Prêt-à-Portea delicacies with a fashionista twist
11-12-2015
The Berkeley London has been serving a designer afternoon tea, Prêt-à-Portea, for almost 10 years. It’s inspired by the themes and colours of the fashion world. The menu follows the seasons in fashion, changing every six months. Hence, a tea with a perfectly worked out theme.
Although we already spotted the Prêt-à-Portea in 2007 and wrote about it back then, we never got to experience it first-hand. This tea is an inspiration for other hoteliers, merely because of the perfection of the theme which is amazing. Every detail is right: a shoe at the table as a ‘reserved’ sign, colourful and specially designed chinaware, a colourful menu with fashionable quotes, champagne of course, miniature savoury canapés, skewers and tea sandwiches followed by the specially designed sweets. Oh, and don’t forget the fashionable doggy bags!
A fashionista twist
The Autumn/Winter 2015-2016 Prêt-à-Portea collection takes inspiration from a lot of distinguished fashion designers. Taking centre stage is Dolce & Gabbana’s popular pink rose dress from their ground breaking ‘Viva La Mama’ collection, as seen on recent covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. This dress is translated in a yummy lychee and almond mousse, set upon pink pâte sablée topped with light pink chocolate and delicate rose detailing. The striped shoulder bag by Valentino tasted delicious as well, sponge cake with cranberry compote amidst multi-colour striped chocolate, finished with a golden handle.
Check out the website of The Berkeley for more details and if you’re in London, I would recommend to indulge yourself with a cozy, delicious tea here. ^Marjolein
The croquettes in the leading role
4-12-2015
Kroketten (or croquettes) and Bitterballen (small croquettes) are a real Dutch treat. The last two years we spotted a couple of tasty varieties appearing in the market. We have made a list of them.
For years I used to make this Dutch treat at home, using recipes from the book ‘The great culinary croquettes cookbook’ by Edwin Kats, and of course I always got compliments! Truly amazing are the game croquets from this season but the croquettes with smoked eel are very special as well. We even wrote about croquettes with snails and goose meat on Horecatrends, both of whom are no longer for sale, but it truly indicates that the possibilities are endless! ^ Marjolein
Our list; croquettes in the leading role
1. CROQUÉTJE! a pulled pork-croquette
Sausage-maker Paul van den Hooven from Wild Vleesch in Rotterdam, has developed his own croquette under the name of CROQUÉTJE! The first CROQUÉTJE is a croquette with pulled pork which contains meat that is smoked low & slow on a barbecue.
2. Croquette made of Shiitake mushrooms
A croquette with Shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are healthy, delicious and a good substitute for meat. FungiFuturi grows delicious and super nutritious mushrooms in the cellar of an abandoned office building in Eindhoven. They are crowdfunding an innovative snack line of mushrooms. The first product of the line is the shiitake croquette, they presented these croquettes during the Dutch Design Week last October.
3. Bieterballen, croquettes with beetroot
The vegetarian Bieterbal, from Jonathan Karpathios of restaurant Vork & Mes. It’s content? Beet, beet and even more beet! The Bieterbal is available in wholesale at: Deli XL, De Kweker, HANOS and VHC de Jongens. The Bieterbal has also been nominated for the Dutch Horecava Innovation Award 2016 in the category Food & Beverage.
4. Bitter Balzz, a bitterbal with insects
At BUGZZ they make food with insects. Their goal is to bring the durable snack, the ‘Bitter Balzz’ in production. They reached their target amount by 117% on their crowdfunding page. We recently ran into them on the Foodfestival in Amsterdam, where they were already completely sold out halfway Saturday evening.
5. Croquette made from 100% organic spelt
The first croquette and bitterbal worldwide made from 100% organic spelt. Prepared with fresh spices, vegetables and the best organic beef, made by Royal Spelt.
6. Restaurant Valuas’s gluten free croquette
Star restaurant Valuas (*) in Venlo has developed a gluten free croquette. The gluten free croquette is made from ragout of corn, rice and 36% pure beef and contains a crust made of rice.
7. Croquette made from the queen of vegetables
Kwekkeboom introduced a croquette made of the queen of vegetables, the asparagus, in 2013. Since I regularly make a variety of the bitterbal with asparagus in the leading roll, this croquette proves that you can make endless variations with the salpicon of the croquettes and bitterballen.
8. Arancini, the Italian bitterbal
Lightly fried balls made from risotto with a core of mozzarella and smoked ham. Simple and a delicious appetizer! Italian restaurants would have their own variation of ‘our’ bitterbal.
9. Sichuan Bitterballen
For her Sichuan bitterballen Robin Kok used ‘Sichuan style red boiled beef’ that includes ingredients like ginger, chilli bean sauce, rice wine and Chinese dark soy sauce. The Asian bitterballen.
10. Chef Thor
Chef Thor makes bitterballen with different flavours and flavours you won’t expect, such as spinach with Dutch blue cheese, coconut curry with peas or scrambled eggs with porcini mushrooms and truffle. The traditional Dutch concept of a kroket, but just something different and delicious without meat. Chef Thor has been around for six years and have seven different flavours, all vegetarian.
11. Fingerfoodballs
Scelta Mushrooms is the founder of a healthy alternative for the snack range: the Fingerfoodballs. The Fingerfoodballs are vegetable snacks that doesn’t contain artificial colors or flavors.
The ‘Schroefkurk’, the innovative wine cork
4-12-2015
‘The luxury of the cork, with the ease of a screwcap’ that is the slogan of the newest invention in the world of wines. The ‘schroefkurk’ (a screwcap made of cork) can easily be opened and the wine bottle can, contrary to the traditional wine cork, easily be closed thanks to the subtle designed screw technique in the cork.
The ‘Schroefkurk’
Many wines come with a screwcap nowadays. Which hurts in the hearts of wine and innovation lovers, Sharan Visser and Arjan Bomkamp. “Of course it’s nice to be able to close a bottle of wine that is half empty without any effort, but the pop sound that is associated with uncorking a bottle is also part of drinking wine.” Says Visser. When he wondered if there wasn’t another possibility to open a wine bottle, he discovered the ‘schroefkurk’. ‘The luxury of the cork, with the ease of a screwcap’, says the slogan of the newcomer in the world of wine. ‘Besides it is user friendly, the ‘schroefkurk’ is also more durable compared to the screwcap’, says Bomkamp, because of the fact that cork is very recyclable and it helps to decrease the Co2 emissions.
Schroefkurk.nl
Right after the discovery of the ‘schroefkurk’, the idea for schroefkurk.nl was created. Schroefkurk.nl is the first wine shop that focuses on quality wines that all come with a ‘schroefkurk’. At this moment, the red and white wines are exclusively bought from the wine house ‘5 Estates’. Sharan and Arjan are hoping to expand their assortment into a big selection of quality wines soon.
DWDD pop-up restaurant
3-12-2015
Yesterday was the official opening of the DWDD pop-up restaurant and the presentation of the accompanying cookbook ‘DWDD cooks with Kranenborg’. Horecatrends attended the presentation and took the following pictures of the presentation, food and restaurant.
DWDD pop-up restaurant
Right in front of the studio of the successful Dutch TV-show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ (The World Keeps Turning), on the Westergasterrein in Amsterdam, the DWDD pop-up-restaurant is now officially open. The pop-up restaurant is in cooperation with famous Dutch chef Robert Kranenborg. During the next three weeks a five course dinner will be served here for € 79,95. The profit of this project will be donated to the ‘Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Foundation’. On the menu is a selection of forgotten classics that were discussed at the TV-show DWDD in the last four years. Chef Robert Kranenborg is a regular guest who presented, almost forgotten, classical dishes in cooperation with famous chefs from The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Guests can choose between three main courses during their lunch or dinner.
I already tasted a few dishes during the opening and really enjoyed the bastilla with pigeon and the cervelas de fruits de mer (sausage made of fish and seafood).
DWDD cooks with Kranenborg
Do you prefer to cook at home? The cookbook ‘DWDD cooks with Kranenborg’ will be available (€ 24,99) starting today, unfortunately only in Dutch. The cookbook contains all the recipes that Robert Kranenborg presented in the ‘De Wereld Draait Door’. Like Matthijs van Nieuwkerk said, ‘a history book and a cookbook’. The book, in honour of DWDD’s 10 year anniversary, contains exclusive ‘forgotten’ dishes like grilled woodcock, haggis and timpano. Including an easier recipe to prepare at home. ^Bram Kosterink
Process wine into…
1-12-2015
Bram Kosterink likes to drink or serve a fine wine! In this article he will give a few examples of how wine is used in an entirely different manner. He writes about Pinot Noir Sea Salt and Wine Ice Tea.
The fact that wine and the hospitality industry are friends is well known! Processing wine and using or selling it as an entirely different product is not well-known. In what ways can you use wine other than to support a dish or to use it in sauces? For inspiration he collected some examples:
Process wine into Pinot Noir Sea Salt
Prepare your own sea salt with the taste and colour of Pinot Noir. Creating your own Pinot Noir sea salt is easier than baking an egg. Use 5 till 10 ml Pinot Noir for every 50 grams of coarse sea salt. Let the Pinot Noir reduce to a syrup (will take about 15 to 20 minutes). Add the salt to the wine once it’s reduced, blend it well with a spatula and let it dry on a plate for at least 12 hours. The result: Your own Pinot Noir Salt! The salt tastes great on a sirloin or tenderloin! Read Brain Sullivan’s article in The Huffington Post for more details.
Tip: Prepare the sea salt with the same bottle of Pinot Noir you’ll serve during dinner.
Process wine into Wine Iced Tea
An iced tea made of wine grapes. The tealeaves are completely replaced by freshly harvested grape skins which gives the tea the sophisticated taste of wine. The Wine Iced Tea is available in the flavours Chardonnay, Cabernet or Pinot Noir. Each iced tea has its own ideal ‘wine’–food combination. For example, the Chardonnay goes great with salads and white meat. The Cabernet does taste great with hard cheeses, pâtés and stews and the Pinot Noir is perfect with baked salmon, lobster and paella’s. The iced tea doesn’t contain any alcohol, which makes it child friendly.
Tip: It would be nice to serve parents a real glass of wine, and their kids a Wine Iced Tea!
Other examples of products that relate to wine are The Real Wine Gum and Writing with wine.
Christmas decorations: the exterior of your building illuminated with a laser show
26-11-2015
Easy to use laser show for the Christmas season at the exterior of your restaurant or hotel.
Laser Show: Easy Christmas lights
Although the video at the article on toxel.com looks like an advertisement of a sales channel on TV (which it probably is), we still want to mention this awesome Christmas decoration.
Because it is a distinctive way to put your property in thousands of stars and the reseller tells you it’s more sustainable than the old fashioned Christmas lights we use today. Beside that we all know how long we are busy arranging those lights! The Star Shower laser projector covers the entire building with thousands of stars. See the photos in the video above and in the article on toxel.com. Online you will find different models and reviews. It’s a real eye-catcher for the exterior of your restaurant or hotel.
Experience retail
25-11-2015
Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is getting more and more into the ‘experience retail’ with the acquisition of Philadelphia-based Vetri Family restaurant group.
Experience retail
As the writer of the article at Eater.com states: “Experience retail” swaps dinner-and-a-show for dinner-and-some-shopping. As a mother of a daughter who loves to shop at Urban Outfitters, I have to admit that it would be great to be able to say; “take your time while you’re shopping, I will be at the restaurant or at the nail studio”. Imagine all that within one shop.
As a response on their stock decline of 6,94% over the past three months they started as a clothing and home goods retailer. It expanded into a more general lifestyle arena, with concept stores including in-house nail bars and performance stages as well as restaurants from great American chefs, like Marc Vetri, Michael Symon and Ilan hall since spring 2014. In April 2014 Space Ninety 8 opened, the Williamsburg Urban Outfitters concept store that includes an auxiliary branche of The Gorbals, the restaurant of Ilan Hall’s.
Urban Outfitters has been experimenting with the ‘experience retail’ since 2008, at that moment their store in Los Angeles, Space 15 Twenty, including a nail art studio, a skateboard shop, a performance stage and an Umami Burger outpost.
Read the full article on Eater if you want to know more.
Inspiration
Is co-creating an experience with local restaurants, a benefit your shoppers can’t buy with a click on their mouse? Is it perhaps one of the answers to the growing e-retail business? In the Netherlands we currently have multiple chefs who fit the current retail concepts. However if we change it around and imagine that restaurant chains start selling clothing or other goods via shop-in-shop formulas is prohibited according to the Dutch government. With all the current developments in today’s world it is necessary to review the legislation as a response to the competition of the retail with respect to the hospitality industry. ^Marjolein
A pop-up space next to Osteria Vicini
24-11-2015
Osteria Vinchi has always been open for innovation, the space next to the restaurant will be the place to carry out new ideas from now on. They will start with Bar Vicini, a new pop-up cocktail bar.
Pop-up cocktail bar in Osteria Vicini
There appeared to be demand for a bar in Kralingen (Rotterdam) where you can drink good whisky’s, gin & tonics and cocktails in a stylish atmosphere. This atmosphere is created with a carefully selected interior with lots of velvet, shining elements, mirrors and a few special eye-catchers. For example, they use bar stools from an old Belgian casino and one can’t miss the giant bronze tusks from Spain. In a big box there are records from the sixties to the eighties, which will be played upon request. Another important aspect to the atmosphere is the barman, a professional who makes the finest cocktails without seemingly much effort. The bartender will occasionally make a round with olives, bruschetta’s, aged pecorino, prosciutto or oysters. Bar Vicini is accessible via the Osteria through heavy, red velvet curtains and has its own entrance.
Bar Vicini is part of the Dudok Group which is a leading company since 1991 in the hospitality, event and hospitality industry in the Netherlands.
Inspiration
Do you have a vacant building next to your restaurant and is it possible to make a good price and agreement with the landlord? The example of the Dudok Group to experiment with new ideas in a pop-up formula, is a pretty good idea.
Zen Tea, Chinese High Tea
20-11-2015
Lotus restaurant in Vlijmen offers a Chinese High Tea with six different kinds of tea. A Chinese tea ceremony with sweet and savoury snacks and a refreshing dessert. A real Zen Tea.
High Tea has been popular in The Netherlands for a while now, in several restaurants it’s even on the standard menu. Besides the ‘standard’ High Tea, we’ve never heard of a High Tea at a real Chinese restaurant in The Netherlands. Our colleague Lennert Rietveld from Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy met Willem Man while he was giving a presentation about culinary trends for Chinese entrepreneurs at Koninklijke Horeca Nederland. He enthusiastically told him about his High Tea service at his restaurant Lotus, the Lotus Zen Tea.
Lotus Zen Tea
Zen Tea was created during an inspiration session with the staff and it’s definitely a good way to fill up the less busy moments. Lotus Zen Tea starts with a refreshing towel, followed by a Chinese tea ceremony. According to the ritual, all the teacups will be placed on the table and the first cups of tea will be poured. Next to tea, guests will also get a glass of rosé. Then the sweet snacks will be served which were made in cooperation with de Vermeulen & Den Otter bakery. Think of macarons with flavours like lychee, ginger and green tea, diced coconut cake, lemongrass cookies and lightly salted cashew cookies. After a zen moment more savoury snacks will be served. Steamy baskets containing dainty dishes such as Sieuw Mai and Ha Kaauw, prepared by chef Tak Kee Yeung will be stacked on the table. The Zen Tea ends with ice cream made of red pepper and star anise with fresh fruit. The ice is specially designed for restaurant Lotus by ’t Heusden Ijshuys. The Zen Tea is also available in an completely vegetarian kind, it lasts about two hours and costs € 25,= per person. Restaurant Lotus also has designed special gift vouchers. Sounds great right? The magazine Pâtisserie & Dessert has also written an extensive article about the Lotus Zen Tea.
Pop-up winter chalet by York & Albany
18-11-2015
In the cosy courtyard of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant York & Albany, an alpine-style winter chalet is installed. If you’re in London this is a great place to share cocktails and a snack platter.
Pop-up winter chalet
This summer York & Albany brought the beach to downtown London. We wrote about their beach shack where seaweed Martini’s and Bacardi Rum slush in mini buckets and alcoholic popsicles with for example Pimm’s liqueur were served. This winter the beach shack is replaced by a pop-up winter chalet, complete with fairy lights, pine cones, lanterns, blankets to wrap yourself in and an open fire on the terrace. They will be serving a snack platter by chef Will Stanyer, raclette, venison Kromeski and rainbow trout with horseradish mousse, sweet treats like coconut and lychee snowballs and baked Alaska. All accompanied by hot or cold cocktails, including York & Albany’s own Winter Spiced Old Fashioned with home-infused vodka. The chalet is open from 30th October until the 28th of February 2016.
Inspiration
We read about the pop-up winter chalet in an article from The Telegraph about Christmas pop-up restaurants. We don’t have that many pop-up concepts in the Netherlands so we hope this pop-up will be an inspiration. If you check the website of York & Albany you can even find some great cocktail recipes.
