Remco Kuijpers

Kitchen progression shows up plainly in Remco Kuijpers’s résumé: Apprentice Cook at De Swaen in Oisterwijk, then chef at Da Vinci and Vermeer, then chef-kok at Restaurant Fitzgerald until 2021. In 2022, LIZZ in Gouda became the next stop, with Kuijpers stepping in as chef and adding another kitchen to a career built through successive rooms rather than quick leaps. The throughline is practical enough for the trade: repeat service, increasing responsibility, and the ability to carry technique into different houses without changing the facts of the work.

At COCO in Gouda, where Kuijpers is Executive Chef, the job sits at the point where execution and direction meet. The title carries the daily demands of a service kitchen, but also the broader task of setting the standard that others cook to. His own stated goal makes that scale explicit: "Our ambition is to make the hotel, including the restaurant, an institution." That is not language of short-term volume; it is the language of building a place meant to hold its ground.

Advancement is the metric here. Kuijpers moved from Apprentice Cook at De Swaen in Oisterwijk into chef roles at Da Vinci and Vermeer, then into chef-kok at Restaurant Fitzgerald until 2021, before taking on chef at LIZZ in Gouda in 2022 and Executive Chef at COCO in Gouda. Read in order, those appointments show a kitchen career where responsibility expands in steps and authority is earned in service, not declared in advance.

The record itself is the recognition: De Swaen in Oisterwijk, Restaurant Fitzgerald, LIZZ in Gouda, and COCO in Gouda. Michelin awarded LIZZ one star in April 2023, and the restaurant is a one-star venue under his leadership. Michelin awarded LIZZ one star in April 2023. Awarded LIZZ one star in April 2023. Awarded LIZZ one star in April 2023, and the restaurant is listed in the 2025 guide as a one-star venue under his leadership.