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From Kitchen Insights to Market Impact
Exploring business opportunities • Providing strategic advice • Conducting user research • Conceptualizing products & experiences • Driving culinary innovation
Discover a design-driven, user-centered approach to innovation in food, cooking, and hospitality. I explore trends, uncover new business opportunities, translate insights into action, and bring ideas to life through recipes, prototyping, and hands-on user testing. From culinary expertise to strategic thinking, I help brands create tastier, smarter, and more engaging food experiences—together.
Services
20 years of experience in food & cooking projects
- Service: Recipe development & content creationRecipes with an Angle✅ Recipes specific for you target group and/or health focus
✅ Recipes that bring out the most of your cooking product or appliance
✅ Support in setup of recipe creation process, culinary content strategy, recipe book concepts
Get in touch - Service: UX researchUX Research Food & Cooking✅ Choosing the ideal research method to uncover insights and optimize the user experience
✅ Testing food or cooking appliances together with customers or experts
Get in touch - Consulting: Food innovation ExpertBoost your Creative Process with external expertise✅ Hire an external expert to join workshops
✅ Setup a sparring session to bounce on ideas
✅ Choose an inspiration presentation topic to inspire your team
Get in touch
Past Work:
Supporting companies from a deep understanding of food, cooking and hospitality knowledge with the creative and analytical integrative approach of an industrial design engineer.
User focused | Deep insights | Inspiring & Creative
User focused | Deep insights | Inspiring & Creative
Innovation support | Cooking know-how | Expert testing
User focused & cooking expertise as input for the development of combi-steamer technology
- Deep diving cooking strategies like steaming, superheated steam and sous vide in an oven to fuel the development team with essential cooking knowlegde.
- Expert testing of the competition to compare results
- Bridging user needs and technology: what is useful in a cooking appliance for home use, which recipes are crucial?
- Expert testing of the competition to compare results
- Bridging user needs and technology: what is useful in a cooking appliance for home use, which recipes are crucial?
Recipe development | Content strategy | Food photography
Targetted branded recipes for the Philips Airfryer community app. (NutriU, now HomeID)
Airfryer recipes were produced under the Philips brand-name, closely aligned with multiple departments of this well-known brand and great company. Furthermore the content strategy and working processes were improved and performance of the content was tracked.
Gastro consulting | Moderation | Hospitality content
Run webinars based on Restaurant Owners needs for DISH by METRO
Organising and moderating webinars with hospitality experts, as a stacking activity with the content from the DISH blog. Topics were chosen based on the needs of gastronomers and in close alignment with Sales, Marketing and the Product team. The webinars contained a discussion part with high engagement from restaurant owners in Germany.
Culinary consulting | Hospitality consulting | Food photography
Targetted menu development and curating restaurants for a lunch delivery Food Startup.
During the start-up phase of this lunch delivery company, a consistent menu structure was created based on main diet needs. Restaurants were recruited and guided to create suitable meals and the first meals were delivered to companies. A playbook for food photography was created.
Content strategy | Product owner | Community expert
Hospitality Blog with Restaurant Support Topics for DISH by METRO
DISH develops digital tools for restaurants. A know-how section with articles that support restaurant owners with their daily struggles and show how to effectively digitalize some of their work processes. The content section was created almost from scratch, a team was formed including expert contributors a copywriter and back-end support, for multiple markets and in several languages. Community building features were advised and implemented.
Marketing consulting | Market research
Consulting a Dutch vegan cheese brand with a quick explorative User and Market Research in Germany
Doing a short deep dive on German sales channels, consulting on user research tools and a quick investigation about their Dutch communication strategy in Germany.
Innovation support | Product testing | Kitchen appliances expert
Test & Evaluate a New Cooking Device for Morphy Richards
To support the marketing and R & D of Morphy Richards, a sample cooking device was tested and evaluated on results and with user needs of the target group in mind, providing a realistic view on the main cooking strategies that user would try and to provide input for the interface and menu settings.
Recipe development | Deep dive
Taste Explorations for Dutch Cheese Brands based on Flavor Trends and Food Pairing.
For Old Amsterdam and Maaslander several taste explorations or deep dives were done. Without sharing too much details, the explorations turned a vague idea based on customer insights or trends into concrete tasting samples, presented in a tasting session at the client.
Recipe development | Food photography
Recipes with specific user needs: Producing Recipe Books for various Cooking Appliances
The first soupmaker was developed after consulting the business on possible soup settings, after a deep dive popular soup types. In a later stage, recipe booklets were produced for the newer versions of the soupmaker.
Besides the soupmaker, recipe booklets have been produced for the Kitchen machine and the multicooker. Recipes have been developed for the food processor, Airfryer, noodle maker and cooking blender. Advise on settings and recipe strategies have been delivered for the yoghurt maker, cooking blender, multicooker and other appliances.
Besides the soupmaker, recipe booklets have been produced for the Kitchen machine and the multicooker. Recipes have been developed for the food processor, Airfryer, noodle maker and cooking blender. Advise on settings and recipe strategies have been delivered for the yoghurt maker, cooking blender, multicooker and other appliances.
User insights | Creative designer | Food & cooking expert
Participating in Ideation Workshops of Food and Cooking Brands.
Wouter has been a regular active participant in workshops as an external expert. To name a few brands: Heineken, Unilever food solutions, Bifi, Old Amsterdam, Maaslander, Friesland campina, DSM, Philips, DISH by METRO.
Recipe development | Taste exploration
Define Flavour Combinations for a Cheese Brand
Starting point was to create combinations of herbs/spices with pits/nuts. 9 combinations were presented based on main stream to more advances flavor combinations. The product was launched in the Netherlands.
Community building | Recipe specialist
Community Building Activities for Philips Airfryer in Germany
To boost the engagement in the Philips recipe app, several community activities were organised, including meetups to cook together in Berlin and Hannover. This work also included moderation containing tricky cooking questions and guarding the recipe quality on the platform.
User research | Ideation | Hospitality
Design User Research Restaurant Ecosystem
Deep diving the needs of restaurant owners and interactions with their environment, for Hospitality Digital.
Cooking knowledge | Recipe specialist | Product research
Local Recipe Exploration - What's Airfrying in the rest of the World
Defining local eating habits to determine development strategy and product communication.
Kookinspiratie served food design at the Architecture Biennale in Venice - United Nations & Dutch Design Fonds
Lunch menu inspired on Theater happenings,
for Theaters Tilburg
for Theaters Tilburg
About Wouter
I’m an industrial designer and licensed chef who has always lived at the intersection of cooking and product creation. While studying Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft, I worked in professional kitchens and earned my culinary degree—an experience that taught me as much about people as it did about food.
Since then, my work has taken me into homes and kitchens around the world. I’ve seen how real people cook, the tools they rely on, and the challenges they face every day. These insights shaped my approach to designing better food experiences—whether through recipe development, food concepts, appliance innovation, or meal-box strategy.
I’m trained to connect creativity with practicality: moving between marketing, R&D, and innovation teams, zooming out to see the bigger picture, and zooming in to prototype and test with users.
Today, I collaborate as an external expert with companies in the food, cooking, and consumer-product space—helping them turn culinary insight into meaningful, user-centered products and services.
If you’re building the future of cooking, I’d love to be part of it.
Since then, my work has taken me into homes and kitchens around the world. I’ve seen how real people cook, the tools they rely on, and the challenges they face every day. These insights shaped my approach to designing better food experiences—whether through recipe development, food concepts, appliance innovation, or meal-box strategy.
I’m trained to connect creativity with practicality: moving between marketing, R&D, and innovation teams, zooming out to see the bigger picture, and zooming in to prototype and test with users.
Today, I collaborate as an external expert with companies in the food, cooking, and consumer-product space—helping them turn culinary insight into meaningful, user-centered products and services.
If you’re building the future of cooking, I’d love to be part of it.
Recommendations
* Below recommendations are shortened for the purpose of this website. More and longer versions can be viewed on the LinkedIn page of Wouter veldman
- Thijs HoogenboomGlobal brand manager at Versuni (Philips)Wouter has been of tremendous value in our efforts to create engaging (and delicious) content. Wouter translates well sought out consumer insights into culinary content. Great communicator and problem solver, I highly recommend Wouter
- Annemarie WijffelsBrand manager Old AmsterdamWouter has taken up various flavor explorations for Old Amsterdam. His search for the right combinations is a true adventure, concretizing flavor ideas by mixing and matching on a small scale. Perfect for getting teammates excited about an introduction. I highly recommend Wouter for taste exploration sessions.
- Bara StewardMarketing at Morphy RichardsWouter supported the development and launch of a brand new and highly innovative Morphy Richards cooking appliance. When the prototype was ready, we involved Wouter as soon as possible and as such he was the first user of the product. His input was critical for the success of the product. Wouter is very professional and a true cooking enthusiast who comes to work with a smile on his face.
Get in touch
