Jim de Jong chosen as chef of the depot’s rooftop restaurant

The impending opening of Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen on 6 November also means that a new restaurant is set to appear on Rotterdam’s culinary map. On the depot’s uppermost floor, set above the city’s treasure chest, Jim de Jong (b. 1988, Rotterdam) is to take the helm in the kitchen. The depot’s visitors can visit the restaurant for lunch during the day, while in the evening De Jong is promising guests a ‘casual fine dining’ experience. The museum is honoured to be joined by a talent like Jim de Jong, assuming responsibility for the culinary content of the restaurant and depot events. Details about the restaurant concept and its name will be revealed shortly.

Chef of the Year

The 33-year-old Jim de Jong is famous for his highly praised De Jong restaurant at Rotterdam’s Hofbogen, where he was proprietor and chef until earlier this year. Early on in his career De Jong worked at Le Cirque restaurant in Scheveningen, which was run by chef Robert Kranenborg at the time. He served as a chef de partie at two-star restaurant Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier, France, before becoming co-proprietor and chef of De jonge De Jong in Rotterdam. In 2013 he opened his own restaurant at the Hofbogen. De Jong was awarded the Gouden Pollepel – the Dutch Golden Ladle – in 2016 and in 2019 he was pronounced the Netherlands’ Junior Chef of the Year by the GaultMillau restaurant guide.

Looking out across the city

The restaurant is located on the depot’s sixth floor, at a height of 34 metres, and boasts a breath-taking vista across the city. During the day this floor is open to depot visitors with an entrance ticket and can be accessed by lift or via the imposing glazed atrium. From 17:00 the entire sixth floor is accessible to restaurant guests via an express lift, no entrance ticket required. Besides the restaurant, the rooftop has a wooded terrace and a unique events space that is available for hire.

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen

The depot’s bowl-like design by architecture bureau MVRDV means that it has a small ground-level footprint but as large a rooftop surface as possible. The completely mirrored edifice consists of 6,609 squares metres of glazing, subdivided into 1,664 mirror panels that ensure the building is absorbed into its surroundings. The rooftop garden is populated by 75 towering, specially cultivated multi-stemmed birch trees and 25 pine trees. From a bird’s-eyes perspective, the greenery of the rooftop garden converges with the green surroundings of the Museumpark.

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is the world’s first art depot that is fully accessible to the public and is set to open its doors to the public on 6 November. Ticket sales have commenced: Click here to book and for further information.