The Jane Antwerp
9-9-2014
The Jane in Antwerp beautifully designed by Piet Boon and is highlighted at the website of ‘The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards’. We think it might be one of the title candidates for the award in 2015. The restaurant of Sergio Herman and Nick Bril was opened in March in a chapel of the former military hospital of Antwerp. The preparations of the opening took three years: not only the dishes, but everything around it had to include the vision and feeling of both chefs. A collaboration between artists, designers and deejays was established. With the motto ‘food is our religion’, the kitchen is situated at the place of the altar. Other eye-catchers are the specially printed windows, a neon skull and the 800 kilo chandelier.
Baidu smart chopsticks
8-9-2014
It all started as a April fools’ prank last spring: chopsticks that are able to analyze the quality of food. This summer Chinese web giant Baidu launched a prototype of smart chopsticks that focuses on health and hygiene. The smart chopsticks will tell you whether the oil that has been used is fresh: sensors of the chopsticks discover the oil’s temperature and judges its fitness for consumption. Poor food safety is a big problem in China, one of the concerns is ‘gutter oil’. ‘Gutter oil’ is illegal cooking oil what is made by reprocessing waste oil or by dredging up leftovers from restaurants.
Dinner at Grant Achatz; a feast for all senses
4-9-2014
Chef Grant Achatz of restaurant Alinea is only 30 years old and no. 9 on ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ by San Pellegrino. As all his European colleagues particularly create a feast on the plate, this chef creates a complete show with the whole experience but in an understated, un-American way. Marjolein van Spronsen experienced it and concludes in her blog; “This is in the restaurant world, “Think different, Act different’, a rollercoaster ride from three hours that gives you a ‘dazzling experience’ of tastes and experiences”.
Restaurant ‘t Klooster was opened in Wijk bij Duurstede
4-9-2014
Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of ‘De Librije’*** and ‘Librije’s zusje’** opened restaurant ‘t Klooster at Wijk bij Duurstede on 1 September. This restaurant is taken over by former employee Jeroen van Hensbergen and his wife Natasja van Hensbergen. Jeroen and Natasja transformed brasserie ‘t Klooster into a restaurant where high-quality, creative and affordable dishes are served. A special aspect is that the restaurant serves a menu especially for people who had a gastric bypass or gastric sleeve. Natasja herself had gastric bypass surgery and realized that it was very difficult to join others in dining for a full evening. “Jeroen cooks in ‘t Klooster a special menu where the portioning is adapted to the wishes of the guests and where the intolerances and the use of sugar are taking into account.”
The Bacon Bullets
3-9-2014
NEXTDELI is a new player in the field of food concepts and introduced new products: The Bacon Bullets and The Bacon Balls. The products are inspired on the Dutch well-known ‘Kroket’ and ‘Bitterbal’ and have a bacon flavour. The Bacon Balls and Bullets distinguish themselves from the ‘Kroket’ and ‘Bitterbal’ in three ways: ‘The Crunch’, ‘The Bacon’ and ‘The Taste’. The products have a special crunch because of the use of American breadcrumb. The Bacon can be tasted in the creamy filling and the Taste refers to the spicy aftertaste. The products are made of organic bacon and no additives and preservatives are added. A special sauce is developed to replace the mustard that is usually used with ‘kroketten’ and ‘bitterballen’. The Gunshot sauce looks a lot like a mustard-sauce, but has a sweet touch from honey and a touch of BBQ.
Cooking at the beat of dance music
2-9-2014
Dance festival Tomorrowland was held on the 19th, 20th, 26nd and 27th of July. The festival isn’t just well known for its music, but for the culinary experience as well. For the third time in history a small amount of people could experience the cooking skills of Sergio Herman in the secret restaurant, hidden in the main stage. For the amount of € 15.000,- Sergio Herman, Quique Dacosta (three Michelin stars) from restaurant Quique Dacosta and Kobe Desramaults (one Michelin star) from restaurant In De Wulf prepared several dishes while the music was playing loud.
The rest of the publication is only available in Dutch
Arancini: Italian ‘bitterballen’
2-9-2014
This summer we’ve eaten the Italian dish Arancini in the bar of restaurant Filini at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. We ate this dish several times in Italian restaurants in America and Australia, but the few times I was in Italy, I haven’t seen it on the menu. Although the dish is probably served there as well. I have not seen this dish in the Netherlands before, although it is a simple dish to make. The dish consist out of deep fried balls of risotto with mozzarella cheese and smoked ham in the middle. A simple and delicious starter and because of the Dutch association with the ‘bitterballen’ it could become very popular in the Netherlands as well ^Marjolein van Spronsen
How do you apply trends as entrepreneur in the hospitality industry?
1-9-2014
First of all, when talking about trends you need to realize that many different concepts are being named trends these days. However, there is a big difference between trends, hypes and inspiration. For example, we call our website hospitalitytrends.eu but mostly offer inspiration based on red threads in international trends. Real trends take their time in the adoption curve. If you look at the adoption curve of for example sustainability, you’ll see that it has been coming up for 15 to 20 years already and now it is mainstream, thus this is a trend. Hypes however usually stick around with the innovators and early adopters.
The usual development of a trend is that it begins with a very small portion of the population. Logically entrepreneurs are drawn to new trends since they are always looking for new success. They are constantly scared to miss out and fail in their business endeavours, yet specifically as an entrepreneur it is important that you keep on living your own dream and take care that you do not jump on every trend or hype that comes along.
The Crab Shack Wellington
1-9-2014
In the Netherlands we have a lot of beautiful local products, but if we see the crabs and lobsters that are served at The Crab Shack in Wellington we are a bit jealous. The Crab Shack is a casual restaurant with a coastal/Cape Cod theme. With their location at the waterfront the restaurant serves mostly seafood and especially crabs as ‘Nelson Paddle crab’, ‘Jonah crab’ and the red ‘King crab’. They also serve meat dishes as ‘the Shack Steak’ and the ‘Kiwi pepper lamb rump’. Besides that the dishes on the menu are very affordable, the restaurant has daily specials too such as ‘Mussel Madness Monday’, ‘Winging into the Weekend’ and ‘Sangria Saturdays’.
Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano’s
1-9-2014
We already wrote about it before, but finally we’ve tasted them ourselves: the Chicago-style Pizza, Deep Dish Pizza. We tried this ‘stuffed pizza pie’ at restaurant Giordano’s and at a Wednesday evening we still had to wait half an hour for a table! Looking at the amount of tables where people were sharing this pizza, we can only conclude that the dish is very popular here. We respectfully watched other families eating a large size pizza without problems and with pleasure but we had difficulties finishing a middle sized pizza! A slice of pizza feels like a complete pizza, which is definitely due to on the amount of cheese. ^Marjolein van Spronsen
