I'm Andréa, a Dutch home cook with almost thirty years of daily cooking behind me, a food photographer and recipe developer, the author of a cookbook about my home province of Brabant, and for years now the woman behind a Dutch slow cooker community with over 24,000 members who tell me, every single day, what works and what doesn't.
You don't have to be a great chef to eat well. A good recipe should actually help you: no vague steps, no ingredients that send you to three different stores, and no meal that leaves you thinking halfway through, "what did I get myself into." I do believe an easy recipe can give you an evening back. An evening where you don't have to think, doubt, or run to the store three times. Just: this works, this is good, sit down and eat.
That goes for the busy parent juggling a full-time job with the household, the kids, and sometimes caring for aging parents too. But just as much for anyone who's just moved out on their own and is cooking for real for the first time, watching their budget the way most of us have to these days. And it's nice to see more men in the kitchen too, I hope this blog plays a small part in that.
Where this comes from
That mix of practical and full of flavor has been part of me since I was a kid. I'm from Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands, a province known across the country for loving food, good company, and taking pride in what we have.
Growing up, I lived next door to an Indonesian family, and whenever a celebration was coming up, they'd cook for days beforehand. The smell would drift down the whole street. Half the enjoyment happened before the party had even started.
That's where my love for Indonesian cooking comes from, dishes that are everyday food in the Netherlands, even if the rest of the world hasn't quite discovered them yet. I love Italian food just as much, simple ingredients, done right. And chocolate. Let's not forget chocolate.
On Sundays, my grandmother always had a pot simmering on the stove for hours, with just the occasional stir and a lot of patience. She had a saying about food, too: eat well, never too much. The only "too much" that's allowed is being too happy at the table.
Most of us don't have that kind of time anymore. That's exactly why I love my slow cooker: it does the waiting for you, and you still get that same deep, rich flavor.
That idea runs through almost everything I make: the best of how things used to be cooked, made to fit how busy life actually is now.
How I cook
I'm precise, maybe a little too precise, but always in a way that has to work in a real, everyday kitchen.
That's not out of nowhere: I trained as a biochemist and environmental technologist. I don't use that background to make things complicated, but to understand why something works, why slow cooking turns tough meat tender, why a crust forms where it should and not where it shouldn't. I translate that into recipes you can simply trust, even if you've never taken a chemistry class in your life.
I test every recipe thoroughly: I check the cooking time, the quantities, and the steps that tend to go wrong, and I make sure the ingredients are things you can actually find at a regular supermarket. I also like putting my kitchen gadgets to work, as long as the flavor doesn't suffer for it.
I try to skip the packets and pre-made mixes. In our house we deal with a few food allergies anyway, so I notice how often ready-made products are packed with extras you don't actually need at home. A few ready-made flavor-builders do make the cut, though things like soy sauce, fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce, and occasionally a stock cube when I want that exact flavor.
I prefer to buy local over organic, less transport, in season, and I think our local farmers deserve credit for the work they do. I live out in the Dutch countryside, surrounded by farms, and I see every day how much work, care, and knowledge goes into good food, not just growing it, but also animal welfare, and farmers making their own, honest meat products or cheese from their own milk.
You can taste that care: it doesn't taste mass-produced, it tastes fuller, purer. That said, most of the recipes on my blog are made with ordinary supermarket ingredients, easy to find, affordable, and without leaving you with a cupboard full of half-used jars you'll never touch again.
Good preparation is half the job, as far as I'm concerned. I plan a weekly menu and shop for it with a plan and I'll just as easily go off-script the moment something too good to pass up crosses my path. A plan is a helpful thing. Not a life sentence. Whatever ends up on the table still has to pass the toughest jury in the house.
The taste-test panel
Every recipe that makes it onto this blog has been tested at home first and that's not an easy crowd.
- The oldest loves curries and pasta.
- The middle one actually cooks the most out of the three kids, sometimes under mild protest, and will drop everything to make a Japanese poke bowl. Equally happy with classic Dutch comfort food or something a little more upscale.
- The youngest is the real foodie of the bunch and can genuinely cook... if school, soccer, and his part-time job would just leave him the time.
- My husband treats my recipes as his starting point, and almost always adds his own splash of something extra. And the kids ask for his nasi goreng, bami goreng and mac and cheese.
- And then there's Rakker, our house cat, who wants to be everywhere and has turned "lying exactly where I actually need to be" into an art form the kitchen doorway, my chair, right next to me while I'm trying to write up a recipe. He doesn't taste a thing, but he's never short of meow-commentary on my cooking.
Fails the panel? It doesn't make it onto the blog. These days they eat chicory and Brussels sprouts without complaint, yet sauerkraut and broad beans are still waiting for their big breakthrough, and I'm not holding my breath.
What you'll find on By Andrea Janssen
On my blog you'll find easy weeknight dinners, slow cooker recipes, classic Dutch dishes from Brabant, Indonesian and Surinamese recipes that are everyday food in the Netherlands, plenty of baking, and recipes for holidays and dinner parties. I develop, cook, test, and photograph every single one myself.
I walk you through recipes step by step, and I try to give you the cues that actually matter, the sizzle that tells you the pan is hot enough, the way a sauce clings to the back of a spoon once it's reduced properly. As close as I can get to standing right there in the kitchen with you.
Work with me
Alongside the blog, I work as a food photographer and recipe developer for brands and companies - recipe development, food styling, and photography that shows how good a dish actually looks and tastes. For collaborations, recipe development, or press inquiries, feel free to get in touch. Examples of my work: janssen-fotografie.nl. For press, events, and book launches email me at: hello@byandreajanssen.com.
With love, Andréa
