going to be made from.

We’ve never cooked the same dishes twice, so we’re designing a full new menu with 25 new dishes. They are spread across two menus; one of them is fully plant-based, and the other one is omnivore.

Many restaurants now use terms like “seasonal” or “sustainable” when describing their dining concepts. But you go much deeper; you’re not just looking at locally sourced produce, but also how sustainable that producer’s values are. How did you develop such an in-depth value system?

During Covid, I asked my team to dig around on a few topics, like the dairy, fish, meat and cotton industries. Right from the first session, I was shocked about a lot of things that I didn’t know. Like the dairy industry. I never fully understood it until I met a farmer who owns a dairy farm in Holland. I visited over 120 farms in the year we did the investigation, but he was the only farmer that did everything in a good way.

I suddenly realised that, despite ordering kilos of butter and cream and having 50 different cheeses on the cheese trolley, I had never asked myself where it came from. That was one of the biggest, most shocking moments for me. So, I decided to stop using dairy and farm meat and started researching alternatives.

What kind of dairy and meat alternatives have you created?

When we’re in the research phase, we want to try every possible product and process to understand the differences between them. We’ve made a lot of milks from different varieties of nuts in this way – from almonds, hazelnuts and also local Dutch grains. Just last week, we were researching soybeans because we wanted to make a proper tofu but didn’t want to have soybeans from Asia. We found a Dutch producer of soybeans and started to do some tests to make soy milk.

But then I thought, this is going to be too simple. So, I contacted a couple of farmers, and we found a collection of very old crops of Dutch beans that we then put through the same process of making soy milk. And what happened was we found an alternative for nut milks using a Dutch bean replacement – it’s like a green-tea milk that’s slightly bitter but very sweet.

Where do you get your ideas from?

There’s not one way, but it often starts with research and development. During the three and a half years that we’ve been open, we’ve been building on our base elements and making better and more exciting dishes. Every year we add 200 extra ingredients that we can use again – and that makes it even more exciting.

In our kitchen, we experiment with a lot of very old and international techniques. For example, last year we wanted to use mirin, the Japanese rice wine, but we don’t grow rice in Holland. So, we tried making it from 12 ancient Dutch grains and tasted them at the beginning of this year – one of them was even more amazing than a 10-year aged rice mirin that we tasted before.

What are your goals for the refreshed Restaurant Flore?

It’s never my goal to get a Michelin star or to be the number one restaurant. I won’t say that I wouldn’t be incredibly happy with an award if we won one, but for us, it’s more important that we try to be close to what we like. The Michelin Guide wrote something like ‘Bas van Kranen now has the confidence to cook just the way he wants to,’ and that is exactly it. We just do whatever we want, without any restrictions – it’s not just about ratings.

What do you cook at home?

I’m a pasta eater. My favourite pasta is amatriciana – a combination of tomatoes, guanciale and lots of black pepper. I also add bell peppers and a good amount of Pecorino. I like it when it’s spicy and I really love the rich flavour of the guanciale. I also eat a lot of salads. Yesterday, we had a salad with Swiss chard, dates, chickpeas and tahini – simple, but good ingredients.

What’s your favourite country to visit for food?

I have a rule that I never go back to a country twice, but I have been to Japan five times. It’s the only exception, not only because of the food, but also the people, the culture, the fashion… Everything is so interesting there.

Restaurant Flore reopens on 2 April. Find out more and book your table at restaurantflore.com