about Maureen

I remember.

Scrambled eggs in beurre noisette. The first dish I prepared by myself for myself when I was eight years old. The caramelized sweet and nutty flavor of the butter combined with the salty creaminess of the eggs was comforting and liberating at the same time. Sitting in the sunny window sill on the 4thfloor of the flat building where I lived with my sister and parents somewhere deep in Osdorp, the far western outskirts of Amsterdam. And then it hit me: I went to the fridge and got the jar with my dad’s homemade sambal badjak, that spicy fragrant and slightly caramelised stuff that was a staple in our kitchen. I dropped a tiny spoonful of it on my eggs. Magic.

 My love for eating and cooking started at a very young age. I could often be found in the kitchen at home and at my grandparents’ peeping and sniffing in the pots and pans or watching my grandmother use the cobek for the Indonesian and Indo-European soulfood she made from scratch. My childhood was filled with the smell of steamed rice, homemade sambal, soto ayam as well as splitpea soup, zuurkool and classic dutch draadjesvlees (beefstew). The cupboards were as laden with trassi, chillies, lemongrass, pandan leaf and santen (coconut fat) as they were stocked with bay leaf, thyme, cheese, potatoes, sauerkraut and sausage.

 Amsterdam is where I eat, play and cook.

‘t kleinkookbedrijf maakt grote gebaren met eten. Noem het food performances. De verbindende kracht van eten is ons podium.

We bedenken en produceren culinaire voorstellingen, eetbare verhalen en ontmoetingen aan tafel die alle zintuigen prikkelen. We werken met koks van over de hele wereld. Of ze nou net uit Syrië gevlucht zijn of -voor heel even- uit hun vermaarde sterrenkeuken. Iedereen die onvervalste onvergetelijke smaken brouwt, bakt, oogst of bereid kennen we, of leren we kennen en betrekken we bij ons werk.

Oprichter Maureen de Jong is van het sambal geobsedeerde, cocktail shakende, hoog fermenterende soort. Zo geeft ze spice aan elke ontmoeting. Give us a holla! maureen@kleinkookbedrijf.nl

Work talk

Maureen is a food and performance artist specialising in inter culinary exchange, personal food heritage and how both can be a means to relate, connect and build a community. Her work is an ongoing journey in search of the meaning of one's culture and heritage through food. She creates live events at the intersection of food, art, local economy and social impact for instance with the TRANSVAAL BACCHANAAL (2017-present)  a yearly recurring dining experience where local food experts and professional chefs meet in the kitchen and  share flavors, secrets and stories from their kitchens which are then served and shared in a performative setting with an audience. Intercultural exchange is an important motif of her work. In every project she emphasizes and transcends cultural differences in a theatrical, performative way and strives to champion diversity,  and inclusion. For instance in 2019 & 2021 in Cooking for Kakera Akotie & Cooking for Tjampakka (in collaboration with Phi Nguyen at music theater company Veenfabriek) a series of culinary and musical performances commemorating the abolishment of slavery and researching in a theatrical and gastronomical manner the need for a shared narrative around the Dutch history of slavery and colonialism in both the West and the East..

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Food, eating and the diversity in ways of preparation and rituals that surround it, the way every human being consists of personal and shared food & taste-related memories are important ingrediënts of the work I create. It can take on different forms: a social event, public intervention, an interactive fine dining dinner or performative action. 

In all my projects I invite people to taste, smell, tell and share. I cook for, with, in peoples homes or out on the street. I collect stories, tastes, addictions, family recipes, scents, personal kitchen confidentials, rituals, crafts and customs. I create interactive eating-and food installations, intimate flavor experiences, cooking events and (private) dinner concepts in which food and memory are related. In these participants are invited to share and exchange their personal sense-memories and encounter these in various ways.

Over recent years I have been working with people who live in the suburbs of various cities in the Netherlands. In these neighborhoods I encountered many different people from many different cultures. Being of euro-asian descend, inter-cultural exchange has always been an underlying motif in my work. I try to study, emphasize and transcend cultural differences in a theatrical, performative way. In my work I have developed a very intimate way of connecting with people from the communities I operate in. I try to use my theatrical background and this ability to connect on a personal level, to a point where performative action and gentle and generous attention towards the personal stories and history of the people I encounter, become inseparable. 

I am fascinated by the moment in which people from their tongue to their heart and their heads connect to each other. In this moment people get to know one another in a way that is not predictable: they get inspirations, memories and are invited to immediately share these new experiences with one another. In this sharing lies the recognition of the other.