RotFest 2026 - Summit

For everyone who wants to go beyond just making beautiful fermentations. This day is about an equally important question: how do you make sure that people actually want to eat, drink, buy and understand them?

Fermentation is fascinating, multi-layered and full of character — but also unfamiliar, exciting, or even a little scary to many people. Tastes can be intense, products sometimes require explanation and not every guest or customer is immediately sold. That is exactly what this summit is about.

During the RotFest Summit 2026 we dive into the world behind taste: how do you introduce fermentation to a wider audience? How do you make distinct flavours attractive? How do you take guests, customers and customers into something they don't know yet? And how do you build products, dishes and stories that are not only special, but also really land?

This day is for chefs, producers, makers, hospitality entrepreneurs, food professionals and fanatical taste thinkers who want to discover how fermentation can be not only culturally interesting, but also commercially powerful.

No blah blah, but honest stories, smart strategies, inspiring practical examples and insights from people who know exactly how to introduce new flavors without diluting them.

Learn from precursors

Speakers from the top of the gastronomy and food world share how they take guests and customers into unknown flavors, new products and characterful fermentations. Not just about making, but especially about positioning, serving, explaining and seducing.

Learn how taste becomes marketable

How do you ensure that something that seems exciting at first becomes irresistible? How do you build trust around an unknown product? And how do you make fermentation accessible without taking the soul out? Expect a day of practical insights into taste acceptance, storytelling, presentation and market sense.

Taste the translation into practice

During the summit, you will experience how high-level fermentation is used in dishes, products and concepts that really touch people. Not as a niche for insiders, but as something that more and more people want to try out.

Meet people who are building the future of taste

The summit is also a place to meet like-minded people: chefs, producers, researchers, entrepreneurs and fermentation enthusiasts who are all working on the same challenge — how do we make fermentation bigger, wider and more attractive?

The speakers

Nelson Tanate — chief of De Librije***

As a chef at the highest gastronomic level, Nelson Tanate knows better than anyone how to make distinct flavours work in a culinary context. His view on taste, experience, acceptance and refinement fits seamlessly with the theme of this summit.

Luc Kusters — Bolenius chef*

Luc Kusters is known for his distinct vision of taste, terroir and the power of ingredients. From Bolenius, he shows how, with a clear culinary signature, you can take guests into new flavors and how sophistication and accessibility can reinforce each other.

Joël Broekaert — moderator

As an astute tastemaker and interviewer, Joël Broekaert knows better than anyone how to bring culinary ideas to life. As chairman, he connects the conversations, stimulates the speakers and provides depth, energy and sharp questions.

More speakers will be announced soon.

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