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HappyChefTV

Long read

Meet Sven

Fifteen years in restaurant kitchens, one very long apron off, and a Twitch overlay he built himself.

I burned my first roux at fifteen and never looked back. Fifteen years later, after stints in one-Michelin bistros, brasseries, and a stretch running my own kitchen in Rotterdam, I hung up the whites and moved the mise en place to a webcam.

HappyChefTV started as a lockdown experiment: film myself cooking dinner, see if anyone shows up. The Foodiefam did. What began as thirty people in chat turned into a nightly service where the audience picks the menu, argues about salt, and cheers when a cast-iron pan gets abused.

The show now runs four to five nights a week — no editing, no cuts, no b-roll. If the sauce breaks, you see the sauce break. If a delivery is late, we improvise. That honesty is the whole point.

Sven Groenendijk

How we got here

  1. 2009

    First apprenticeship

    Started in a bistro kitchen in Utrecht. Learned to break down a chicken and to keep a station spotless in the same week.

  2. 2013

    Sous chef, one-star kitchen

    Three years on the sauté station in Amsterdam. Got obsessed with proper stocks and the physics of a good reduction.

  3. 2018

    Own kitchen, own hours

    Opened a small neighbourhood brasserie in Rotterdam. Loved the food, loved the crew, hated the hours.

  4. 2020

    First stream, first Foodiefam

    Set up a webcam over the induction hob during lockdown. Thirty people watched me make a soup. The vibe was immediate.

  5. 2024

    Full-time HappyChefTV

    Closed the brasserie, went all-in on the stream. Four nights a week, chat picks the menu, and the Foodiefam keeps growing.

Kitchen setup

The exact tools I reach for on stream. Nothing here is for show — every piece earns its counter space every single week.

  • Chef's knife

    Zwilling Prokitchen

  • Cast iron skillet

    Le Creusetkitchen

  • Streaming camera

    Sony ZV-E10camera

  • Microphone

    Shure SM7Baudio

Fun facts

  • I have burnt six pans on stream — chat keeps count.

  • My favourite knife is a beat-up 20 cm chef I have owned for a decade.

  • I can't cook without music. Every stream has a playlist.

  • The donkey in the intro is real. Her name is Miep. She lives at my parents' place.

Kitchen truths

"Salt is not a step. Salt is a conversation."

— Sven, every stream

"The best recipe is the one you cook twice."

— Sven

One family. Many stoves.

Join the Foodiefam.

Cook-alongs, recipe swaps, memes, stream reminders and a whole lot of good vibes — in one Discord server.

Join the DiscordMeet the mods
  • First look at new recipes and menus
  • Cook-alongs and shopping lists dropped before stream
  • Member-only channels, foodie polls, weekly challenges
  • Direct line to Sven and the mod team — no gatekeepers