Héron Utrecht
Free-range fine dining
Restaurants with a focus on sustainability, zero-waste, farm-to-table and similar trends have been popping up everywhere the last few years, but one of the pioneers in Utrecht must be Héron.
This small and cozy restaurant in a quiet but beautiful part of the old city centre (just around the corner from Le Clochard, one of my other spots) is praised for cooking with hyperlocal, seasonal and/or preserved and often lesser known ingredients. They take this really seriously. All fruit and vegetables come from suppliers in the vicinity of our city, and are grown in the open air or in unheated greenhouses. Some of them are even picked in the wild, such as seasonal mushrooms. All fish is sustainable and meat is either wild (game), or they use unsaleable parts of known suppliers. They are well known for this last bit, and their pied the cochon (pigs feet) is legendary. They are also well known for their fermentation techniques. No wonder they have been awarded with a green Michelin star.
Final detail: don't drink alcohol? Good news: they have faboulos non-alcoholic food/drink pairings.
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