Nick van Rijn began his life, and his career in bread making, in Holland. Now in Lombok, he runs a business that combines everything he loves – his wife, his friends, working with people and, of course, baking.

They say bread is the food of life, and Nick would agree. He spoke to My Lombok recently about the huge role (or should that be ‘roll’?) of bread in his life.  

Is there one dish you love and remember from your childhood?

Yes definitely. I grew up in a big family, and as a kid, I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house. Every Sunday morning after church the whole family went there to drink coffee. On Saturday afternoon we always needed to prepare cakes and pies for Sunday morning. I loved to help with that. I have a lot of happy memories of making apple pie with my grandmother.

How did your family react when you told them you wanted to become a baker?

It wasn’t really a big surprise for my family. I always wanted to be a baker – never a policeman or a fireman, or anything like that. My mother’s uncle had a bakery, and from the moment I was big enough to see what was on the tables, I spent almost all of my free time with him, helping in the bakery.

Tell us about your career and some of the places you have worked.

As I said, I started helping out in my mother’s uncle’s bakery – first in the school holidays, and then on Saturdays as well. It got to the point where I was skipping school to help in the bakery, making chocolate eggs for Easter. My mother wasn’t too happy about that. But she loved the fact there was always something sweet in the fridge when she came home.

After college, I worked for a couple of years in different bakeries in Holland. After I left Holland, I worked my way up to head chef in kitchens around Europe. I ended up in Switzerland, where I had two restaurants of my own.  For a few years I was working myself almost to death, doing 18-hour shifts, so I sold the restaurants and moved to Indonesia.

For a while I worked as a dive instructor for Blue Marlin, on Gili Trawangan, and I also managed the restaurant for a year. That was the year I married my lovely wife, Lina, and together we started NICO Boulangerie, with Cinzia and Giovanni

How would you define your style of cooking?

I think I have a very classical style. I like to resurrect old recipes before I make something; I always try to go back to the beginnings. I think about how bakers and chefs made things 100 years ago, without all the fancy equipment we have today. I find having this knowledge helps me understand more about what I’m making.  

Tell us about the concept for NICO Boulangerie

It all started with four friends wanting to eat good bread – so we started making it for ourselves. Then we had requests to make bread for others, and in a matter of months we were baking bread on a daily basis.

We always make our bread from quality ingredients – almost all imported from Europe. The flour comes from France and Germany, the butter from Belgium, and the chocolate from Switzerland. We believe that you can only make quality products when you start with quality ingredients. We give the dough a lot of time to develop; a long developing time gives the bread flavour without the need to add any artificial substances. It’s just like bakers did it in the old days.

Which type of bread or pastry do you most like to cook?

I don’t have a favourite product. What I like most is trying different techniques and having some variety in my work.

I love the process of bread making, and the structure of it. To produce the same bread every day the process must be the same every day – the same dough temperature, the same resting time. Everything needs to be structured.

For making pastry there is freedom and creativity; I need to be more ‘in the mood’.

Which do you think are the clients’ favourites?

One of the front-runners is multigrain bread; multiseed rolls also sell very well. It’s obvious that people are looking for healthy bread – sour dough bread and rye bread are good examples. Not so long ago we started to sell pastries as well. I was really surprised at how much everybody likes our citron and chocolate tartelette.

Do you have particular ingredients you really like to cook with?

Yes, quality ingredients.

In a bakery a lot of the ingredients are the same. It’s really what you do with them that makes the difference. And that’s why it’s so important that the ingredients are good quality, you can’t hide anything in bread. I think that’s also part of the success of NICO Boulangerie; we take the time and the effort to find the best ingredients.

Which is your ‘must have’ kitchen gadget?

A good scale. Without a scale, baking becomes guesswork. Knowing your ingredients and knowing how much to use is the basis for really good bread. You can spend hours making bread; being sure that you are working with the right amount of ingredients is essential for success.

Describe a typical working day.

My working days are never the same. I always start my day in bread production. Lots of afternoons I spend working on new recipes, or improving old ones. A lot of costumers ask us to make specific products for them; developing them takes up a lot of my time.

Baking bread is so different from the usual Indonesian way of cooking, so at least once a week I like to sit down with the staff and talk about the theory of the baking process. This helps a lot with maintaining the quality of the products.

What do you like most about your job?

If you had asked me this question a month ago I would have answered: making new products and recipes. But three weeks ago, six students started a 3-month practicum in the bakery. I really like teaching. We do the theory sections outside in the berugak*, with Lina as translator. I really try to take the time not only to teach the doing but also the understanding.

What is your biggest challenge?  

For the bakery I think it’s to find the quality of ingredients that we need to make the bread. Almost all the ingredients come from Europe, and it’s always a challenge to get everything to Lombok. It was especially difficult in the beginning but now we have found some reliable partners to work with.

For me personally, probably the biggest challenge is to remain patient, because I’m not a patient person. In Europe that was never a big problem, but here in Indonesia being impatient doesn’t help at all.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Lina and I like to go to the movies. We see almost every new movie there is. I also like to go diving but I’m not too often underwater these days.

What foods do you really love to eat? Anything you would never eat?

I’m a big fan of home cooking and street food. We chefs like to overcomplicate things sometimes, but the ingredients are the stars of any food.

I will try anything. As long as someone else is eating it too, I will try it.

If you hadn’t become a baker, what do you think you would be doing right now?

I have no idea. I literally grew up in my profession. I’m not an office person at all, and I like to work with people. I loved being a diving instructor, so if I couldn’t work in the food industry anymore, I would probably do that again.

Other than creating great food, what would you say are the most important qualities that make a successful chef?

We are team players. One great chef is nothing. Kitchens and bakeries really are places where everything is a team effort. That is why restaurants get stars, not chefs. The dishwasher is just as important as the head chef. The most important skill is communication; you need to communicate with the cooks and chefs around you all the time.

Do you have a favourite celebrity chef?

I like Gordon Ramsay, probably because we are both very impatient. He found a way to make that work for him, turning a negative into a positive. I like that.

Any tips for budding chefs?

Switch jobs often. Try to work in big kitchens. Learn from the people around you. Don’t ever give up.

And never make concessions on quality; if you mess up, just start again.  

*berugak  – an outdoor shelter for meeting, dining, relaxing

‍