How to serve beet salad to football supporters?

Good food from Dutch soil

The Netherlands is bursting from beautiful, honest products. Fresh from the land, grown with love by small scale farms. Yet, these are not the products you find on your daily plate. It is my mission to fill your plate as well with sustainable products from Dutch soil. The first horde? The Amsterdam Arena.

Sustainable means local

How sustainable is a 'biological' avocado flown from Latin-America and placed in our supermarket covered in plastic? A tasteful Dutch beet, grown a few miles from your plate, that is sustainable. And just as tasty! Served fresh in a healthy salad, that's better for the farmer and for yourself as well, because it's healthy from the start to the finish.

The healthy kitchen can be learned

Eating healthy is a matter of education. This starts with the management, than the kitchen staff and this way ends up on the people's tables. This is also how I approach the change of the food concept in the Amsterdam Arena to a healthier one. Sports and fried snacks is a popular combination. But unhealthy and as Johan Cruijf would say: completely illogical. Sports attracts young people. Them experiencing healthy food is important for the rest of their lives. That's why the Arena now has salads on its menu.

In everyone there is a gourmet

The Arena Cheese is not a publicity stunt, but a way of making young people conscious about healthy food. The grass of the Arena is composted by a biological farmer, using it to fertilize the field his sheep are grazing upon. The biological cheese from the sheep is served in the Arena. An honest product with a pure taste. They are proud of it and this makes them say no to the fried snacks. Because also in football supporters there is a gourmet.  

Andy Verdonk is ambassador of sustainable Dutch products and founder of Foodjoy - creative and educative food events.