Sake Slootweg Debuts De Tirana Express
ALUMNI VOICES | 3 MIN READ
By Kim Donaldson | Images by Sake Slootweg | Portrait by Roderik Rotting
When Sake Slootweg ’07 sat down to write his first book, he wasn’t chasing a grand literary ambition. He was following a thread that had woven itself quietly through years of travel, writing, and memory. That thread has now taken shape as , a collection of essays chronicling a train journey from the Netherlands to Albania.
The journey is real, but the book offers more than a travelogue. It’s a layered account of place, identity, and return, with Albania standing at the center, not only as a destination, but as a site of early memory. Slootweg spent part of his childhood in Tirana, right after the country’s transition from communism to democracy. The book revisits those years, weaving them through present-day scenes with sharp, often tender, reflection.
Slootweg’s writing—clear, observant, and often quietly humorous—has been shaped over time. Since 2017, he has written a weekly recipe column for the Dutch national newspaper . He uses this practical assignment as an entry point into stories about memory, home, or pop and food culture. The Barbie doll, a scene in a Jane Austen novel, a Nora Ephron film, or the childhood computer game The Sims—for Slootweg, these topics inevitably lead to stories about food.
That same lens appears throughout De Tirana Express. Memories from his boyhood of trying to guess, by the sounds from the kitchen, which specific Albanian snack would be served alternate with accounts of forlorn Swiss spa hotels or the challenge of trying to get a meal in an Italian dining car. “Traveling is eating. I’m always thinking about what to eat and where,” he says.
Since graduating from ľϸӰ College Utrecht in 2007, Slootweg has followed a path that has often included a combination of roles: flight attendant, dinner party caterer, communications advisor, writer. “A typical UCU career,” he says with a smile. “But actually, a great path to develop a sharp eye for observation and subsequently collect all these observations in stories.” A path that started at UCU. “In Utrecht, I learned that different pursuits are all equally valid and are allowed to exist alongside each other. I am so thrilled that UCU now also has an interdisciplinary course in gastronomy and that UCSA has a culinary committee.”
Do it because you want to—forget everything else.
Balancing a nearly full-time job in communications alongside a weekly column meant that writing the book required discipline and, eventually, a shift in mindset. “There were moments I was so tired, I’d sit in a coworking space wondering if anyone would notice if I would take a nap at my desk,” he jokes. Slootweg found his rhythm once he stopped imagining a distant audience and started writing for himself.
When asked what advice he’d give to someone thinking about creative writing, his answer is simple: “Do it because you want to—forget everything else. Long before I had ever published anything, when I was just posting scribbles on Facebook, people immediately suggested I should start a YouTube account or build a social media following. But I believe in slow growth, and that not everything always has to be monetized. Just start, do it for yourself, and perhaps other things will follow.”
About Sake Slootweg
Sake Slootweg is a communications advisor and has contributed recipes to “” in de Volkskrant since 2017. During his student years, he catered dinners on Amsterdam’s canals and trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London. For Sake, food is a way to connect with people and understand the world, a perspective he shares through his witty writing.