Leon Mazairac leaves starred Karel V for De Hoefslag
The Utrecht chef who won Karel V its Michelin star again takes over Bosch en Duin's De Hoefslag from November, the venue's third chef in two years.
Leon Mazairac leaves Karel V, the Utrecht restaurant where his kitchen won back a Michelin star, to take over De Hoefslag in Bosch en Duin from 1 November.
Mazairac, 48, has run the Karel V kitchen for six years. He stays through the end of October and starts at De Hoefslag on 1 November, working alongside his partner Zara Kooke, who takes on the venue's hospitality and commercial side, and in partnership with Brothers Horeca Groep, which keeps a stake in the business.
Under Mazairac, Karel V regained the Michelin star it had lost in 2013. The kitchen won it back on 23 April 2023, ten years after the hotel's dining room last carried one.
Well, here we go. Time to build a new dream, starting 1 November.
An interview published this week by AD traced Mazairac's route to the stove: a self-described picky eater who preferred imitating footballer Marco van Basten to watching his parents cook, before a career that included cooking for guests such as Iggy Pop.
Building a new dream in Bosch en Duin
"Well, here we go. Time to build a new dream, starting 1 November," Mazairac wrote on Instagram, announcing a move that follows another Dutch kitchen change this month, Bart van Hemert's exit from starred Alma for Benjamin in Den Bosch. Mazairac called De Hoefslag "an institution, a house with history and a soul."
Mazairac and Kooke take formal ownership on 1 January 2027, running a brasserie and a gastronomic restaurant on the same site. They plan to open with a single tasting menu and adjust the format gradually, aiming for what Mazairac describes as an accessible kind of fine dining rather than a formal, hushed room.
A restaurant that keeps reinventing itself
De Hoefslag has held stars before. Under chef Gerard Fagel it kept two for five consecutive years in the 1980s. It lost its last star in 2019, the year it was rebranded as HFSLG under different ownership.
The restaurant reopened as De Hoefslag on 23 January 2026 under chef-owner Mark Minkman. He left later in the year for "a new adventure," his own restaurant Lilou in Ede, leaving the Bosch en Duin address with its third chef in under two years by the time Mazairac takes over.
Karel V has not named Mazairac's successor. Sous-chef Jent van Capelle left earlier this year, and the hotel restaurant's kitchen for 2027, and the fate of its star, remains unsettled.
Michelin inspectors need no notice to visit, so a verdict on De Hoefslag's new kitchen could land well before Mazairac completes a full year there, or well after it.
