Famous Culinary Journalist Passed Away

Johannes van Dam, the most famous culinary journalist of the Netherlands, passed away at the age of 66, on Wednesday in Amsterdam. He had been seriously ill for some time, struggling with a heart ailment. He also suffered from diabetes. This was confirmed by his editor at the Parool, late Wednesday night. Van Dam wrote almost 25 years for the newspaper Parool. His popular restaurant reviews made ​​him an authority in the culinary field. Van Dam’s NRC colleague, Joep Habets, commemorated him as ‘the national schoolmaster when it comes to culinary matters’. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of cooking and eating, which he included in his masterpiece ‘De Dikke Van Dam’. Career Born in 1946, he first tried two studies (medicine and psychology), but quit studying in 1983. Then he took over the Kookboekhandel in Amsterdam, a shop for cookbooks. That was the start of his culinary career. Seven years later, he sold the shop and began writing about food, at first only in Elsevier, but later also for the Parool and the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. Van Dam published several books on cooking and eating, of which ‘De Dikke Van Dam’ was the most memorable. De Dikke Van Dam His masterpiece 'De Dikke Van Dam' - wikipedia De Dikke Van Dam is a guide with reference to the famous Dutch dictionary ‘De Dikke Van Dale’. Van Dam chose the name of his book because Mr. Van Dale was a school teacher by profession, educating people about the Dutch language. The dictionary was first published in 1874 and is seen as the leading dictionary for the Dutch language. Van Dam also saw himself as a schoolmaster, but one for culinary matters, so that was how he chose the name of his book. He was on an endless crusade against ignorance by writers, translators and publishers of cookbooks and culinary trends. He constantly called for better quality products and while doing so he criticized the food industry and the supermarkets. This made him famous. He was also a feared restaurant critic. Youth This anecdote from his childhood shows the typical Johannes van Dam: “His talent for gastronomy was not restricted to his adult life. Little Johannes prepared at a young age the Sunday brunch for the family at home. He refused to use margarine instead of butter. As a child he unmasked local bakeries with an iodine test. Those who used ground beans instead of almond paste for their ‘gevulde koeken’ could shake it. He would publicly reveal their ‘cheating’ in front of the customers and the local bakers saw him as a terror.”