Creating a healthier planet while having fun with the Scale Down Challenge
6-10-2015
The Scale Down Challenge allows you to play around with your habits and choices concerning food, energy, waste and water. Thirty simple and surprising challenges can be found on the giant interactive grocery scale that travels around to schools, festivals and public spaces. The device does not weigh people, nor products, but the choices made as a consumer.
The Scale Down Challenge
Small actions can make the world a better place. Here’s a selection of the sparkling challenges the Scale Down Challenge offers: Veggie on vacation, Peanut Butter Boost, WTFridge, Supermarket Selfie, Chili sin Carne, Bring a Bottle and Bye Bye Plastic. With the last you be challenged to buy nothing out of plastic for one whole week!
Merel Mirage designed the scale with the young designers of the Design Academy. As participant you have to step on the scale and push one of the buttons. On the output ticket is written what has to been done and a special code to login and upload pictures on Instagram. The HOLY foundation of Merel Mirage is travelling to schools, conferences and museums with the scale to challenge as many people as possible. You can even enter as participant to devise your own challenge and compete for the Scale Down Challenge trophy which will be announced on Earthday 2016.
It could work in our restaurants and hotels as well: small gestures to create less waste and having fun trying to achieve the challenge!
Foodpairing with olive oil ice cream
1-10-2015
Bertolli celebrated its 150 years with foodpairing on the store floor of Albert Heijn supermarket. Foodpairing with special preparations and surprising demo mobiles. Amongst others they served the first Italian caprese ice cream with Bertolli olive oil, tomato, mozzarella and basil prepared on a cold teppanyaki plate.
Caprese with olive oil ice cream
Recently we wrote an article about ice cream that tastes like Greek salad and ice cream with pizza flavor. In addition, many chefs are experimenting with preparation methods and savory flavors of ice cream, which often taste great! Patrick Peeters sent us a link to this video with a special method to make ice cream. At several Albert Heijn supermarkets this ice was made and people could watch the preparation and taste it ….
Kebab 2.0, the next big thing in food?
28-9-2015
The first European location of Baba Rafi opened in Alkmaar. In Asia, the chain has more than 1,300 locations. Kebab 2.0 adapted to the European market.
In June 2015 we wrote about plans for the initial European establishment of Baba Rafi in Alkmaar. We then wrote about how 176 private investors invested € 250.000,= in the company via Collin Crowdfund. On September 24, the entrepreneurs Sinan Gul, Hans Gradient, Baris Kürkcü and Herman de Haas opened the doors of their Baba Rafi at an AA location in the center of Alkmaar. We saw in Paris that Kebab, if adapted to local customs, can become hugely popular. There Grillé serves ‘un Kebab quasi Gastronomique‘!
Kebab for the modern, conscious consumer
Baba Rafi is the largest franchise chain in the world in the field of kebab products. With more than 1300 locations in Asia the concept is very popular. The Asian concept is fully adapted for the European market where respect for food, the customers and the environment play an important role. Baris Kürkcü: “Every niche in the food industry, from French fries-, hamburger- and chicken formulas to sandwiches, has seen a trend towards more sustainable and responsible food in the recent years. With Baba Rafi we introduce a kebab concept that is tailored entirely to the needs and desires of the modern, conscious consumer. The dishes are freshly prepared with a minimum of E-numbers and maximum sustainable and organic ingredients. In addition, we have worked closely in the development of the food with a culinary consultant and nutritionist. Thus, the dishes are suitable to eat for lunch. For everyone, even for women and children.”
With Kebab 2.0 they want to realize the largest kebab chain in Europe
Along with financial expert Hans Verloop and former McDonald’s CEO, Herman de Haas the Baba Rafi team want to realize the largest kebab chain in Europe. There is no comparable franchise concept in Europe and in total more than 10 billion euros is spend on kebab. Hans Verloop: “We can apply our experience in Alkmaar to future franchisees in many other comparable cities. From the North of Holland we want to expand Baba Rafi all over the Netherlands and after the start-up phase also start in other countries in Europe.”
An amazing Greek salad!
21-9-2015
Inspiration from restaurant ‘Funky Gourmet’ in Athens, the signature dish of chefs Georgianna Hiliadaki and Nick Roussos: their Greek salad!
Recently I have read that Coolhaus has started selling scoops of pizza ice cream. The ice cream isn’t made of the same ingredients but according to the website of Munchies they’ve created the same flavor with ingredients like mascarpone cheese, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and some salt. Coolhaus, which I now from their food trucks in New York City, has more strange ice cream flavors, what do you think about ‘Avocado Sea Salt’, ‘Beer & Pretzels’ or ‘Brown buttered candied bacon’? But we recently ate an ice cream more strange but also great in taste, in Athens.
Chefs do create an amazing Greek salad
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Athens and eating out at Funky Gourmet (** Michelin). The chefs Georgianna Hiliadaki and Nick Roussos created an excellent menu full of surprises. One of the most special items was their Greek salad, an ice cream halfway the menu. It’s their signature dish and we were really surprised by the taste of it. You don’t expect ice cream based on the taste of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and feta cheese to be that delicious!
Inspiration from Athens, Funky Gourmet
Although this article is mostly about their signature dish, I highly recommend to make a reservation at Funky Gourmet if you do visit Athens. Hidden away in one of the older parts of Athens, the chefs and their partner Argyro Hiliadaki created a restaurant well worth the visit. We enjoyed their cuisine, the hospitality and next to that the sublime wine from the island of Santorini which the sommelier advised us…
Amazon free take-out delivery
15-9-2015
Amazon starts with one hour free take-out delivery for premium members in Seattle.
Free take-out delivery
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has begun a free take-out delivery service. Amazon Prime members get free delivery on their take-out orders from dozens of outlets and receive them within the hour. The Amazon Prime service costs $ 99 per year.
Delivery of beer, wine and spirits
A few weeks ago Amazon already announced that they began with one-hour delivery of beer, wine and spirits in Seattle. The city is the only place in America where customers can order beer and spirits via fast mail-order. In the rest of the country the delivery is limited to wine. Amazon offers a fast delivery service for alcohol in London already.
Growth of the delivery market
With the rapid deliveries Amazon wants to compete with restaurant delivery parties like GrubHub. The American GrubHub is comparable to the Dutch ‘Thuisbezorgd.nl’. The company delivers take-out meals from 30,000 local restaurants and has customers in 800 American cities. Americans spend an estimated 70 billion dollar on takeaway and delivery meals in 2013. With such numbers offering a one hour delivery service for take-out pays off. In March 2015, total sales in restaurants and bars was higher than the grocery market (!) for the first time. With the expansion of the delivery market, restaurants can increase sales at peak times, without adding extra seats.
Game workshop by Nestlé Professional and Sligro
14-9-2015
Nestlé Professional and Sligro put Dutch game on the menu with a wild harvesting and game workshop for chefs.
Game workshop by Nestlé Professional and Sligro
Sligro Food and Nestlé Professional have joined forces to let chefs discover the possibilities and culinary variations with Dutch wild boar. Recently eleven chefs from restaurants throughout the Netherlands got inspired during a wild harvesting workshop and wild clinic in Lingewaard. In addition, they were challenged to create combinations of wild boar and CHEF products. Game, and escpecially wild boar, gets more accessible by processing it and make for example a wild boar burger or hot dog with the meat.
Pulled Swine
“Game is the finest free-range meat there is. Guests often think that game tastes very strong, but that’s a misconception we would like to take away, “said Edwin Detering, culinary consultant at Nestlé Professional Food. “In addition, a local product such as Dutch wild boar now widely available. By putting accessible game dishes on the menu, the threshold for guests to discover new game is lowered. Think of a dish like a ‘pulled swine’ sandwich. ”
Edwin Florès
During the game clinic and wild harvesting workshop the chefs discovered the edible nature under the guidance of Edwin Florès, professional wild harvester and cookbook author. The score of the wild harvesting included wild mushrooms, fresh watercress and water mint. These were incorporated into the food from the game clinic.
Beautiful dishes from neck and shoulder
The chefs attended a deboning demonstration of a wild boar. It was explained how to prepare tasty dishes with the obsolescent parts. “The front part, including shoulder and neck, is used less frequently, but there are lovely dishes to be made of” Hein Willemsen, SVH Master Chef explains. “Through slow cooking at low temperature (sous-vide), the meat is very tender. A shoulder pad can be grilled after cooking and you can serve it with pasta and mushrooms. The neck piece can be cooked in a game sauce based on demi-glace. The taste of wild boar meat can be well combined with powerful sauces such as the CHEF red wine sauce or pepper sauce. A nice piece of meat such as a Dutch wild boar deserves to be combined with a high quality sauce or stock, like the products of the CHEF. ”
Deboning workshops
Earlier, we wrote about a deboning workshop for consumers by Gertjan Kiers at Julius Bar & Grill. A trend that we applaud to. Let us know if there are workshops like these organized in your neighbourhood or if you choose to organize one yourself.
Slow Cow relaxation drink
11-9-2015
The Slow Cow relaxation drink clears the mind.
Slow Cow was developed by three hyperactive stressful entrepreneurs. They sought, and found, an alternative to energy drinks. A drink to help relax, focus and concentrate. Together with various partners and investors they launched Slow Cow in Canada in 2008.
Slow Cow ingredients and effect
Slow Cow promotes the feeling of natural tranquillity. The drink does not cause sleepiness or fatigue and isn’t the opposite of an energy drink at all. Slow Cow was developed in Quebec, Canada. The drink contains almost no calories, no caffeine, no sugar and no preservatives. It does contain extracts of green tea, valerian, chamomile, passionflower, lime blossom, lemon grass, potassium and sodium.
Alternative
The creator present the soda as an alternative to every day’s hectic pace, the adrenaline and race against the clock. In terms of taste it could have been a bit less sweet in our opinion. That will probably be due to our limited energy drink consumption normally. It is certainly an interesting alternative to high school students who are regularly hyper on the caffeine and sugar bombs that they consume in large amounts.
Mascot
Slow Cow mascot Harry plays a leading role in the promotional campaign. His mission is to help the Dutch people to relax in their increasingly stressful daily life. Through his discoveries, he reminds us constantly about his message “It is important and urgent to adopt a cool lifestyle.” Harry is the champion of ‘cool’ and relax. He embodies calmness in all situations.
PinkFreeWifi: Free Wi-Fi in exchange for a like
4-9-2015
More and more bars and restaurants offer free Wi-Fi in exchange for a Like or Tweet. PinkFreeWifi also provides a powerful database to obtain data which an entrepreneur can use to get acquainted with his or her guests and use to organize an appropriate campaign or activity.
Still bars, hotels and restaurants that don’t offer free Wi-Fi
With a website such as hospitalitytrends.eu we spot developments at an early stage. We wrote an article about SO WIFI by the end of 2012, which is also a supplier of routers for ‘free Wi-Fi in exchange for a like’. Meanwhile, there are more free Wi-Fi providers on the market, including PinkFreeWifi. This company is based in the Netherlands but has implemented PinkFreeWifi worldwide and they create benefits for their customers by offering the router and a database. And since we also noticed that there are still many bars, restaurants and hotels that don’t offer free Wi-Fi, we have chosen to write another article about it.
Free Wi-Fi plus a data system
The software of PinkFreeWifi is developed in collaboration with the major manufacturers of routers such as CISCO and Merraki. PinkFreeWifi works from the cloud and is therefore always available. The system is focused on the social media and uses its statistics. The entrepreneur can use these data for promotional use. The system only uses data that users share via their open social media channels. For example the system will make analyzes like the demographic area your guests are coming from etc.
Tapas Bar Català uses PinkFreeWifi
There are already several companies using PinkFreeWifi. One of the best known users is surely the Tapas Bar Català in Amsterdam. This restaurant at the Spui – diagonally across from Café Luxembourg, has been around since 1985. The owner Gabriel Machin has taken over the restaurant in 1990 and serves only tapas with an authentic Spanish flavor. His quote:
“Our guests are our main focus and it has been our mission for years to give them that home-away-from-home feeling in the best Spanish style. We have our dishes and our kitchen under control and monitor the taste of our dishes, they taste as if they are made in Spain. Fresh, healthy and high-quality products. Amsterdam is a busy city with a very diverse audience that visits us. From the tourist to Prime Minister Rutte, but also our King and Queen, HRH Willem-Alexander and HRH Maxima enjoyed our service, quality and taste. In recent years, during the economic crisis, our industry had to deal with decreasing turnovers but our motto has always been to give our customers an enjoyable and pleasant evening. We looked around to find more market opportunities to better anticipate to their wishes. That’s how we got introduced to PinkFreeWifi and that has helped us tremendously in the communication with our guests. Our restaurant is in fact very small, we only have seven tables outside and seven tables inside. PinkFreeWifi told us of the opportunities that exist through social media today. Based on the data we pulled from the database, we have adapted our menus to the wishes of our guests. Our guests come from all over the world and we were able to adapt even better. As result: an enormous increase in turnover and a waiting line outside to enter our 40M2 large/small restaurant. We even won a TRIP ADVISOR Award.”
Royal De Ruijter opens pop-up sandwich restaurant in the Netherlands
4-9-2015
Royal De Ruijter opened its first sandwich restaurant in the Netherlands. In the 9 Streets district of Amsterdam, restaurant Struisvogel temporarily transformed into a cozy breakfast and lunch restaurant. The sandwiches restaurant is dedicated to special sandwiches and pastries. Guests can use various sandwich spread products of Royal de Ruijter to create their ultimate sandwich.
Two kinds of spreads
The reason for opening the pop-up sandwich restaurant is a recent research showing that most Dutch people eat a lot of bread, but vary only little with two types of spreads. Moreover, the sandwiches are routinely eaten in fifteen minutes according to the research. This while variety and attention are really important in enjoying food. Despite the popularity of the sandwich, it does not get the attention it deserves. With the restaurant Royal De Ruijter wants to change this and inspire people to make sandwiches special again.
Pay with #broodjebijzonder at sandwich restaurant
The sandwich restaurant in restaurant Struisvogel runs for one week from Friday 4 September onwards and is open between 9:00 and 14:00. Anyone can walk in from 9.00 am onwards for a creative selfmade sandwich until 10 September. Fresh bread, fruit and Royal De Ruijter products like Vlokfeest (chocolate flakes), aniseed sprinkles, Fruit- and Strawberry-Raspberry sprinkles, ‘Gestampte muisjes’ (crushed aniseed sprinkles) and Bebogeen are yours to use. There is no menu and no price list. Guests pay by sharing a photo of the creation on social media with #broodjebijzonder.
Broth-to-go at Brodo in NYC
3-9-2015
Broth is very popular, especially in those cities with very cold winters. Last year we’ve spotted Brodo in NYC at the end of wintertime. And as we’re all rethinking our winter menu’s it might be an idea to consider serving broth-to-go.
Broth-to-go instead of coffee-to-go
We already wrote an article about it last March, with the main focus on an European soup initiative in Montpellier (France) by chef Marc Veyrat, Urban Soup. At his soup place, guests can create their own soup. With the first week of bad weather in the Netherlands, we would like to inspire entrepreneurs to follow the example chef Marco Canora of Brodo gave us last winter and start serving broth-to-go during the cold days.
In NYC you go to the window of Brodo for a broth-to-go
Marco Canora started the trend of broth-to-go with his East Village take-out window dedicated to bone broth, offered in a few different varieties and served in a steaming paper cup for easy sipping. There are a handful of add-ins like bone marrow, fermented beet juice and fresh turmeric, plus a couple of more traditional soups too.
Check out Zagat’s interview with Marco Canora and reconsider serving broth-to-go this winter at your place, whether you’re a butcher, restaurant owner or a coffeeshop.
