Niven Kunz launches NIVEN foodbox
3-6-2015
Niven Kunz from the Michelin-starred Restaurant NIVEN in Rijswijk launched his own “NIVEN foodbox. The box contains gourmet delicacies that are ‘100% Niven-worthy’ and will have a different content four times a year.
NIVEN Foodbox by Niven Kunz
The products in the box come from suppliers that Niven Kunz trusts and he uses in the kitchen on a daily basis. One of the unique selling points of the box will be the outstanding quality. The products each have their own story and are from small entrepreneurs with a traditional and authentic background. The products can vary from coffee, beer, chocolate to balsamic, chutney and salt. The contents change every season and are aimed for the home market.
Availability and tasting
One box costs €49,95 and is sold at Restaurant Niven as well as through the webshop www.nivenshop.nl. An annual subscription of € 199, – will get you a NIVEN foodbox four times a year and a three course lunch for two, including wine and water served at Restaurant NIVEN.
There will be a pretesting possibility during Taste of Amsterdam, from 4 to 7 June.
Projection at the table with mini-cook
2-6-2015
A cartoon in and around your plate. That’s one cool experience! Antoon Verbeeck and Filip Sterckx created a demo with their artistic collective ‘Skull Mapping’ where they make a mini cook run around your plate and on the table.
Projection at the table
By playing with movement within the projections, static objects seem to move. In addition they add a projection at the table and create optical illusions. One of the examples is the projection of a fork and the placement of a real knife next to the plate.
Video projection in total experience
Earlier, we wrote about the Sublimotion restaurant in Ibiza that uses video projection for a total experience during one of the most expensive dinners in the world. The initiator of that dinner experience then gave as response that “Sublimotion is the cheapest life changing experience you can have”, costing ‘only’ € 1500, -. The mini cook is an example of how you can apply it on a smaller scale yourself.
Siseng, the Asian Food Bar
27-5-2015
Siseng, the Asian Food Bar at the Quai de Jemmapes in Paris opened in December 2014. The food bar adds the Bao Burger to the thriving food scene of the Canal St.-Martin.
Siseng, worth the visit and the wait
The Asian Food Bar rapidly became popular amongst the Parisians! Last weekend there was a long line outside the small, packed but trendy and casual chic bar. Once inside you share a table with others in a tastefully decorated small bar with light bulbs, bare brick walls, dark table tops and bar stools. Very nice but busy servants who are having trouble delivering the food to the guests! And they make delicious cocktails with Asian ingredients like wasabi, ginger and sake. Combine a cocktail, glass of sake, or an Asahi beer with their great spring rolls or croquettes all served with an Asian sauce.
Tip to eat in Paris when you stroll down the canal Saint Martin
You don’t have to stroll down the canal, you can also have a relaxing afternoon with friends there like a lot of Parisians do, but anyway the signature burgers at Siseng are a great tip! The burgers are served in a bao, a steamed Chinese bun made out of rice flour. The bao burger 5 spices contains a beef patty (grilled medium rare, the French way), marinated in the 5 spices and comes with onion tempura, onion confit, rocket leaf and a caramelized tamarind sauce. But you can also choose the chicken burger Kaï with a piece of chicken, breaded in a Japanese style with coleslaw ‘maison’, fresh basil, confit de red peppers and a basil sauce with coconut milk. We also loved the tempura of vegetables and the sweet potato fries, which are really rare in Paris. The menu has been illustrated by Soba Paris.
Inspiration for those seeking for a new restaurant, we think that a small Asian Food Bar like Siseng would do great in Amsterdam or any place in the Netherlands as well!
Fresh fish at the Boterlap ‘Fish Market’
26-5-2015
Bar, Brasserie and Terrace De Boterlap in Harderwijk daily serves fresh fish. To promote it, they recorded a short film about their fishing adventures in the style of “Deadliest Catch”. It is a nice and humorous way to bring their daily ‘Fish Market’ to the attention and another great example of storytelling.
The Boterlap was awarded for having the best terrace of The Netherlands in 2013, according to the Terrace Top 100 by Misset Horeca.
Rembrandt ‘The Naked Truth’ during five-course dinner
21-5-2015
The Rembrandt Tower Boardroom and the Rembrandt House Museum are joining forces for a pop-up restaurant. For two weeks, guests can eat between artworks about nude studies by Rembrandt and his colleagues during a five-course dinner at top notch level with breath-taking views of the Dutch capital.
The exhibited etchings are an exclusive preview of the exhibition ‘The Naked Truth’ held in the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam from 12 February until May 14, 2016. Last July we wrote about the first edition, which turned out to be a great success. This second edition from 21 September to Rembrandt’s death anniversary on October 4 will be on the top floor of the famous Amsterdam Rembrandt Tower as well. It’s one of the rare moments when the boardroom opens its doors to the public.
With its special location and excellent service, the Boardroom normally is a popular venue for private business meetings of Top 500 enterprises from the Netherlands and abroad. The 360 degree view from the tallest building in Amsterdam is impressive: on clear days even Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam can be seen.
Repeated due to the large success
What began in 2014 as a one-off initiative is repeated due to the large success. Alexandra Hutter, founder and director of the Rembrandt Tower Boardroom: “The response we received last year during ‘Hemels Rembrandt’ (translated as ‘Heavenly Rembrandt’) were overwhelming. Dutch personalities like Gerdi Verbeet, Eva Jinek and Cornald Maas enjoyed this unique synergy of art and gastronomy, like many others. Due to popular demand and to our great joy we organize a new edition this year. ”
Rembrandt Tower Boardroom supports the Rembrandt House Museum in the purchase of an important work by one of Rembrandt’s pupils, made in the workshop of the museum. This original work is also shown at ‘Hemels Rembrandt’. Rembrandt’s nudes were controversial, because he wanted to create a realistic picture: sagging breasts, folding pockmarked bellies and thighs, he did not hesitate to portray such “flaws.” This horrified fellow artists who prefer to draw graceful, classically proportioned models.
Reservation
Enjoy art and gastronomy in Amsterdam at high level during the Hemels Rembrandt weeks and book from 2 June onwards. Keep in mind that the prices are as exclusive as the event.
Environmental friendly food carts – lessons from the food truck scene in NYC
20-5-2015
The green MRV100 food cart from the company Move Systems, is coming to the streets of New York City this summer. The new food cart is cleaner, more quiet and the unit runs on compressed natural gas with a solar panel providing supplementary power. The food cart has the ability to charge from the electrical grid. It’s equipped with a point of sales system including the ability to pay by credit card and has electronic inventory control. The cart is equipped with a restaurant-quality kitchen with better refrigeration facilities than typical at most food trucks.
If you have ever been to New York City in the past, you will remember the great ‘dirty water’ hotdog carts with the pretzels and in more recent years the famous food trucks. There are as many as 8.000 mobile food vendors, serving all kinds of street foods. Most of these food trucks are relatively old-school. The vendors are cooking with propane gas and their trucks are diesel-powered dirty and noisy verhicles.
Lessons from the food truck scene in NYC
Amsterdam is just allowing the first food trucks in the city and food truck festivals like TREK are getting more and more popular. This might be the best time to start working with new, sustainable, food trucks. We recently spotted another new generation food truck by Peugeot, which will be present at the French Pavilion during the World Expo Milano 2015. Before we spoil Amsterdam with the charming but polluting food trucks, let’s look at more sustainable alternatives.
Boco – the next step in fine dining for the masses
19-5-2015
Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and recently had lunch at boco bistrot where you get food made from recipes by top chefs.
It is an ongoing process, chefs decline Michelin stars, close down their Michelin starred restaurants to start a gastropub like Ron Blaauw, Michelin starred restaurants start selling take-away chicken and what self respecting chef doesn’t have a bistrot or tapas bar next to his restaurant? The fine dining world is becoming more and more accessible for the world to taste.
The French brothers Vincent and Simon Ferniot want to take this to the next level. Boco, a French F&B concept started in Paris, bringing together 8 different chefs that are renowned and celebrated in the culinary world for a fast casual, take away concepts. Every day they sell the favourite dishes of those 8 chefs made after their recipe in beautifully recyclable glass packages. On the display you can see who created the dish next to a full description of the biological ingredients.
Boco creates a culinary experience for everyone, a chance for anyone in the area to improve their daily life with a small look into the kitchen of an awarded chef. And if they want to – they can try a different chef every day of the week.
More information about boco:
L’Avant-Comptoir – an ode to French cuisine
15-5-2015
Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and recently dined at a tapas bar / wine bar L’Avant Comptoir.
“Last week I had the chance to visit the ‘tapasbar/winebar’ L’Avant-Comptoir in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This is the place where chef Yves Camdeborde serves traditional French dishes, products and delicacies in a different, Spanish-feeling way.
You walk into a very small bar, with a wall of beautiful wine fridges behind the bar and a ceiling covered in cards with small dishes, their names and their prices on it. There is only place to stand and the bar is filled with gorgeous fresh bread and delicous salty butter. Every little dish is between 4 and 10 euros and can be shared and needs to be savoured. We’re talking lemon macarons with fresh foie gras pate in between, a cheese dish created as an apple crumble, blood sausage on a béarnaise macaron and many, many more. Did this get you ready? Imagine a vast array of beautiful wines to compliment these beauties.
Tip for when you’re in Paris: Apero at L’Avant Comptoir
And after this beautiful experience, you expect a hefty bill (as you would after eating foie gras) but none of this, everything is moderately priced and an elaborate apero (what the French call pre-dinner drinks) is already enjoyed for 17 euros!
L’Avant Comptoir, an absolute must-visit in Paris.”
The chefs of restaurant IDRW will be cooking from a vintage outdoor kitchen on location
13-5-2015
A culinary twist to the trend of outdoor cooking. Marcel Zomeren and Justin van den Berg, chef-owner and chef from the restaurant In Den Rustwat (IDRW) in Rotterdam will be cooking on various location this summer with only the basic essentials. They will use a wood-burning vintage field kitchen from 1944, complete with army tent.
Vintage outdoor kitchen
The chefs from restaurant In Den Rustwat (with a Bib Gourmand rating by Michelin) are available to cook underneath the starry sky at all kinds of parties and events. The outdoor kitchen is part of a new joint initiative called ‘Your Personal Chefs’. At www.yourpersonalchefs.nl you can hire the chefs for a culinary feast on location. The culinary duo is for hire with or without the tough field kitchen. The vintage outdoor kitchen will be pulled by a DAF army vehicle from 1955. Anyone that wants to extend their style can rent the army tent as well.
The chefs can also be used without the vintage kitchen, at any location. The dishes are prepared in camping style, but on a very culinary touch. Think of a perfectly prepared cote de boeuf, grilled tuna, stew or duck. Or flammkuchen, the Alsatian version of a pizza.
Project Foodography: plates that guarantee a perfect picture of your food
12-5-2015
We have already written many articles on how to handle the wish of your guests to photograph your dishes. Project Foodography is a concept that is developed around the art of food porn: dishes photographed on specially designed plates. The plates, called ‘The 360’ and ‘The Limbo’, offer ideal conditions to photograph the Michelin cuisine of restaurant Catit in Israël.
A perfect photo
There are quite a lot of solutions for chefs to ensure that the pictures of his or her dishes look as good as possible. In 2014 we wrote about the Dinnercam and the Apicbase.com was introduced in the Netherlands during Chefs®Evolution by Jonnie and Thérèse Boer (from The Librije***) in September. The device offers a chef and his guests the opportunity to make great quality pictures of what they eat and directly place the picture on their social media channels via the APIC device.
Project Foodography does this through special plates which reflect the light better or you can simply rotate the plate. ‘The 360’ plate has a rotating pedestal allowing customers to spin the dishes around and photograph the dish from all angles. The another plate, ‘The Limbo’ is kind of a mini-studio, it has a high back which reflects the light. This Instagram optimization dinner costs 100 pounds per hour (including the meal).
Foodography is a collaboration of restaurant Catit in Tel Aviv and Carmel Winery from Israël. Ceramic design artist Adi Nissani is responsible for the design of the plates. We spotted Moshik Roth, chef from & Samhoud|Places in Amsterdam in the video and we hope that he will introduce the plates in the Netherlands!
