Summary of article in Billed Bladet #04, 2016.
Written by Lisbeth Grube.
The DRF chef, Jesper Vollmer has had to quite his job after ten years due to complications after an accident.
He has been working reduced hours but alas now he has to quit.
So in this article he gives a very frank portrait of how it was to work for the Regent Couple and PH in particular. He is leaving a workplace he clearly loved.
"We are one big family down there (in the kitchens). Of course we employees are not a part of the family in regards to the royals, but I have become enormously close to the Prince Consort. Him I'll simply miss so much.
The Queen has been more distant, so it's special things I have dealt with in regards to her. But the Prince Consort and I have spend so many hours together. Both with cooking but also in sitting in the couch with cookbooks and get good ideas. That has always been a high priority with him.
We have been sitting and coming up with the must amusing lunches. It has been cozy and intimate in the way that I haven't just felt like the cook who came up to say yes, sir, to everything he wanted. We have really been sparring and developed courses together". - In fact they have worked on three cookbooks together.
"We have joked about how it can be really hard to work with the Prince Consort, because he really stirs the pots.
He can come home with funny things in the trunk, like mushrooms from a drive and change the lunch in the last second. Then one has - in citations - cursed him far away, but damn we've also often talked about how dull it would be if he wasn't there. He has a love for food that makes get up on your toes".
PH has brought his view on cooking from his childhood and held on to them.
"Not least in the way to handle the raw products. He has a deep respect for products in particular and we go out fetch one corn (maize) in the garden, which we need - and not two, because we are only going to eat one. And God help us if the leftovers that goes out are not recycled in another course. We have been told off some times, where we have used the things in a way he did not think was in order. And he was right. I have an enormously respect for his way to think food".
During the New Year Courts he was not on the job for the first time in ten years.
"For the first time in ten years I wasn't on during the New Year Table. It was so odd to turn on the TV and see how they ran around at Amalienborg and prepared for the Table. That's my business! That's when it tickled in the stomach".
"For ten years I have been hidden away in the casemates of the DRF. Now I look forward to having an opinion".
About working with PH: "We have such a cozy time together. We have been eating a lot of Asian food, because the Prince love that. But otherwise it's rustic, simple food. Just because you are royal it doesn't mean that you eat truffles and caviar every day".