Sustainable wine cooler made of sheepskin
24-12-2014
KYWIE (K-eep Y-our W-ool-IE), sheepskin keeps your bottle trendy cool. The isolating fleece on the inside keeps the temperature fixed from the moment you place the bottle in a KYWIE wine cooler. A sustainable wine cooler that cools effectively and does not feel cold.
Sustainable wine cooler
Made of sheepskin this cooler also keeps a red wine at the right temperature when it’s cold outside. A thermos and a cooler in one because wool keeps warm and cool. Natural material and therefore durable, no condensation, it does not break, weighs almost nothing and is traditionally produced in the Netherlands. In short, an authentic and sustainable cooler. The wine cooler is available in different colours (camel, blue and white) and as a champagne cooler and cup holder as well.
Restaurant ‘T Amsterdammertje uses KYWIE
Chef – owner André Gerrits of restaurant ‘t Amsterdammertje in Loenen aan de Vecht (The Netherlands): “We have the KYWIE wine coolers in operation for the last 6 months now, recently, with ‘t Amsterdammertje logo. Guests respond very positively to it and it’s nice as branding for us. The wool suggests otherwise, but the coolers are also very suitable for our summer terrace. We are very happy with them”.
Dishes of amateur cooks on your menu
23-12-2014
Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo (Grau, Friesland, The Netherlands) inspired us with their search for the tastiest meatball and ‘snert’ (a famous Dutch pea soup) to place on their lunch menu. If campaigns like is are done right, you can reach a lot of potential guests. Especially if you involve local food bloggers.
Meatballs and ‘Snert’ on the lunch menu
Restaurant Oostergoo started a competition to find the best home-made meatballs and snert. On 13 December, the meatballs and the soup were tasted by the famous Dutch chefs Joop Braakhekke and Albert Kooy to assess whether the dishes would fit in a restaurant as well. This because the winning meatball and snert will be on the lunch menu at the Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo. The winners are Mr. Scholten de Weerd (meatballs) and Ms. Gerda Uiterwaal (pea soup).
Dishes of amateur cooks on the menu
The amount of variations of food competitions you can think of are of course numerous. But especially with the huge amount of amateur cooks and the popularity of cooking it’s not difficult to create your own theme. Enthuse the local press to pay attention to your search for a great dish, have a (local) celebrity judge the dishes and leave a spot (or a few) free at your menu. And of course, make a party from your food competition!
Restaurant SILO: as ‘green’ as possible entrepreneurship
22-12-2014
SILO, a new restaurant in Brighton, has got an ‘zero waste’ perspective on sustainable behavior.
According to Douglas McMaster, joint owner of restaurant SILO, there is too much waste and processed food nowadays. That’s why he created SILO, a green restaurant, bakery and a coffee house in one building.
Restaurant SILO reduces waste
Restaurant SILO takes different types of actions to reduce waste. SILO emails the menu to their guests to avoid paper waste. The leftovers are going to a composting machine where it is processed into usable compost. But it doesn’t stop there. The interior is made from repurposed materials, such as used school furniture and scaffolding shelves. SILO created a trendy, green environment to have dinner or to drink coffee.
Sustainable products
McMaster works together with sustainable suppliers. He is in direct contact with local farmers and makes sure that the products aren’t processed. Besides that he works together with a coffee supplier who has his coffee beans shipped by a sailing boat. Interested investors can buy themselves in via Crowd2Fund.
Eye tracking app tested by Pizza Hut
19-12-2014
A digital app that makes choices for you. Pizza Hut and the Swedish eye tracking innovators of Tobii are testing the possibilities in an app. They hope to launch with their subconscious ordering feature by the end of 2015. It could change our dining experience, especially for those who have difficulties choosing between pizzas.
Check out their video to see how it should work!
About eye tracking innovator Tobii
Tobii is the world leader in eye tracking. They transform industries and lives with humanized technology using eye tracking as core. Tobii delivers comprehensive, market-leading eye-tracking for applications such as computers, gaming and vehicles.
Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum
18-12-2014
The standard & gluten free Valuas croquettes by chef Eric Swaghoven of restaurant Valuas (1 Michelin star) in Venlo is going to be served in the café the Limburgs Museum. They start serving the Dutch specialty (croquette) from the official start of the exhibition “War & Freedom”, along with other culinary snack creations by Eric.
Core values of his culinary snacks
Chef Eric Swaghoven has created his luxury and artisan snacks by the motto; tasteful and conscious snacking. Core values of its croquettes and ‘bitterballen’ (bal size croquettes) are quality, taste and sustainability. The Valuas croquette is the starting point of his line of snacks.
The Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum
The Limburgs Museum is a family museum and the daily practice at the Museum shows that the visiting youth still prefers to snack during their visit. With that fact in mind, the choice to put the ‘kroketten & bitterballen’ by Valuas on the menu, is a choice for quality snacks.
The Valuas croquette
The Valuas croquette is made with pure beef and a French roux sauce in proportion 35% meat, 45% roux to obtain a 110 grams of croquette. Tasty, full-bodied and creamy because of the broth used for this receipt. They also have a gluten-free version.
Other culinary snacks
In addition to the iconic Valuas croquette, a veal croquette, shrimp croquette, vegetarian croquette and a mushroom croquette will be served in the Museum. Also on the menu: fried king prawns in shrimp crackers crumbs.
The ‘chicken soup’ croquette by grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen
The ‘chicken soup’croquette is a tribute to Grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen, who did manage café Modern in Venray with her husband, in the years after the war. The chicken soup grandma Jo made has become legendary. The family recipe inspired her grandson Eric to make his ‘chicken soup’ croquettes.
Pop-up hotelroom ‘Scandic To Go’
17-12-2014
Hotel guests in Sweden can now have their hotel room delivered anywhere in the Nordic region. Prospective guests of ‘Scandic To Go’ can apply to have a room, complete with air-conditioning, shower, Wifi and breakfast, moved to their favourite location.
Pop-up hotelroom
Instead of picking a location and then try to find a hotel nearby, the service lets guests select the exact location of their hotel room. The Nordic hospitality chain has built a special 18m2 mobile hotel room complete with two beds, bathroom and a terrace area for enjoying the sights of the chosen destination. And it even includes a breakfast each morning. The ‘Scandic To Go’ is of course kind of a mobile home. It has already been placed at the beach in the South and in central Stockholm.
Scandic To Go
Scandic To Go is part of the Scandic Hotels, they even offer you the opportunity to win a night at your favorite Nordic spot. The only thing you have to do, is snap a photo of that place, share it on Instagram and tag it #scandictogo and explain why you want to enjoy the #scandictogo experience there.
Experience in theater as storytelling for your product
16-12-2014
Undergo storytelling, experience a 3D animation and taste the product in a theater.
Recently I joined one of the theater tryouts by Glennfidich. Tony van Rooijen, the enthusiastic Dutch brand ambassador of the whisky makers gave a virtual tour of the distillery in Scotland during a tasting where he presented six different whiskys.
Experience in theater
Apart from the enthusiastic narrator and a stylish tasting kit, the virtual tour consisted out of a very detailed 3D animation of the brewery that had a lot of resemblance with the computer game ‘The Sims’. While the presenter went through the various stages of the brewing process he showed the buildings of the brewery from the outside and inside. Everywhere there was a visual explanation from a first person view, so you had the illusion walking through the brewery itself without leaving your lazy (theater) chair.
Virtual tour
A virtual tour like this can be very interesting for products with an authentic character. A rookie (like me) gets to see more about the brewing process of whisky and the expert will for example learn more about the typical taste each barrel emits.
Flexibility is the future
For theaters, but also for cinemas this way of a product presentation is an interesting case. The stage remains a wonderful place to tell your story and to combine this with a tasting your product and (controlled) experience of it. At most hospitality fairs and food festivals the stage plays an important role in the total concept thus the hospitality industry is already familiar with these crossover concepts. My experience fits in well with a recent article in Fast Moving Targets that shows that flexibility of the theater is the future. ^Armand
Christmas cocktails by Cocktailicious
15-12-2014
We read more and more about winter cocktails, innovative cocktails with tea, coffee or other strange combination and newly opened cocktail bars. On the website Cocktailicious cocktail lover Caroline writes about cocktails, including 250 different recipes and various cocktail bars. For the Holidays we want to suggest the recipes for the Christmas Spoom and the luxury Christmas punch to surprise your guests.
The first cocktail shaker that composes a unique ‘Hospitality Trends cocktail’ for us will be awarded with a spot in our hall of fame!
Check the recipes for the Christmas Spoom and the Christmas punch (Dutch).
Winter garden in Amsterdam
15-12-2014
How do you use your outdoor area during the cold days? Do you transform it into a cozy winter garden or do you prefer a skating rink on the roof terrace? For three months Restaurant & Bar Herengracht changes its outdoor area into a winter wonderland. With heaters, fire places and a semi-roofed terrace it is a nice place to be during these dark days.
The Winter Garden Amsterdam
The Winter Garden is open from late November till late February 2015. There will be three matching winter events, each with a cool theme.
Typical wintry
At the terrace the temperature will be a few degrees higher than on the streets. Not only the ‘heaters’ cause these higher temperatures, but also by the nose warming winter cocktails, mulled wine and hot chocolate served from the special outdoor bar. Typical wintry snacks and dishes like homemade pea soup, cheese fondue and game completes this winter concept.
Three special winter events
The winter garden will set the stage for three events at Restaurant & Bar ‘Herengracht’, which is located near the ‘Koningsplein’ in Amsterdam. The first event will be hosted in Christmas spheres on 20 December, the second event highlights the theme ‘let’s go wild’ on 24 January with wild boar on the spit, the final special is a huge cheese fondue party.
Robots manage restaurant
12-12-2014
A restaurant owner in China completely replaced his staff by robots.
Robots manage restaurant
Recently we wrote an article about flying robotic waiters in Singapore. The flying robotic waiters are created to help the waiters with difficult tasks. Lu Dike from China has a different mindset and lets robots serve his whole restaurant. The restaurant is located in Zheijang, a province in China. Lu Dike is convinced that it will save him a lot of money in the future. The robots are able to formulate 40 sentences which allows them to take orders from customers and transmit the orders to the kitchen. The robots have sensors that prevent them from bumping into something.
