The Gentle Radicalism of Eating Together

A Night with The Macallan at Flore

Article

December 2025

Asma el Ghalbzouri took her seat at the table in Hotel De L’Europe for a dinner with The Macallan – an evening centred on refinement, gentleness and the art of sharing a meal.

Fig 1. foto: Ashkan Mortezapour

text: Asma el Ghalbzouri

Two weeks ago, I took my seat at a dinner hosted by The Macallan in restaurant Flore, tucked away inside Hotel De L’Europe. A place that, for me, is more than a five-star address. De L’Europe is an Amsterdam institution – proudly independent, like See All This. The bar where Freddy Heineken used to drink his beer. A house steeped in memory and heritage, quite literally in my own backyard. That alone makes it a fitting setting for a conversation about care, time and attention.

The dinner marked the introduction of the renewed visual identity of the Double Cask, Sherry Oak and Colour Collection. The new look was designed by the internationally renowned designer David Carson. The press release speaks of flow, craftsmanship and origin – of whisky as a counterbalance to haste.

At the table, this philosophy took on a tangible form through the careful precision and striking softness with which everything was composed. We were joined by brand ambassador Yoël van Eer and brand manager Philippine Journée, who hosted the evening with warmth – without direction or didacticism, but with a powerful sense of storytelling. The new visual identity was not only presented, but experienced: in the structure of the evening, the rhythm of the courses, the trust placed in the ingredients, and the subtle accompaniment of small artworks by Eva Lynen, who hand-painted the bottles in vibrant colours on the night itself.

Fig 2. Kunstenaar Eva Lynen | foto: Ashkan Mortezapour

That sense of trust reminded me of How to Host, the essay Jessica Collins wrote for the winter issue of See All This, about the way her grandmother welcomed people into her kitchen – not as guests, but as temporary residents at her table. She writes: ‘For many of us, even the thought of hosting a dinner makes us intensely nervous, because we become entangled in the ego of the whole affair. But then I think of Grandma Teeny, singing to her pork chops, chopping carrots and salting potatoes for the women in her life whom she longs, with all her love, to nourish.’

That thought resonates with the ten-year anniversary of See All This, celebrated with an issue devoted to food, titled Cooking is Caring. For the launch on 6 December, guest curator Mory Sacko travelled especially to the Netherlands to cook for us. His dinner was not only a performance – comparable to the feat of a top athlete – but also a gesture: food as a language, as a way of organising closeness.

This principle is also deeply rooted in my own practice as host of the Celebrate Sayf Dinner Club. In many North African and Moroccan households, every conversation begins with the same question: have you eaten? Not as a courtesy, but as a check-in – a way of sensing how someone is doing without requiring words. By feeding someone, you acknowledge their presence. Hosting, in this context, is not a role but a responsibility. That same sense of responsibility and care was palpable at Restaurant Flore.

‘Every conversation begins with the same question: have you eaten? Not as a courtesy, but as a check-in – a way of sensing how someone is doing without requiring words’

Fig 3. photo: Ashkan Mortezapour

Fig 4. foto: Ashkan Mortezapour

The kitchen is largely vegetarian, but anything but cautious. What is served here is thoughtful, layered and expressive. Vegetables are given structure, tension and depth. Each dish feels like a decision, not a concession. Chef Bas van Kranen is a magician. The evening’s menu was interwoven with three expressions of The Macallan – Sherry Oak, 12 Years and 18 Years. A pairing that functioned as a dialogue, or as a memory yet to be made – like that of Brand Ambassador Yoël, who is saving three bottles of Macallan 18 to one day toast his three sons on their eighteenth birthdays.

The Sherry Oak brings warmth and rounded notes that enhance the earthiness of the dish. The 12 Years offers space, lightness and a certain clarity. The 18 Years lingers longer – slow and complex. Whisky here became, almost effortlessly, an inspiring part of the conversation at the table.

What stayed with me most was the attention. Not the kind that demands to be captured, but the kind that emerges when no one is trying to win. We looked at one another. We ate slowly. Conversations did not need to lead anywhere. In a time when everything accelerates, this felt almost radical. For years, The Macallan has positioned itself as a custodian of time and craftsmanship, rooted in the idea of time as cyclical rather than linear progress. This new visual direction underscores that vision – one that was made tangible at the table in Flore.

Hosting takes courage – to create space without directing it. To care without explaining. To accept that what emerges cannot be fully controlled. Precisely there lies the power of eating together. It is an exercise in trust, and a masterclass in preserving culture. The table becomes a meeting place, the meal a shared act. Because cooking truly is caring.