Photography by JEROEN NOORDZIJ
Daan van der Lecq – better known by his alias Chef van der Lecq – manages to get many of his tens of thousands of followers behind the pots and pans with his enthusiastic and creative cooking videos. “I’m an online chef, which is probably a profession you haven’t heard of very often. This means that every day I cook on camera in the media. I give all standard dishes a creative twist, and my thing is that I come up with something different and surprising every time that I’ve invented myself.”
Comfort food from all corners of the world
“My grandma grew up in Dutch East Indies. She had always been very involved in cooking and food and passed that love on to my mother. There was plenty of time and space in our home to really go all out in the kitchen. It wasn't like there were courses of meals on the table every day, but it was always different from what I got to eat elsewhere. Often with Indonesian influences, but food was cooked from all corners of the world. It was mainly comfort food: not very complicated, but special dishes with a broad palette of flavors. My style is an extension of what I ate at home. I have been cooking for fun since I was very little. You start by frying an egg, and with me that quickly became a special egg.”
Ambitious student
“Cooking was a hobby, but I never had the ambition to become a chef in a restaurant. I went to hotel management school because I didn't really know which direction I wanted to go in. Student life was great, but I also wanted to move on. I am ambitious, always have been. It was really fun that we partied so much, but then I was sitting in the study books with tears in my eyes to get it all over with as quickly as possible. Even during my graduation internship at Soho House Amsterdam I came up with a product, developed it and brought it to market: the Bucqle, a modern alternative to the traditional trouser belt. Just before Covid, we flew to China to make deals with suppliers and we went live on 5 March 2020. Eleven days later, the first official lockdown started, so you guessed it: there was all kinds of crap, especially in China. Suppliers said: good luck with your story, we're going to produce face masks. We had a lot of trouble because of that.”
"I often wear a basic outfit decked out with eye-catchers, like a kind of Christmas tree."
Got out of hand
“At that moment I thought: something has to happen, because I can’t devote my whole life to something that is under such intense scrutiny and brings so much negativity with it. So I started my own kitchen line. I had always cooked differently from others and I was jealous of cooking shops with those huge margins, so I thought: I want to become such a jerk too. I invested every last cent I had in stock for that. I had no money left for marketing the cooking products, so I started making free cooking videos. That began with only my hands and kitchen line in view. When I showed my face for the first time, it took off much faster. From that moment on, I gradually started going in front of the camera more myself and that completely got out of hand into something that became a character in its own right: Chef van der Lecq.
After this switch, the account grew by a thousand followers every day for a month. You do lose a bit of anonymity, but it does allow you to pay your bills by being yourself and doing what you enjoy. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak, and I really enjoy that too. Now I’ve accidentally taken a side path where I am a bit more the business itself and am being loaded as a brand. I would really love to grow that brand now and use it to open doors and build new concepts.”
Just a little different from others
“Besides eating and cooking, fashion is also a big interest of mine. A lot of people think it’s perfectly fine to wear the jacket of the woman next door, but if the neighbor has my jacket, then I don’t want it anymore. I like things that other people don’t have anyway. Also, whenever my little brothers used to try to copy me, which happened when they were little boys, I would get so furious about it. I always want to be unique, and brands don’t interest me.
There are brands that really interest me because of what they do, but the fact that their name is on it is not the point for me. I like items that are real. I’d rather have a vintage pair of pants that once cost 400 euros and is now 100 euros than buy a new one for 100 euros from a cheaper brand. This watch is from a brand you could really show off with, but I actually think this model from ’72 is beautiful. That it can simply wear down and doesn’t have to be completely new. I feel the same way about cars, by the way. My most beautiful dream car is a Porsche 911, but I would never want the newest one, דווקא the oldest and most characterful.”
Signature item
“In my free time I often wear a basic outfit dressed up with eye-catchers like a kind of Christmas tree. My signature items are my bandana, vintage Rolex, a necklace, a signet ring I got from my grandfather, and loafers. I love using those separate items for an extra touch. I actually dress more or less the same for everything. Whether I’m digging a hole in a forest to make a campfire or standing at a premiere. That bandana has really become my thing over the past year. I wear one around my neck almost every day. You see it more often now, but I still don’t see it often enough for it to really bother me. Nobody has my bandanas, so that helps too. Everyone’s wearing the same kind of peasant scarf, well good luck with your peasant scarf.”
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