Interdit, which means forbidden in French, is a most unusual culinary concept, designed and implemented by four young creative people from Amsterdam, Brian, Jaymz, Tiddo and Niels. They are “the Cowboys of the Kitchen”, and their concept can be described as a culinary, disobedient, semi- illegal, traveling cultural restaurant.

The Interdit concept is as follows: first of all the collective founders define a location where the event will be taking place. They specifically look for places that are out of the way and have something mysterious about them. A disco that is empty and needs to be rebuilt, or an old church that is not being used, an old warehouse that is waiting to be transformed into an apartment building, or the latest, the arcade under the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Interdit does ask permission from the owner to use the place, but not from the police or other formal organizations. The staff of Interdit knows how to turn these places from nothing to something on the spur of a moment. By using crude, temporary locations, Interdit avoids expensive drawn-out startup periods and stays focused on what they are good at: hospitality, atmosphere, and good food.

The restaurant is only open for a set number of days at a particular location (from a weekend to at most ten days), thereafter going into hiding only to resurface somewhere else after a couple of months. That’s how the Interdit concept stays fresh and challenging for both the guests and the initiators. Each new location further offers new perspectives and possibilities. Just a week in advance the founders notify all their contacts and relatives via e-mail and SMS and within a few days they are fully booked.

Guests sit at large tables, bring their friends and enjoy each other’s company, even with strangers. They enjoy a good meal and some entertainment. The atmosphere is open and dynamic; there is room to stand up and recite a poem at the dinner table, should one so desire. The processes are smartly organized, and the food, the core essential, is pure and exciting, or as they call it, “chauvinisticregionaleuropeanstyle”.

The menu is created each day depending on what is freshly available. Primarily organic products are used in light versatile dishes – classic ingredients in innovative combinations. They steer clear of the usual and present a 6-course narrative dinner, commencing for all the guests at the same time, usually 8 pm, and taking up the whole evening. The service is quite unassuming, not formal but friendly and well-meant, supple and noiseless.

Within a few days the experience ends at that particular location. The entrepreneurs seek new adventurous locations to create a fresh Interdit experience and to build a larger pool of Interdit-customers who enjoy the excitement. The conviction of Interdit is that the public of Amsterdam is ready for a fresh impulse. An initiative that stands for pure values and especially for quality, without getting lost in complicated ideas and gimmicks. Simple, honest, temporary – but definitely innovative and exciting.

Interdit certainly is in the experience business; they create an informal friendly atmosphere together with their guests and friends that often is lacking in professional restaurants. They bring an informal organization to a high professional standard. Their motive, as they say, is to offer pleasure in an unusual way; it’s not restricted to economic motives. Its challenge is somewhat like that of ID&T – not becoming part of the “formal world” while keeping the spirit of originality and creativity going.