A LIFELONG LOVE OF FOOD
Chef Ype Von Hengst as a boy fishing with his grandfather in the Netherlands.
Chef Ype’s journey from a
small town to Silver Diner.
Chef Ype Von Hengst remembers the food of his childhood fondly, and he recounts one particular memory every chance that he can get. Growing up in a small town in the Netherlands, in a time before supermarkets, when small shops sold everything from local produce to dairy and grains, there were certain days of the week that his mother would watch an older gentleman walking a cow on a rope up the cobblestone street. “She’d turn to me and say, ‘Tomorrow, we’re going to the butcher,” says Chef Ype with a chuckle, “‘because we just saw that he will have fresh meat.’”
All these years later, fresh, quality, comforting food has been an ethos that Chef Ype has carried with him, throughout his culinary career, into his creative menus at Silver Diner today. And it began at home, back then.
His first kitchen job? At about age seven, when his mother started enlisting him to help her cook Sunday supper for the family: washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables; stirring soups and stews; seasoning roasts with garlic and herbs—just as she was once taught by his grandmother, who would often be sitting around the table, too. “It was hearty, home-style cooking, and my mother made everything from scratch,” says Chef Ype. “From an early age, she instilled in me how different ingredients and flavors helped pull a dish together. But she never explained why, and she never wrote anything down—it was just intuitive for her.”
“I finally understood the science behind my mother’s cooking.”
In culinary school, though, he got a formal education, hitting hit the ground running after high school with an apprenticeship in Germany, where he worked two shifts, six days a week, 13 hours a day, followed by classes on Sundays. He completed his studies at the Hotel Restaurant School in Holland, after which he landed at a prestigious restaurant group in Geneva, Switzerland, where he met his wife, Denise. “It was the school of hard knocks, but I learned a lot. I learned how to work hard, I learned discipline, I learned organization,” he says of those early years. “And I also finally understood the science behind my mother’s cooking.”
By 1976, Chef Ype took what he’d learned in Europe and moved to the United States with his wife and newborn son. With that same ethic, he worked his way up from breakfast cook at a Hilton to executive chef at the Rockefeller Center in New York City to corporate chef for hospitality legend Restaurant Associates, which manages dining at numerous prestigious institutions like the National Gallery and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Along the way, he traveled far and wide across the country, overseeing hundreds of restaurant menus along the way.
Chef Ype as executive chef at the Radisson Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, pictured left, with his sous chef, John, pictured right.
“I figured that was the best way to learn, and I saw right away that you could have a lot of opportunity over here, but you had to create it for yourself,” he says. “Luckily there is no man for all seasons, and my wife Denise was already willing and ready for a new adventure. She’d say, ‘Give me 24 hours, and I’ll get my suitcase packed.’ We’ve always made a great team.”
Speaking of, one of the things that made Chef Ype stand out—then and now—was his approach to teamwork. Unlike many top chefs, especially those with fine-dining backgrounds, he had little ego, always seeking to make his kitchens collaborative and inclusive. Today, at Silver Diner, he routinely invites his front-of-house and back-of-house staffs to share their opinions, which often leads to the best ideas, he says. “It’s just a part of my DNA—I like to listen to people. You learn a lot that way. In many kitchens, there are hierarchies, but I don’t feel that anyone should ever have an attitude like they are above somebody else. No matter who you are or where you come from, we all wake up in the morning, put on our pants one leg at a time, then get to work.”
This openness extends to his guests as well. Regulars know well that Chef Ype often walks around the dining room, asking everyone from little kids and family to old couples and business colleagues about their meals, with his congenial personality as colorful as his multi-hued glasses. In fact, most items on the new seasonal spring menu are there because of customer feedback, like the watermelon and shrimp salad—a perennial favorite.
For him, it’s all tied together, and goes back to the very beginning. Comfort, he learned many years ago, comes not just from a filling meal, but also the company you keep.
“When I used to cook as a kid, it was not just about a love of making food,” says Chef Ype. “From day one, it also instilled in me the joy of hospitality and service—breaking bread, sharing dishes around the table, having time with family and friends. It was passed down the generations. And even today, that’s when I’m the happiest.”
New! Crab Cake Melt with Lobster Au Jus.
INTRODUCING OUR SPRING MENU!
Extra, extra—have you heard the news? Our new seasonal menu items have officially launched in all stores, featuring brand-new best-sellers as well as beloved favorites returning for spring. Be sure to sample our all-star smash burgers and mouth-watering melts. “It’s elevated comfort food,” says Chef Ype, who especially loved the crab cake melt on grilled sourdough with a creamy lobster dipping sauce, plus a side of crispy fries and fresh coleslaw. “These dishes are like coming home to me.”