Edwin Vinke

The Climb

Training at Ter Duinen, Koksijde and Ter Groene Poort, Bruges gave Edwin Vinke the formal base for a career built on precision and ambition. Those schools provided the structure that later carried into service: exacting habits, steady execution, and attention to what a kitchen demands over time. In 1993, he became owner and executive chef at De Kromme Watergang in Hoofdplaat, Netherlands, beginning a run that continued through 2024. The length of that tenure speaks to consistency, but also to the ability to keep a restaurant moving without loosening its character. Since 2024, Edwin has been chef of Restaurant 1742. The move carries the same practical continuity: established habits, seasoned judgment, and the capacity to work in a new setting without abandoning the discipline that shaped the earlier years.

Today

Since 1993, the Hoofdplaat post has been chef work. That span reflects an owner-and-executive-chef role held over decades at the same Dutch address, with all the routine responsibility that permanence requires. It is the sort of continuity that can only be maintained through daily judgment, repetition, and renewal.

In Their Words “At first, I mainly listened to what the guests wanted, but that alone wasn’t enough to make the restaurant profitable. Nevertheless, we persevered.” “From that moment on, I knew I wanted to cook differently and I changed course.” Read together, these lines show a working chef who treats the business side of a restaurant as part of the craft. The first quote is blunt about the limits of following demand alone and about the need to keep going anyway. The second marks a deliberate change in method. Between them sits a career shaped by practical correction, not fixed ideas.

Recognition

Edwin's honors include Two Michelin stars and Chef of the Year (2011). That recognition sits on top of a long record of sustained work rather than a single moment. Trained in Belgium, established for decades at De Kromme Watergang in Hoofdplaat, Netherlands, and moving on to Restaurant 1742 in 2024, Edwin Vinke has built a career measured by endurance as much as by awards.