Dinner with

Milou Turpijn

For Milou, it is an incredible party week, because she can finally shout from the rooftops that she is the new editor-in-chief of Women’s Health. And to become that, you have to love sports and (good) food, and let me tell you, I know very well that this is the case. A great reason to sit down with her for a Dinner with. Milou, take it away….

Where in the world is your favorite restaurant?

“A super difficult question, because I have eaten in so many wonderful restaurants. One example is The Jane in Antwerp, that's where I go when I really have something to celebrate. It’s so special how delicious the food is there. Every plate that is served is a work of art full of flavor explosion. Meanwhile, the atmosphere is also mega good. Relaxed and not too stiff. In addition, I also love hidden gems in the jungle or on a small island. On the Indonesian island of Nusa Lembongan, there is the restaurant Mamma Mia’s. From the outside, it looks like a simple Warung (roadside restaurant), but here they have the best gado gado in Indonesia. The view is also beautiful: it’s located by a bay with all fishing boats. It is precisely in the simplicity of this restaurant that the beauty lies. They work with pure ingredients and cook with passion. You can taste that immediately!”

And who would you really like to have dinner with? It can be anyone.

“Bentinho Massaro and Richard Williams. I would love to exchange thoughts with them, because they have such a beautiful view on life. Ideally, I would sit with both men at the same table, because they are so different from each other but also the same. They are young spiritual leaders who do not want to be gurus, are down to earth, and can make grand messages very accessible. Richard Williams, for example, has analyzed the song ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ and tells in his videos in a very beautiful way why this song contains an important life lesson. I find it wonderful how you can extract a deeper meaning from a children's song.”

Where do you prefer to sit in a restaurant?

“I prefer to sit at the chef’s table so that I can see the kitchen staff in action. I am fascinated by how everything works in a restaurant. The process and hierarchy, but also how everyone collaborates, has their own role, and works incredibly hard to create true works of art. I can enjoy it when people do something with passion. Being able to watch that adds an extra element to the evening.”

What do you always hope is on a menu?

“Something I don’t know. I love trying new dishes. Something with forgotten vegetables or very strange combinations of ingredients. I actually enjoy eating something in a restaurant that I wouldn’t quickly prepare myself.”

And is there something you really dislike? Tell me.

“I am a vegetarian, so I will not order meat or fish myself. That’s because I think it’s healthier for yourself and better for the environment. I also find it unnecessary to kill a living being to eat it, while I can easily nourish myself with other ingredients. I don’t cringe if my neighbor orders fish or meat, but I do if it’s a dish that involves a lot of animal suffering. Foie gras, for example, really disgusts me.”

Do you find your way on the wine list?

“I have now made several trips to Stellenbosch, Sonoma & Napa Valley. So you would think I know a bit about it. I know my favorite grapes, such as Gewürztraminer or Verdicchio. Yet I would be lying if I said I am an expert. I lived in San Francisco for a while, and at that time I had the habit of trying the most expensive wine on the menu with a friend and then only eating a starter so that we wouldn’t walk out broke. So I definitely find wine important, but I like to be advised by the knowledgeable staff or my dining companions.”

Starter or dessert?

“Dessert! You can wake me up at night for a good moelleux. By the way, I learned from my good friend Edwin Sander that I should say ‘dessert’. I now do that obediently, because he is really a master chef, and if there is someone I trust in the kitchen, it’s him.”

Hey, tell me, do they eat über über healthy at the Women’s Health editorial office?

“None of us has a strict diet or counts her macros. I think we roughly adhere to the 80/20 rule, where we eat 80% healthy and 20% unhealthy. Not even very consciously, but that’s what it comes down to. You can see us first eating a green smoothie with a salad and then around 4 PM devouring an entire bar of Lovechoc. A fries goes down well on Fridays too. And when we work late because we have a deadline, we often make it a party and uncork a bottle of wine.”

What does your lunch look like?

“Our office is located in the middle of Amsterdam. So there are plenty of healthy lunch spots and healthy takeout places around us. We don’t have a canteen, so we often grab something outside. My personal favorite is the açai bowl from JuiceBrothers. When I loudly ask: “What should I get for lunch?” everyone looks at me suspiciously. They know it’s going to be that açai bowl again 90% of the time.”

And, let’s say, you’re cooking for a date for the first time. What’s on the table?

“I really like to experiment when I cook. I often throw everything together, grab the (fresh) herbs I have on hand, and make something out of it. I am generally easily distracted, so following a recipe obediently is not an option. My friends call my cooking style ‘frankenfood’. Sometimes it’s brilliantly delicious, and sometimes it’s inedible. Fortunately, it’s more often brilliant, and everyone is happy to join. For a date, I would make sure to get enough snacks that I can’t go wild on and that I can’t mess up. Good wine with it, and then the evening is definitely good. Even if my frankenfood dish turns out to be a total flop, there will still be plenty to eat and drink.”

What fun project are you currently working on?

“Since June 1, I have been the editor-in-chief of Women’s Health, truly my dream job! Right now, we are campaigning against FOGO. At the editorial office, we kept hearing more stories from women who avoided social events because they were afraid of losing control over their eating or afraid they wouldn’t be fit enough to exercise the next day. They struggled with a certain fear of going out. We call this fear FOGO, or Fear of Going Out. We conducted research among 3140 women, and the initial results show that as many as one in five women exhibit symptoms of FOGO. I was quite shocked by that. Living healthily is important, but life should also remain fun. There’s nothing wrong with making choices to stick to your conscious and healthy lifestyle, but depriving yourself of social events is a shame. I hope that with this campaign we can create more awareness about this topic and make it discussable. We are already receiving many responses from women saying they recognize themselves in this and are glad that the topic is now being brought to attention. I hope we can not only make the topic discussable but also actually help women to change this. This is also directly the reason why Women’s Health is a dream job for me. It is a platform that is an authority in health, and on which I can help women feel better in their skin and become mentally stronger.”