A marble room that becomes a dining room
The Royal Palace dominates Dam Square. However, it was not built for kings. It was Amsterdam’s city hall, and the sculptures on the walls still remember it.
At the heart of the building is the Burgerzaal, the Citizens’ Hall. On the ground, the marble outlines the hemispheres of the globe. Above, huge chandeliers. The rest of the year, visitors cross it with their noses in the air. On banquet evenings, she receives up to 240 guests, according to the Royal House.
So it’s not a dining room. We transform it. The tables arrive, then the chairs, then the tablecloths. Then come the china, the glasses, the cutlery, the flowers. For the duration of an evening, a visiting location once again becomes a reception room.
It is this metamorphosis that Oranje Van Boven: De keukens van de koning tells the story of, broadcast at the end of 2024 by AVROTROS. For several months, Yvette van Boven entered the kitchens, opened the silverware reserves, learned how to set a royal table and observed the footmen. His apprenticeship ends with the banquet on December 12, 2023.
The stewardship choreography
It all starts in an office that guests will never see: the Bureau Evenementen. It depends on the Department Hofmaarschalk, the department of the court marshal, responsible for the royal reception in the Netherlands. Invitations, guest lists, menus, table documents: everything passes through his hands. The seating plan is supervised by the Marshal of the Court in person.
You might think that this doesn’t concern kitchens. It’s quite the opposite. If a guest changes place at the last minute, the order of service changes.
In 2018, in a Royal Household publication, Edith Veldman-Reijnen, then events coordinator, remembered its beginnings. The invitations were hand-lettered. Placement cards were coming out of the typewriter. A late change? A swipe of white concealer.
IT has swept away this paperwork. The rule has not changed: everyone must work on the same list.
And the pace does not slow down. According to AVROTROS, more than 200 receptions are organized each year between the three royal palaces, Noordeinde, Amsterdam and Huis ten Bosch. A small group lunch one day, a big diplomatic reception the next. State banquets are only the tip.
Six thousand references in the silver room
This is one of the most beautiful sequences in the series: the Zilverkamer, the silver room. In 2018, its inventory included around 6,000 references, according to the Royal House. References, not objects: a single one can bring together a whole series of pieces.
The team conserves, maintains and, when necessary, restores it, with heritage services. Govert Zweekhorst, presented in 2018 as the specialist on the site, insisted on one point: we do not take care of these pieces without knowing their history.
Some have been serving for generations. Others go on exhibition from time to time. In 2018, the public discovered a table setting by Jan Eisenloeffel, given to Queen Wilhelmina for her wedding in 1901. Geometric lines, enamels: for the time, it was avant-garde.
On today’s tables, we also come across Delft porcelain from Royal Delft, Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, and Royal Leerdam glasses. Among them, a crystal service offered to the royal couple for their wedding in 2002.
Each object has its location.
Then comes the training, and there, nothing is left to the eye. The silverware and cellar teams measure the position of each plate, each glass, each cutlery. The distance between two places must be the same everywhere. Yvette van Boven tries it out in the episode dedicated to royal dressage.
A steward will not see anything exceptional in it. What is striking is the number of hands that this regularity requires.
See the documentary on NPO Start
The linen, the flowers, the cellar
At the Garderobe & Linnenkamer, the palace’s wardrobe and linen room, tablecloths and napkins are prepared. Maintaining them is not enough. You have to count the pieces needed for each reception, dress the tables, make the folds chosen for the service.
The florists have their own workshop, the Bloemenkamer. Bouquets for the living rooms, arrangements for the tables, each in the place provided by the plan. Yvette van Boven puts her hand in, then goes down to the cellar. The sommelier explains to him how wines are chosen for a state banquet.
The division of roles is clear. Linen to lingerie, serving pieces to silverware, flowers to florists. But on the table, everything comes together. A composition must not interfere with a glass or a cutlery. It coexists with the candlesticks, the bowls, the vases taken from the collections. And the valets must still be able to move around.
When the table is ready, it has already been checked several times. The trickiest part remains: receiving and serving.
In the kitchen and in the dining room, the footmen
First surprise: the main kitchen is not in Amsterdam. It is located at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Its facilities make it possible to prepare meals for around 150 people, according to the Royal Household. However, state banquets are most often held in Amsterdam. We can imagine the logistics. Public sources do not say, however, where each dish on December 12, 2023 was prepared.
In the dining room, it’s time for the footmen, the lakeien. They welcome the guests, serve the drinks, bring the dishes, for lunch and dinner. They can be recognized from afar by their livery. Since 2017, it has been inspired by Victorian fashion: dark blue, Nassau blue highlights, tie with a fine orange border and stamped with the king’s monogram. For major ceremonies, the white bow tie remains essential.
The uniform impresses, but it’s first and foremost a job. In the fifth episode, Yvette van Boven learns how to set up the king and queen squares, then trains for royal service. Each gesture has its place in the sequence. Everyone follows the meal and serves at the same pace.
The last episode also shows that the machine can seize. On the day of the Korean banquet, a lunch is held at the same time, and the release of the dishes causes tension in the kitchen. We are far from the smooth images that palaces usually publish. This is precisely what makes the series valuable.
December 12, 2023, the evening of the banquet
On this day, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima receive President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee. This is a first: no South Korean president has ever made a state visit to the Netherlands since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1961.
The day is busy. Welcome at Dam Square in the morning, then reception and private lunch at the palace. In the afternoon, the king and the president leave for Veldhoven, to ASML, the manufacturer of semiconductor machines. In the evening, return to Amsterdam.
The Burgerzaal is ready. The king and the president each speak. The banquet crowns this first day.
The official photos show the sovereigns, the guests, the tables. The series shows all of the above. Guests will leave with the memory of an evening at the palace. The teams know how many actions it took for nothing to go wrong.
The last plate leaves the room. The silverware returns to its reserves, the linen, the linen, the flowers go too.
In Amsterdam, the banquet is over.
For stewardship, the evening continues.
Sources and credits
Documentary sources
Royal House of the Netherlands, Het Koninklijk Huis
- Hofmaarschalk Department Official presentation of the professions, services and organization of royal receptions.
- Department Hofmaarschalk, annual report 2018 Documentation on dressage, silver collections, linen room, footmen, kitchens, table services and the events office.
- State visit of the President of the Republic of Korea, December 12 and 13, 2023 Official program and background of the visit.
- State Banquet of December 12, 2023 Official minutes and photographs.
AVROTROS / NPO
- Presentation of the series Oranje Van Boven: De keukens van de koning, November 18, 2024.
- Press release behind the scenes of the Royal House, November 6, 2024.
- Oranje Van Boven: Het staatsbanket, episode 6, broadcast on December 28, 2024, 46 minutes.
- Oranje Van Boven: Koninklijk tafeldekken, broadcast on November 30, 2024. Notice preserved by the Netherlands Institute for Image and Sound.
Photo credits
Image of a: Tables set for a state banquet in the Burgerzaal. Photography: Dymas Vreede. © Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam / Dymas Vreede. Download the photograph in high definition
Photo 1: The empty Burgerzaal, Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Photography: Wim Ruigrok. © Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam. See photo file
Photo 2: Detail of a banquet table with golden candlestick and floral arrangements. Photography: Dymas Vreede. © Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam / Dymas Vreede. Download the photograph in high definition
Photo 3: State banquet in the Burgerzaal, archive photograph. © Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam / Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst (RVD). Date of shooting not indicated. See official photograph
Photo 4: Banquet offered to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, December 12, 2023. © RVD / Het Koninklijk Huis. Official banquet photo library
Video: Oranje Van Boven: De keukens van de koning, episode 6, Het staatsbanket. Presentation: Yvette van Boven. Production: Kleine Storm for AVROTROS / NPO 2. Director: Jannes Drop. Broadcast: December 28, 2024. Watch on NPO Start.
