The painting 'The Potato Eaters' by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is the most ambitious work from his Dutch period and his first real masterpiece. Before he starts the painting, he makes more than a hundred studies of farm workers, their hands, faces and the atmosphere. In this way he prepares for his large painting about Brabant peasant life, which he sees as a kind of master test. He wants to prove that he is on his way to becoming a good figure painter. He also made a lithograph of the scene.

Van Gogh was inspired by Jozef Israëls who also saw a farming family and a simple meal. Van Gogh made the farmers drink coffee; something that for a long time could only be drunk by the rich. Potatoes have been the basic ingredient for many meals since the early 18th century. And not so much as a vegetable as in the rest of the world, but as a carrier of stews and potato, meat and vegetable dishes. We were inspired by the potato and the poor conditions of many farmers at that time and therefore made the following dish:

Potato with poor men's caviar & beurre blanc

Large young potato, sliced
White wine
Tablespoon Herring and trout eggs mixed
Some green leaves such as sea lavender
Some flowers of the violet
Salted butter
Unsalted butter for the flavored butter
Pepper and salt

Make the flavored butter by simmering violets in the butter. Cook the potatoes sous vide with some salted flavored butter. Melt the unsalted butter and add white wine; let it boil and season with salt and pepper. Improve this recipe again and again, just as Van Gogh did countless preliminary studies for this masterpiece. If necessary, serve on a black plate to get the contrast that Vincent achieved in this masterpiece.