Benjamin Den Bosch hires Bart van Hemert from starred Alma

Benjamin Den Bosch, the wine-led restaurant that sommelier Chiel Seuren runs on the Kerkstraat, has a new chef: Bart van Hemert, 35, who arrives from Alma in Oisterwijk, where he was chef de cuisine under Wouter van Laarhoven in a kitchen with one Michelin star. Misset Horeca reported the appointment on 25 September.

Benjamin opened in March 2023 at Kerkstraat 77, a short walk from St John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch. It is a small room of about 42 seats built around a list of more than 500 wines, with a clear lean towards Burgundy and Bordeaux. Seuren previously ran the wine lists at Noble and Noble Kitchen in the same city, both starred at the time. The house motto is short: Burgundian, relaxed, no fuss.

It is not the only kitchen changing hands in the Netherlands this month: Leon Mazairac left Karel 5 to take over De Hoefslag a few days ago.

A 500-bottle cellar finally gets a kitchen trained on a Michelin-starred pass.

Who Bart van Hemert is

Van Hemert joined Alma in October 2022, first working Sundays to broaden his experience, and became full-time chef de cuisine in March 2023, according to a profile the restaurant published on Instagram in June 2024. The same post describes a cook who prefers classic and modern French cooking, is not shy of Asian flavours and names spring, with turbot, sea bass, artichoke, asparagus, morels and rhubarb, as his favourite season.

Alma, on De Lind in Oisterwijk, has held a Michelin star since 2022. The guide credits Van Laarhoven with pairing inventiveness and technique; Van Hemert ran that kitchen day to day for more than three years.

What changes at Benjamin Den Bosch

Benjamin works without set menus: the card is à la carte, from snacks and starters to mains and desserts, served Wednesday to Saturday at lunch and dinner and on Sunday afternoons. Gault&Millau, which already lists Van Hemert as chef, rates the restaurant 13 out of 20 and mentions oysters, celeriac with brown butter and beef tenderloin with fries, mayonnaise and togarashi.

Misset Horeca framed the hire as a sign of ambition, and the logic is plain: a 500-bottle cellar has so far been matched by a relaxed brasserie kitchen, and a cook from a starred pass narrows that gap. Whether the guides notice is another matter, although the Michelin inspectors are busy in the country, with nine more Dutch restaurants added before the gala.

The first public test will be the next Gault&Millau score. Until then, the wine list is still the headline.