Dominique Ansel’s answer to what’s next
6-5-2015
Dominique Ansel opened his second bakery and concept, the Dominique Ansel KITCHEN on 29 April. As we already wrote in February, Dominique Ansel KITCHEN will not be serving the Cronut™ pastry nor many of the items that are most popular at the original Soho flagship Bakery. So if you’re visiting NYC and want to taste some of the other delicacies by Dominique Ansel, you don’t have to wait in line at his bakery, although we think it might be a problem to get a reservation at his KITCHEN as well.
At Dominique Ansel KITCHEN time is an ingredient
More than 70% of the menu will be made, finished, or assembled to order. Chef Dominique and his team have changed the operations of a traditional bakery, fusing it with a restaurant service kitchen, to bring “à la minute” capabilities to some of your best loved baked goods.
In the fully opened kitchens, guests will see the cooks cut fresh vanilla beans and scrape the seeds directly onto your ice cream rather than have it mixed in and slowly lose the intensity of its flavor in the fridge. They fold the chocolate mousse to order so it doesn’t have to harden for hours in the fridge, and guests can even choose the intensity of the chocolate. The ham and cheese croissant is wrapped in premium freshly sliced ham when the order is placed. And they aim to have everything done in the same amount of time it takes to get a latte. If people will wait for a fresh pulled espresso, why not also for a pastry?
Grandma’s dishes served in pop-up restaurant
4-5-2015
Oma’s (Grandma’s) pop-up restaurant is a restaurant serving traditional Dutch dishes. The dishes are prepared by enthusiastic seniors who still have energy and want to remain active. Benefit: reintegration of elderly and guests can enjoy meatballs, green beans and other traditional Dutch dishes.
Six Commercial Economy students from Hogeschool Rotterdam came up with the idea to establish a pop-up restaurant for seniors. Nowadays the loneliness of seniors is a big social issue and that’s why the students chose to do something about it. The idea is that the seniors will make their traditional meals which will be served in the restaurant.
Grandma’s dishes
Grandma’s soup, meatloaf or stew, who hasn’t got a fond memory of eating that particular great dish from grandma? At Oma’s pop-up in Rotterdam, guests can taste these delicious and traditional Dutch dishes. These dishes were prepared by seniors that mostly cook only for themselves and love to create more social contact this way.
A day full of activities
The seniors will have a day full of activities at the Saturday that they make their dishes. There will be a workshop by a professional chef and in the evening the seniors are preparing the dishes. These dishes will be served in the restaurant and after a nice meal the guests will get the opportunity to visit the kitchen and have a conversation with the seniors. Maybe even swap recipes! The six students are hoping that after this day, the people involved will maintain contact with each other.
Kromkommer straight to the top
30-4-2015
Exactly a year after the introduction of the Kromkommer soups, a pop-up store opens its doors in Utrecht Hoog Catharijne (the Netherlands). The shop is open from 18 until 31 May. Kromkommer is the first store in the Netherlands with weird shaped vegetables.
Straight to the top
Kromkommer makes sure that products aren’t wasted because of their looks. According to the estimates 5 to 10% of all the vegetables and fruits in the Netherlands are wasted because of their looks. That’s why Kromkommer makes sure the crooked vegetables and fruits that don’t fit the perfect picture come back to the plate in different ways. The founders Jente de Vries and Lisanne van Zwol started their quest in 2012 and soon after Chantal Engelen joined in the waste battle.
See our earlier article about Kromkommer and their crowdfunding campaign.
Pop-Op Shop
The Kromkommer Pop-Op Shop is a place where the story of weird shaped vegetables can be experienced in real life. You can find Kromkommer soups, weird shaped vegetable juices and green gadgets. Nearly all the products that can be found in the store, are recycled.
The Kromkommer Pop-Op Shop is besides a point of sale for weird shaped vegetables, a place for meetings. Growers tell stories about their product, retailers share their opinion about the waste of food and the Krommunity organizes workshops and lectures for the visitors. The Krommunity forms the backbone of the activities by Kromkommer.
On the birthday of the Kromkommer soup (25 May), the newest weird shaped vegetable soup ‘Koele Soep’ (Cool Soup) will be launched. They’re going straight to the top!
Newspaper menu comes alive
24-4-2015
Guests of Center Parcs restaurants can scan a newspaper menu with their phone for a virtual reality experience. With the use of an app guests can help foodservice Albron with further improvements, see extra information, receive advice about food or drinks that are connected to the current weather or vote on their favourite employee. The newspaper menu increases the level of experience in the Center Parcs restaurants where Albron takes care of the hospitality and food retail.
Newspaper menu
The newspaper menu offers access to the digital world. The technique that’s used, augmented reality, makes the print come to life. The stories of new hospitality concepts are filmed to excite the guests. The guests aren’t spectators of the decor where they eat and drink but they are a part of the story. This makes the experience of the restaurants complete.
Corine Holtmaat, manager of Albron says about the concept: ”People are flooded with information and read less in general. Footage is a good carrier to tell a story, to reach out to the viewer and take him away with you, that’s why this choice was made. Another benefit of the video is that you can excite multiple senses and can gain more impact in the communication. That’s how we touch people in the heart and create valuable moments and memories.”
Pre-order and self-checkout at Dell canteen
23-4-2015
Dell employees in Amsterdam don’t have to wait in line anymore at the cashier in the company canteen. Since a short while they order and pay their own lunch with a special “Dell Cafe” app, the package can be picked up a little later.
Order Mobile
eMove.me was commissioned by caterer ‘Van Laar Catering’ to develop the Dell Café concept. The app is designed and developed by YES.TAP.
eWallet
The app has an integrated payment service so that the employee can recharge by phone. This “e-Wallet” saves the employee time, leaving more time to enjoy his lunch. The app works ‘cashless’: customers pay a prepaid credit. The transaction capabilities are an interesting alternative to the recently disappeared chipknip. Additionally, less cahiers are needed and transaction costs are lower.
No more waiting in line
According to Martijn Lukaart CEO eMove.me there is no need to stand in a row anymore in the retail and catering industry. eMove.me is an independent and exclusive distributor of several m-commerce solutions. Earlier, we wrote about the order application at foodcourt The World in Rotterdam where recently Open Tabs is implemented.
Corporation between KLM and SpecialBite
23-4-2015
Good news for the wine lovers. It’s possible to order the wines KLM serves in the World Businessclass. It has been a wish of KLM to make the wines they serve in the sky available for wine lovers on the ground as well. This is made possible by the new collaboration between KLM and SpecialBite.
Dutch chefs
KLM serves menus by Dutch top chefs in the World Businessclass. Sergio Herman, Richard Ekkebus, Mario Ridder and Jonnie Boer already took care of the air catering of the business class. The meals are accompanied with matching wines selected by wine connoisseurs.
Wines
In the month April the wines Brazin (USA), Aaldering-Stellenbosch (South Africa) , Gros-Tollot (South France) Villebois – Loire (France), Cono Sur (Chile) and Nicolas Feuillate (France) are served in the World Businessclass. These are the wines you can order in the webshop as well.
New urban hotspot in The Hague: MaMa Kelly
22-4-2015
The Oude Ketelhuis (the Old Boiler House) in The Hague has been transformed into an industrial all day hospitality concept.
MaMa Kelly is located alongside the creative Caballero factory. Ijsbrant Wilbrenninck (kitchen), David Trampe (bar), Stefan Coster (barista) and Rein Rambaldo (concept creator and owner of The Hospitality Factory) are the members of the creative team behind MaMa Kelly. They serve coffee, pies from their own bakery, lunch, dinner and you can go there for a few drinks as well.
MaMa Kelly: good, pure and delicious
MaMa Kelly is anything but complicated. Everything is pure, from supplier to preparation. The menu can best be described as ‘chicken or lobster’. Of course there are more dishes, like steaks and vegetarian risotto. MaMa Kelly works with a 2 meter long charcoal grill and authentic vendors such as bread from vanmenno and sausages by Brandt & Levie.
Architecture
The industrial property has undergone a huge transformation in the recent months, while retaining the authenticity. For example, the boilers of the former boiler house are still present and they kept the height intact. The interior is best described as industrial, design and urban. The huge open kitchen literally provides a look in the kitchen to every guest. With her comfortable couches, cool barstools, design tables and lamps MaMa Kelly shows that she has the looks.
My chef, your chef
21-4-2015
GELINAZ! Is a chef’s collective that will organize a Grand GELINAZ! Shuffle in the culinary scene. On 9 July, 37 of the world’s best chefs will, according to their website, “be swapping lives, identities… and restaurants!”
The GELINAZ! restaurant-swap concept is developed by Andrea Petrini and Alexandra Swenden in 2005. They’ve hand-selected an impressive group of chefs from 17 countries. Check the video for the line-up which includes respected names in the culinary scene like René Redzepi, Albert Adrià, and Dominique Crenn.
My chef, your chef
During the shuffle chefs will be swapping restaurants and home countries, serve their best in another chef’s kitchen and will even be living in each other’s houses, a bit like Wife Swap. We wonder if this will be used for a new television format as well! Tickets will be for sale online beginning 13 May, according to the GELINAZ! website.
About GELINAZ!
According to their website GELINAZ! is a collective of international chefs responsible for wild, collaborative cook-off stunts. Every time pushing the boundaries, performing food and taking risk as a starting point. Longing to discover new cultures and exchange knowledge. Inventing collaborations with artists, musicians, scientists, thinkers, producers. Never willing to repeat itself, always exploring the unknown. Adapting to uncertain situations, charting new territories to sharpen creativity. Zooming on the beauty of nature, its elegant chaos and unending recreation.
Easter campaign in Brielle
16-4-2015
We can’t say it often enough: if you do a sales promotion, point it at your potential visitor. After Easter we read about the promotional action of Sven Schreuder for his Brasserie Hotel ‘De Nymph’. Inspiration for Easter next year but in the way he implemented it could work for other campaigns as well.
Fans could hunt for giant Easter eggs in Brielle
Sven hid 10 giant chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. He did this in Brielle, the town where his brasserie and hotel is located. From 8 o’clock in the morning enthusiasts could try to find the hidden eggs. Last year, participants tried to follow Sven while he was hiding the eggs. So this year he went out extra early! As from 8 o’clock he gave hints on his Facebook page.
The finder of the giant chocolate egg could of course keep it, all finders could get a free ice cream in his ice cream parlor ‘De Koele Kever’ (The Cool Beetle). In addition as an extra incentive Sven hid in one of the eggs a free night at his hotel ‘De Nymph’. A great Easter action and an example of how you can implement a local promotion: local press was involved (the newspaper ‘AD Voorne Putten’ paid attention to the promotion before Easter) and the fact that Sven also used social media to give hints and placed pictures of the ‘finders’ on Facebook. Next to the annual celebration of the Brielle capture by the Sea Beggars on 1 April 1572, the city now has a new tradition.
Canned food in the hospitality industry
15-4-2015
Since the start of company Bommels Conserven they are convinced that canned food is tasty and trendy. That’s why they’ve launched the concept ‘Een nieuwe blik op de tafel’. (Freely translated as ‘You can clearly see the table’).
The concept is meant for the hospitality entrepreneurs who want to keep their guests entertained with products which are easy and simple to present at different times of the day.
Canned food
The canned fish will be served at the table. It’s a complete concept with a wooden cutting board that is the connecting tool to present the products which are: canned fish, bread and garnitures matching the recipes of the fish. This cutting board is specially designed to fit the canned fish exactly, the bread is presented and there’s space for bowls with different garnitures.
How does it work?
The guests can choose the cans from the menu. These will be served by the waiters and presented on the cutting board with the matching garnitures. Serve with homemade bread for more flavour.
For the launch of this concept, Bommels Conserven is still looking for entrepreneurs who would like to introduce it. Contact Dineke van Bommel for further information.
