An innovative culinary experience has just popped up on the IJburg island of Amsterdam. IJburg Seveert is a unique pop-up restaurant which serves three-course meals by the beach. Only, instead of having a chef cook from an on-site kitchen, the food is prepared by locals in their own homes, then delivered to the beach side diners through cyclists.
IJburg is quickly becoming a thriving, active neighborhood of Amsterdam. It is the home to a growing community of hobby cooks who regularly share their culinary skills with neighbors through websites like, Share Your Meal. A global platform that was founded in the Netherlands, Share Your Meal encourages home chefs and foodies to share meals with their neighbors while reducing food waste and meeting new people.
As Share Your Meal founder Marieke Hart explains in her TedX talk, “sharing is contagious”. Sharing makes you happy. Access trumps ownership. As a society, we are evolving to a point of understanding that you don’t have to own everything you want to use.
The Power of Sharing: Marieke Hart at TEDxBrainport
Fueled by the idea of the sharing economy, IJburg Seveert makes this hidden IJburg community of cooking enthusiasts visible. Every day between 18:00 and 22:00, the restaurant served special three course meals prepared by local cooks in their own kitchens.
Several home cooks were invited to prepare their signature dishes, which were then delivered to the tables via the bicycle delivery service TringTring. Guests were able to choose from an eclectic array of find cuisine, from gluten-free Indian, to Indonesian, Italian and more.
In recent years, we have seen the true power of the sharing economy. It has allowed average citizens to take on positions such as taxi drivers through apps like Uber and landlords through Airbnb. This unique restaurant allows ordinary people to become temporary chefs.
There are several key factors which contribute to the rise of the sharing economy. In times of economic depression, people are constantly in search of innovative ways of making and saving money. And, as our concern for the environment increases, we are discovering new ways to reduce waste and our impact on the planet. We are becoming less trusting of big companies, while online technology has allowed us to build more trust between neighbors. We are also experiencing a renewed need for local community.
The IJburg Seveert project which is the brainchild of urban design and communications agency Golfstromen, in partnership with Amsterdam’s architecture institute ARCAM. Their mission was to explore new ways to repurpose the unused spaces of one of IJburg’s islands. The solution, IJburg Seveert, experimented with how to deliver relatively sustainable, waste-free dining, while putting community and the sharing economy at the center of the experience.
By making use of unused spaces, IJburg Seveert opens up possibilities for restaurant dining venues in obscure but innovative places. This project also empowers local talent and stimulates the local economy. Alongside a boost in local entrepreneurship, IJburg Seveert is an inspiring project which opens up whole new worlds for the sharing economy and sustainable dining. It generates social cohesion within the community and is a project the locals and beyond can both revel in and enjoy.
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