"I started to become a cook at the age of 16. I trained like any apprentice and each year gaining experience in another restaurant. When I was 25 I started to work in the kitchen of a restaurant where Vermeer-Gert Jan Hageman (now owner of “Kas”) was represented by Ronald Kunis. I learned how to cook the Mediterranean kitchen. Eventually I combined my passion for the Mediterranean kitchen and love for the Italian cuisine into my restaurants Oliva and Gusto.
With Gusto my goal is to serve good and honest food accessible to everyone. Because tasty food with high quality does not always has to be expensive.
All our suppliers are selected carefully and all of them have a passion for good and honest food like we do.
We try to work as much organically as possible. This is what we belief in already for ages before it became a hype. I am over the moon when a guest tells me that they had a delicious dinner and the tastes were so full and pure. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to buy everything organic. Most of the time it’s because of the increased prices. Often Bio suppliers put a label on their products stating it’s ‘organic’ and make it twice as expensive. I don’t want to collaborate with these kind of suppliers.
In Gusto and Oliva we have nothing to hide. We work purely traditional and within sight of the guest. With this kind of passion comes the wish to make everything homemade. For example we make our own bread and cakes every morning just like our ice-cream and pasta. It would be much easier to get everything ready to buy, but that is exactly where we want to distinguish ourselves.
Gusto is Gusto, and I could not do it without my team of employees. We all work with the same goal: having satisfied and happy guests who will return to enjoy our food and service, so we can continue to do what we love.
- Alex Verburg"
