Café Marseille @ Art Rotterdam / Unseen Photo

This year, the culinary corner of Art Rotterdam will once again be filled with the rugged French atmosphere of the Rotterdam institution Café Marseille. Since 2020, this restaurant has been defying the equally rugged Kruiskade, with Derk Jan Wooldrik and Kris de Leeuw at the helm. Together they are also known as the Double Trouble Horecagroep and have quite a few successes to their name. The combination of a punk ship's cook and a club legend [De Leeuw was co-owner of the legendary club Bar] turned out to be a golden one. There is, for instance, the musical neighbourhood pub Bar Alaska, which nowadays sails the Rotterdam Stoofboot along the Maas, and the brewery Eurobrouwers, which recently started serving their beer in their own atmospheric Café de Wilde Mossel. The latter, by the way, is not far from the real gem - Marseille, of course!

Menu Café Marseille
For the menu, Wooldrik and head chef Jona Haile travelled to the city where it all began. For three days, they started their day with a refreshing swim, after which they could search with fresh eyes for the essence of this complex city. This resulted in a highly culturally diverse menu. Think Italian 'nduja and stracciatella over the Ombrine Carpaccio and the North African flavour of Ras el Hanout in the mussels. Just like the city, the restaurant is a good neighbour and they try to collaborate as much as possible with local entrepreneurs in the area. This style is something Wooldrik is known for - his dishes have always been a blend of his memories as a ship's cook and the port cities where he came ashore. He has written a cookbook about this, in which he takes you on a cruise along all these magnificent places, complete with the accompanying wild stories. Since their brief trip to the great city, Wooldrik and Haile have developed such a taste for it that they will soon be travelling back to the city, to join forces and write a book together.

The distinctive atmosphere of the restaurant comes into its own in the scale of Ahoy. This is thanks to the work of set builder and set dresser Ben Zuydwijk. He made his mark in the film world and won two Golden Calves, the most recent for Hardcore Never Dies (2023). 'We had already worked with him before for a Basque pop-up restaurant at Station Bergweg. For that he designed a Basque punk bar, Bar Bilbao. He is someone with an unconventional outlook who thinks on his feet,' says Wooldrik.

Wooldrik and De Leeuw are delighted to once again welcome the audience of Art Rotterdam / Unseen Photo. Come raise a glass of bubbles, enjoy a quick oyster or a warm lunch - see you there!