Alumni Week: What if better tasting is the key to better eating?
Saturday 3 October | 14:30-15:45 | Science Park, C1.110
- Date
- 3 October 2026
- Time
- 14:30 -15:45
- Location
- Science Park 904
- Room
- C1.110
Please note: this event is in Dutch.
Want to join? Sign up here straight away!
Restaurant critic and culinary journalist Joël Broekaert talks with humour and expertise about how we experience taste: how does tasting work, and what is flavour? In his interactive tasting class, he takes us, in an accessible popular‑science way, into the world of taste and aroma: from the five basic tastes and umami to fermentation. Through small tasting exercises he shows you why you actually taste with your nose, and why, for example, it is better not to chew on plain chocolate. In this way, he demonstrates how we can increase our tasting pleasure and enrich our experience of flavour by tasting more actively and consciously. And it can also help us make better choices. Because those who taste better, eat better – healthier, more sustainably, and above all more deliciously and with more enjoyment.
Joël Broekaert is a restaurant critic and food journalist, known for his work in NRC and Vrij Nederland, his television programmes De Smaak van Joël, De Vijf Smaken van Joël, and Joël Lokaal, and as a judge on MasterChef Celebrity. He studied History and Journalism at the University of Amsterdam and has devoted himself fully to gastronomy, flavour, and the art and science of tasting since 2012. He reviews a restaurant for NRC every two weeks and is one of the leading and most respected voices in Dutch food journalism. He also enjoys exploring the history and science of what we eat through original, entertaining, and informative series.
