Michelin-starred Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt opens restaurant ‘Ekstedt at The Yard’ in London
30-8-2021
Next month, multi award-winning Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt will open his first restaurant outside of Stockholm, launching Ekstedt at The Yard, part of Great Scotland Yard hotel in Westminster. Set within the historic 5* hotel which was once the site of the Metropolitan police, the hotel’s new flagship restaurant will open on 17th September, bringing Niklas’ signature style of wood fired ‘old Nordic’ cooking to the UK for the very first time.
Nordic cuisine a little closer to home, we’re kind of jealous of those foodies living in London! We love the idea of the chef combining his Nordic cuisine with seasonal British products. The Great Scotland Yard Hotel opened last year with a ‘grand unlocking’.
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Introduction of a autonomous robotic restaurant | By SJW Robotics
27-8-2021
SJW Robotics, a Toronto based FoodTech company, will be launching a fully autonomous robotic restaurant with zero on-site employees. The company will be demonstrating the pre-commercial unit in the fall of 2021, with a commercial rollout scheduled for Q1, 2022. At the heart of SJW Robotics shines RoWok™, a proprietary automated kitchen system that cooks made-to-order meals like an accomplished chef. Armed with high-speed mechanism, RoWok captures the essence of wok-based cooking and uses state-of-the-art sensors and automation protocols to deliver consistent quality in accordance with the highest food safety standards. The design inspiration for the unit comes from industrial food manufacturing systems and an engineering team with proven accomplishments in robotics.
SJW Robotics’ next-generation restaurant will come in the form of a 100 square-foot standalone unit. The techforward kitchen’s small footprint, plug-and-play capabilities and 24-hour accessibility will enable its implementation in a multitude of locations such as airports, hospitals, universities, grocery stores, office towers, shopping malls, stadiums and industrial complexes.
How to top pumpkin spice? Peet’s Coffee introduces ‘Pumpkin Oat Foam Cold Brew’ for fall
26-8-2021
Peet’s Coffee announces its new limited-edition fall menu, featuring a new plant-based ‘Pumpkin Oat Foam Cold Brew’. The fall menu, available August 25th at participating coffee bars, brings back seasonal beverage favourites, Pumpkin Latte and Maple Latte, along with an exclusive Maple Oat Frappé available to Peetnik Rewards members on the Peet’s app and online. Peet’s is also featuring its ‘Vine & Walnut Autumn 2021 Blend’, named in honour of the company’s original coffee bar at the corner of Vine St. and Walnut St. in Berkeley, California.
It’s pumpkin time again! The apple pie in the Netherlands, is as popular as the pumpkin pie in America. Even here in the Netherlands we see more and more ‘pumpkin flavor’ in combination with coffee, which addresses the sweet tooth of young people! The innovation here is that this drink is a cold coffee with a layer of plant-based foam with pumpkin taste. Here the cold brew isn’t very popular yet and certainly not as popular as in America.
Trends we spotted | Week 34
26-8-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.
WIth this week links to articles about Restaurant Esmé in Chicago, founded by Jenner Tomasko (executive chef at Grand Achatz) who focuses on art and community with even a à la carte menu for ‘walk-ins’. Sounds like Chicago has a new culinary hotspot.
Starbucks opened their 10th ‘farmer support’ centre in Varginha, Brasil with the purpose to offer valuable resources to local coffee communities.
UPSIDE Foods partners with three Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn. Crenn will develop recipes and give culinary advise and if allowed she will use the lab-grown chicken in her restaurant. This is the first collaboration in the cultivated meat industry with a three star Michelin chef.
De Koningshoeven brewery is the first in the world to market a completely alcohol-free Trappist beer: La Trappe Nillis (0.0%). And McDonald’s published their Purpose and Impact Report of 2020-2021 with four impact points: Jobs, Inclusion and Empowerment, the Plant, Food Quality & Sourcing and Community Connection.
Duke’s Mayonaise started collaborating with Champion Brewing Company to produce the perfect beer that fits with a BLT sandwich: Family Recipe (5,1% ABV, 27 IBU). Kind of ‘Mayo Beer’. The new ‘food shopping’-app, Grownby, connects farmers with buyers. Wouldn’t it be great to have such an app as a cook? And getting messages like the strawberries are now ‘ready to eat’!
CandyCan gummy bears are gluten-free, plant-based, low-sugar, low carb and contain vitamins. Is it an idea to lay a bag of Gummy bears on top of a pillow for children visiting your hotel? Or to put a bag in a ‘Happy-Meal’ kind of box?
Oreo opened their first café in New Jersey. The café consists of a shop offering Oreo cookies and other Oreo treats, and fast-service where you can order Oreo treats. And in New York another sweet hybride is gaining popularity: the Croffle. This is a soft, buttery and layered croissant toasted in a waffle iron and sprinkled with different toppings.
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Do you eat every last slice of your bread? | The Dutch No-Waste Week will start soon
24-8-2021
Disclaimer: more interesting for Dutchies. But this might inspire your country.
In one week, we here in the Netherlands can save more than 60 million slices of bread at home by simply not wasting it. Bakeries and supermarkets participate in a campaign of the ‘Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling’ foundation (translated: Together Against Food Waste) to prevent bread wastage among consumers. One of their initiatives is to put the sticker ‘Do you eat every slice?’ on a whopping 3 million loaves of bread. Bread is the product Dutch households waste the most, followed by dairy products, vegetables, fruit, potatoes and meat. All these products play a leading role during the national No-Waste Week from the 7th until the 13th of September.
Every hospitality entrepreneur can confirm they most likely throw away too much in a day, even if you are already consciously working on it. For those entrepreneurs who would like to participate, start to look at your business’ breakfast waste; how many slices of bread, baked rolls, bowls with fruit and toppings are thrown in the trash every day? There is room for improvement, right?
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Chipotle tests Plant-Based Chorizo
20-8-2021
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) recently announced its latest menu innovation, Plant-Based Chorizo, is in test in Denver and Indianapolis. Plant-Based Chorizo is the brand’s first new plant-based protein option since the debut of Sofritas® in 2014.
Chipotle developed its chorizo alternative internally, passing companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible, which have several deals with other fast food-chains for meat alternatives on their menus. Let’s see if the plant-based Chorizo will become available in all their restaurants.
Reading time: 2 minutes
Trends we spotted | Week 33
20-8-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.
With this week links to articles about the most spectacular off-menu dish at the rule-breaking Japanese restaurant Shuko in New York and to the ‘Cuisine Solaire’ by restaurant Le Présage in Marseille. It’s Europe’s first solar-powered restaurant.
In London you can enjoy cocktails and high tea’s at a disused train station, check out the great 1940s themed high tea video at Cahoots Underground in the article. Also opened in London: a new immersive cocktail experience, Mr. Tipsy’s Down The Hatch! With a lot of OTT-ness!
French food tech start-up Gourmey is working on lab-grown foie gras that could allow restaurants to continue to serve the highly-prized delicacy in an ethical way. Great news for foie gras lovers, it looks like it and the chef who tried it says it also tasted the same.
The new pizzeria Pazzi in Paris is staffed entirely by robots, from order-taking to prepping the dough to putting the pizzas in boxes. Check out the video, as guests you can follow your pizza being made!
We love the idea behind the ‘random acts of kindness’, as does Domino’s Pizza in the USA, they started their ‘Surprise Frees’ Promotion. Until November 21, 2021, they are surprising randomly selected fans with free menu items.
And a link to an article about the new ‘Taco Bell Defy’. The 3,000 square-foot restaurant concept located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, utilizes a two-story model for “the frictionless future of Taco Bell”.
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Cannibale Royale & Two Chefs Brewing homebrew competition | Love for beer, craftsmanship and collaboration
19-8-2021
Disclaimer: more interesting for Dutchies or those living in or visiting Amsterdam.
The recipes have been critically examined one last time; every bottle has been carefully checked. And the entire competition stock is perfectly cooled. This is not just any beer tasting. This is the Finals of the Cannibale Royale & Two Chefs Brewing Homebrew Competition! Five talented amateur brewers will compete at Cannibale Royale Du Nord on Sunday August 29 for the ultimate award. If the expert jury decides their beer comes out as the winner, Two Chefs Brewing will brew no less than 2.500 liters of that beer according to their original recipe. And to top it off, the beer will be sold in all five Cannibale Royale locations!
Do you want to be there and be part of the public jury? The finale of Homebrew Competition Extraordinaire will take place at Cannibale Royale Du Nord (NDSM), on Mt. Ondinaweg 21. The event on August 29 will start at 12:00 noon and last until 4:00 pm. Book a table quickly via the reservation system on their website. If you want to stay for dinner afterwards, reserve a table separately for dinner.
Reading time: 2minutes
Little Caesars® unveils their new Crazy Calzony™ | Combining Calzone and Pizza
17-8-2021
The new menu item at Little Caesars combines Calzone and Pizza for a delicious fusion of two classic pizzeria favourites. Crazy Calzony features a pepperoni pizza with a Parmesan and buttery-tasting calzone-like crust filled with garlic white sauce, cheese and julienne pepperoni, served with Crazy Sauce® for dipping. The product is available to order online for delivery or pickup starting August 16th, and available as HOT-N-READY® item starting August 23rd. Crazy Calzony is only available for a limited time.
Inspiration for pizzeria’s worldwide? It does look delicious, don’t you think? We spotted the stuffed crust by Pizza Hut back in January, a kind of calzone crust. They even sold a limited-edition ‘Nothing But Stuffed Crust’.
Reading time: 2 minutes
Trends we spotted | Week 32
12-8-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.
With this week links to articles about the announcement that a visit to an indoor restaurant, gym or theater in New York will only be allowed for those vaccinated as of August 16. All in a dramatic step to fight rising Covid-19 cases.
Alain Ducasse and Albert Adrià to open an 100-day trial restaurant in Paris and more and more luxury brands are accepting cryptocurrency. The Dolder Grand hotel in Switzerland and BitLux private jets have teamed up for the world’s first crypto-based luxury travel partnership.
Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels have teamed up to create Panera Brand, boasting nearly 4,000 locations and 110,000 employees across 10 countries. All three brands are owned by Luxembourg based JAB Holding Co.
Interesting development: startup Cecilia, the interactive bartender for airports, VIP lounges, stadiums and venues or even hotels. Cecilia mixes 120 cocktails per hour! And an article about 3 robots that can tap beer: Ebar, Revolmatic and Macco Robotics. In the article a video from Ebar.
The Raffles Hotels & Resorts continues global expansion with new openings in 2021 and beyond. With this year their second hotel in Dubai, Raffles The Palm. Check out the other openings in the article.
IKEA in the USA is going to sell candles that smell like Swedish meatballs and another great example of how to use TikTok. The chef of the Italian Embassy in London, Danilo Cortellini spotted pasta chips and decided to upgrade the recipe!
Klimato from Sweden lets restaurants calculate their CO2 emissions per dish, interesting development! And we spotted shampoo bars, a completely plastic-free alternative in bars. A distinctive, sustainable alternative for your amenities!
For fans of the series La Casa de Papel, Netflix and Fever created the immersive experience that is located in the French ‘La Monnaie de Paris’, the institute of the French currency.
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Chef Niklas Ekstedt
The Scotland Yard
