Ambition

During their traineeship in Tokyo, Rudi van Beylen and Filip Claeys saw how selfish their Japanese colleagues could be. Fish of lesser quality is exported and the best fish is kept for themselves. Filip, who grew up in a fishing family, immediately saw how crazy it is to send second-rate fish to the other side of the world, especially to a country on the North Sea.

Creating dishes with the wow-factor to ensure that customers keep coming back for more: that's the main ambition of two-Michelinstar chef Stefan van Sprang of Restaurant Aan de Poel in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. But that's not all: optimally training his staff and guaranteeing them successful careers is also an essential goal. As is climbing the San Pellegrino list and paving the way to his third Michelin star. However, he doesn't think of himself as ambitious. "I've never set myself concrete targets, I just do what I love to do."