De Vergulde Tong

A one-person sambal kitchen with a recipe traced back to 1960s Indonesian sailors.

De Vergulde Tong, Dutch for The Gilded Tongue, is a one-person sambal kitchen run by Albert in Volendam. Production is deliberately small, sixty jars made by hand over four hours per batch, no shortcuts on ingredients.

Milde sambal van koksmaat Kees took Gold and Best in Category. The recipe came from Albert's old colleague Kees, now 84, who learned to make sambal in the 1960s from Indonesian colleagues on board ship. The jar honours Kees on the label.

The sauce: Milde sambal van koksmaat Kees is a mild sambal built on fresh Spanish peppers from the Westland greenhouse region. It leads with the pepper itself, the heat dialled back so it sits comfortably on rice, satay or eggs without taking over.

Peppers: Fresh Spanish peppers, sourced through Westlandpeppers.

Pairs with: Sits comfortably on rice, satay or eggs.

“I am really proud and honored that, in a blind tasting competition, expert European judges and makers within the European hot sauce community have rated my mild sambal as overall winner in the category sambal, chutney and pickles. Thank you so much!”

Find Albert: deverguldetong.nl