Maker · Naaldwijk and Burgerveen · Vegetables
Looye
A bunch of cherry tomatoes that feel more like candy than a tomato. Looye builds the sweetness in the greenhouse, not with a trick afterwards, and delivers a tomato you place raw on the plate without adding anything.
The story
Who's behind it
Looye Growers started in 1946 when Jacobus Looije set up his first greenhouse in the Westland. The business now operates from two locations, Naaldwijk and Burgerveen, and supplies the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The most famous tomato comes from their own hand: the honey tomato, a bunch cherry that made its name on sweetness you don't normally expect from a tomato.
In Burgerveen stands a modern 8.2-hectare greenhouse, semi-closed so climate control runs precisely year-round. Heat, moisture and light are no accident—the grower has dials for all of them. That's exactly where the flavour lives.
What truly sets them apart
The honey tomato grows on the Piccolo cherry variety. Looye is among the few growers in Europe licensed to work with this variety, and that's not a detail: the variety sets the ceiling on how much sugar a tomato can build. The rest is cultivation.
That cultivation is built on light. Looye uses high-level full LED lighting so the plant makes sugars all day long, even in the dark months. Control is data-driven: irrigation and feeding are tuned so the plant builds sweetness rather than volume. The result is a tomato that tastes honey-sweet with fresh, delicate acidity—not flat sugar-sweetness but sweetness with balance.
You notice it instantly on the plate. These tomatoes come as Class Extra, tight on the bunch, sweet enough to eat as candy. For a chef that means: you don't need to fix anything. No sugar to add, no sweet reduction sauce underneath.
How to set yourself apart with this
A guest tastes the difference between a standard bunch tomato and this one without you explaining it. Serve them raw and they work hardest: halved next to burrata, in a fresh salad, or simply as a pre-dinner bite. The honey note fills the space you'd normally close with a pinch of sugar.
If you want them warm, keep it brief. A quick pan glaze or slow confit concentrates the sweetness, but cooking to a pulp throws away what you're paying for. Put Looye on the menu as what it is, a named tomato, and you signal in one line that you choose for flavour, not price.
Chef’s tip
Let the sweetness do the work and don't heat it. Halve them raw over a plate with acidity and salt around them, say against a squeeze of lemon or good sharp olive oil. The fresh aftertaste catches fat and creaminess, so they work as well next to burrata as next to firm fish.
How to use it
Ideas for your menu
Raw with burrata
Halved, with olive oil, salt and basil. The tomato's sweetness and the cheese's fat hold each other in balance.
Quick glazed in the pan
Briefly pan-fried on the bunch until the skin just bursts, as a warm garnish for fish or gnocchi. Keeps the shape whole and the flavour intact.
Confit from the oven
Low and slow with garlic and thyme. The sugar concentrates and gives an intensely sweet base for pasta or bread.
Fresh in a salad
Raw next to cucumber, red onion and sharp dressing. The honey note makes added sugar unnecessary.
For your menu
“Looye honey tomato, cherry on the bunch from Naaldwijk”
Products from Looye
What we carry from this maker
Tomaten cherry aan de tros honing 3kg
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Taste it in your own kitchen
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