The first year of The Hague Food Festival showcasing chefs and restaurants from the city, alongside food and drink producers from the surrounding region. The festival will be held throughout the whole city with different events. read more
H.A.R.L.A.N.D, the Human Assisted Robotic Linguistic Animatronic Networked Device is KFC’s latest stunt for NFCD (National Fried Chicken Day) and it’s a robot designed to take drive-thru orders. The robot translate the responses from the cashier into Colonel Sanders-speak, with a slight delay. read more
The world’s first rope-free elevator MULTI is set to revolutionize tall building construction. MULTI harnesses the power of linear motor technology to move multiple cars in a single shaft both vertically and horizontally! read more
At Rocycle’s boutique gyms, you get a full-body workout on a spinning bike in 45 minutes. Unlike other gyms, you can do nothing but spin at Rocycle. The costs are also higher but you’ll have to take in consideration that they will arrange everything for you and that you’ll get training from top instructors. The idea comes from America, where the company SoulCycle has grown into a group of 74 boutique gyms in the recent years. read more
CoolMess is a modern ice cream parlour, located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. They allow their guests to make DIY soft serve ice cream at their tables. A favourite parlour for kids, teens and adults that love a DIY messy ice cream with a lot of toppings. If you’re one of them you have another place to visit in NYC this summer!
A large number of ‘bicycles to share’ have recently been placed in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Two weeks ago, hundreds of bicycles of oBike were distributed in Rotterdam. Last weekend, it was time for FlickBike to drop 1000 black bikes in Amsterdam. What are these ‘bicycles to share’ and how can you use them? read more
Sleep on a rooftop underneath the stars in Amsterdam, brush your teeth in one of the dressing rooms in the Olympic Stadium, float with your fellow campers in Amsterdam Noord: experience it during Camp the Night. The new camping platform Campspace.com pops up on unexpected areas in the capital city on the 12th and 13th of August. read more
As of July 1, Asian BBQ opened for the 3rd time in the stately high-rise corner at the entrance of the Dakpark. As a traveling restaurant, Asian BBQ is looking forward to new places. However, they are already on the Hudson Square 7b for the 3rd season and again for six months. Here they are open from Wednesday to Sunday from 17:30 until 23:00. From the restaurant you walk up to the Roof Park for a Pinto Picnic. A place worth a detour and to enjoy a traditional Thai BBQ. read more
We have seen the evolution of traditional snack bar into haute friture by Michelin star chefs. Ron Blaauw takes it to another level, from today on we have a new trend, described by us as the Haute ice cream parlour. Or bluntly said culinary ice cream for everyone! read more
Two weeks ago, a new unique concept opened in The Hague. Sweet Mirrie’s makes ice cream as we already have spotted a lot in the Far East. The teppanyaki ice cream is not brand new, we spotted it before and wrote about it before. But we haven’t spotted a concept like this before in the Netherlands. read more
A Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea at the Swan Shakespeare’s Globe in London, part of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream Afternoon Tea’. Instead of the regular choices of tea and a glass of champagne they serve the tea as well but also a tankard of Hobday Smoked Brown Ale and more savoury choices of small bites. Inspiration for all those restaurants serving afternoon teas! read more
During a meeting of MVO Nederland (organisation Corporate Social Responsibility in the Netherlands) and Wageningen Academy, meat company Bolscher introduced a new product category, between meat and vega. The meeting ‘from food waste to food business’ was organised to prevent waste and make use of residual flows. The residual flow of ‘mushroom stems’ is used in one of Meat Your Veggies’s products. read more
Visitors of the Zwarte Cross festival in the Netherlands can make a pit stop at ‘t Noorden in Aalten. The festival will start this weekend and party centre and pancake house ‘t Noorden is located on the route towards the festival. To attract more visitors in the days before the festivals, they decided to put some extra items on their menu. One of them is Nozem Ice Cream, made in collaboration with a farm where ice cream is being made. The ice cream is based on a popular drink being sold at Zwarte Cross: Nozem Oil. read more
Culinary robotics company Next Robot unveiled its latest innovation, ‘Al Dente’, at the 2025 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. Designed to automate the preparation read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
The Green Plugin is a modular system whit which festivals can be built sustainably. It uses sustainable sources as wind-, solar- and human power. The Green Plugin has several items such as a dance floor, that gathers the energy of the people who are dancing and lights itself. Or an interactive recycling installation, where visitors can take their cups and transform them into a 3d-printed item. The Green Plugin is a initiative from UMEF (United Music Events Foundation), the Perpetual Plastic Project and Energy Floors.
Recently a Weber barbecue academy opened in Berlins Mitte area. Our neighbours from the East will thus have complexer barbecue-dinners this summer as well. In the Netherlands we can prepare ourselves for the Big Green Egg barbecue competition at the FG Food terrace and are already serveral Weber BBQ academy days.
To make insect meat palatable for the western world, the brand Six Food has created ‘Chirps’. The ‘Chirps’ are made of a mix from ground beans, rice and cricket powder that’s baked rather than fried. The result is a gluten-free, natural, low fat chip full of protein. Chirps are available for pre-order now.
The third largest supermarket chain in France, Intermarché, introduced the campaign ‘inglorious fruits & vegetables’. The supermarket buys the ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables that would normally be thrown away and sells it 30% cheaper. It is a win-win-win campaign: consumers get good quality fruits and vegetables for a cheaper price. The growers are paid for products that normally would be discarded and Intermarché increases its sales with this new line of products. Besides the ‘inglorious’ fruits and vegetables the supermarket sells soups and juices made from these products as well.
Intermarché launched this campaign nationwide trough billboards, social media, television and radio. In the Netherlands we have seen a number of actions to promote these ‘ugly’ products as well. In 2013 we saw the crooked cucumber action of the ladies of Kromkommer and the store Zegro in Rotterdam and in 2014 we’ve spotted the crowdfunding action for ‘kromkommer’ soups.
The Rembrandt Tower Boardroom will be transformed into a temporary restaurant of the highest level. Led by chef Wilco Berends, a dinner inspired by ‘The Amsterdam of Rembrandt’ is composed. Museum ‘Het Rembrandthuis’ exhibits a few paintings of Rembrandt, together with a collectors item that has never been exposed before. The ‘Heavenly Rembrandt’ weeks take place during the ‘art & culinary’-weeks of Amsterdam, from 22 September till 4 October, and is available for everyone with a reservation.
GloriaFood has released a new worldwide online ordering system for restaurants. Different from other online ordering websites, GloriaFood is free of charge for restaurants who participate. The system is easy implemented and managed by the restaurant owners themselves. Orders can be placed via the website, the app and facebook.
TWEAK doesn’t just keep your kitchen sink draining smoothly, but solves the problem of scooping cold leftovers out of the sink with your bare fingers. We don’t think that this, via kickstarter (crowd funding platform) financed product, will be used in a lot of professional kitchens. But in the smaller kitchens this silicone washing strainer can be useful.
The Riviera Music Lounge opened in the basement of the Riviera Hotel in Benidorm (Spain). It is a New York Jazz club with the warm atmosphere of a hidden club and it has live music as main attraction. Special features are the backlighted marble bar, that fills the room with a magical golden light, and the walls, that are mainly covered with the names and portraits of famous jazz masters.
Ever wondered whether you did tip sufficiently? With tipthismuch.in you will always know. Check if your holiday destination is mentioned on the website. The idea for the website was stolen from Jessica Hische who tweeted the following: ‘Someone should make something similar to http://umbrellatoday.com for international tipping practices #stealmyidea’. Great to see that the idea was picked up by Kate Sigrist, who designed the website and Jolyon Russ who built it.
#BDOYL, which means ‘Best Day of Your Life’, has been organized on 21 June, the longest day of the year. Thrillist took over a dozen well-known locations around New York, mainly within the East Village, and transformed them into one-day-only experiences. The event focused on food, drinks and special surprise events that were kept secret until they happened. Although all the pictures at Twitter and Instagram with #BDOYL look great, we hope, besides this introduction video, for a movie showing the well-kept secret events! Maybe we can learn how to throw a different party than all the culinary parties in many Dutch cities this summer.
During the ‘Best Kept Secret Festival’ the Food Line-up introduced the ‘Tomato Greenhouse’ together with Crick’s (by Agro Care) and Jord, chef cook and owner of Smokey Goodness. During the weekend a stunning 10,000 fresh tomatoes from the festival greenhouse were processed. The combination of a catering-connector, grower and rugged barbecue chef was a great seasonal starter, especially for the winners of a fresh breakfast including Bloody Marys.
The booking website Roominaminute.com reverses the traditional booking model. Guests can fill in their accommodation preferences for a certain city or area, arrival date, departure date and additional preferations on the website. Within 25 minutes the affiliated accommodations respond to the request with a proposal and the guest can choose between the options. This reversed system is very convenient to get full occupancy during busy periods or no-shows and is developed by Nico Dijkstra. Earlier we saw that Bidroom.com launched a similar platform.
To promote the special ‘Opperdoezer Ronde’ potato there was an event in the municipality of Medemblik last Saturday. Recently potatoes in general are negatively mentioned in the media as source of carbohydrates and starch that should be banned while dieting. This ban is unnecessary for the Opperdoezer Ronde and refuted by sufficient research. The potato has a protected designation of origin, which was granted by the European Union in 1996. A selection of professional athletes, nutritionists, growers and top chef Onno Kokmeijer (Ciel Bleu**) joined forces to get the Opperdoezer Round back on the menu.
Exactly 250 years ago The House of Ruinart created the world’s first Rosé champagne. The House of Ruinart celebrates this anniversary with a ‘Ruinart Rosé Salon 1764 pop-up bar’ at The Goring Hotel in London. The private gardens of the historic hotel are the scenery for the dedicated pop-up bar. From mid June until 3 July, the guests of the Goring Hotel and Ruinart are transported back to the time the first Rosé champagne was created. Nice way to celebrate an anniversary and we know a couple of places in the Netherlands with sceneries perfect for a pop-up bar of my favorite champagne as well ;-). ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Active summer camps are mostly organized for children. For the adults who prefer an active holiday as well; the ‘Jackson hole run camp’ is a great example where an hotel and a sport coach work together to organize an active summercamp for adults. Hotel Terra and the Teton Mountain Lodge are hosting a multiday camp in the heart of the Mountains of Jackson Hole, Teton Village, Wyoming, with running coach Eric Orton for experienced runners who are looking for a challenge.
Journalist Teresa Machan had the opportunity to write an article for the Telegraph about her experiences while having dinner at Sublimotion. As she describes it, having dinner at the new restaurant of chef Paco Roncero (2 Michelin stars) is an experience for all your senses. The chef reacted to the question whether his ‘theatrical dinner’ really is the most expensive meal in the world, with the following statement, ‘Sublimotion is the cheapest life-changing experience anyone can have.’ We will have to start saving to experience this life changing dinner for € 1.500,= ourselves. The video gives a short introduction of Sublimotion.
Imagine all the possibilities if you can ad smell to your posts as restaurant. That’s mouthwatering marketing! This seems possible with the oPhone. Watch the video to get some idea of the possibilities. All though we think that it will take a couple of years before we all can use this feature as standard ;-).
For those who will be watching our WK game this evening #NedChi, we wish you a lot of fun and many goals. For the next matches of the orange team, bar owners can still invest in urinal mats with a football goal. In the Netherlands, among others for sale with the seller of the bottlebob. And of course quite useful because with the way we’re winning a lot of beer will be drunk!
A great wine from a can? It’s possible according to Winestar. Winestar® offers a range of premium French wines. We tried a couple at the office last Friday; a white, red and rosé wine from the Corbières wine region. We have some great wine fans at the office and they all had problems with the paradigm shift from bottle to can. But even they liked the wine. Oké, they still prefer champagne with their picnic but #Winestar is a great alternative. The can contains 187 ml wine. Great for in minibars or for airline catering, unbreakable and light.
Hotel Theater Figi just made an orange cake for Parthen meeting service. Some hope that the Dutch team makes in to the quarterfinals of the EC!
To celebrate the opening of the renewed Vomar Supermarket the Haarlem based Jopen brewery created a special limited edition beer: Jopen Stephenson Beer. The Jopen Stephenson Beer is a blond beer with a refreshing taste and fruity hints from oranges. The beer resembles white beer a bit, contains wheat and oats and has a mild ‘hoppy’ (IPA, India Pale Ale) aftertaste. A wonderfull initiative where a supermarket creates a piece of local pride with a tasty beer, in my opinion more retailers should do this! ^ArmandSol
A new kind of booking site, Hotelied, offers luxury hotels the opportunity to target discounts towards influential travelers with a large social media influence. Hotels probably hope that by offering these deals, the discounts will be outweighed by the exposure and publicity. I am quite sure it’s been done already between bloggers and hotels. Some bloggers are quite clear in their communication about these deals. But now we have the website Hotelied where travelers have to create a profile and link to their Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. For people with a lot of fans or followers a great opportunity to gain some profit. But on the other hand, could this mean that the social media becomes less social? It seems that hotels can kind of buy ‘good reviews’ from influential travelers. Am I too suspicious and could we consider this as a win-win situation for the hotels, the booking site and the travelers? And assume that all those fans and followers will be able to read between the lines, what do you think? ^Marjolein van Spronsen
It looks as if these SnapRays Guidelights are designed for at home, but we think it might also be very useful in the hallways and the wet section of hotelrooms. With these LED lights it is a lot easier to find your way around the room to the bathroom or toilet.
If you like to eat out early, it’s now possible to join the staff of FG Restaurant (restaurant Francois Geurts, 2 Michelin stars, Rotterdam) and FG Food Labs during their staff meal. From my own internship in another kitchen, I can still remember the fun of eating together. And especially for young people who are considering to start working in a restaurant, this is a nice opportunity to take a look. I have however reservations, recently I enjoyed a great diner at FG Food Labs and of course the staff meal is different… At both restaurants you have to be early, at FG Restaurant the staff meal is served from 17.00 to 18.00 and at FG Food Labs from 16.00 to 17.00. The staff meal is served at a reasonable rate and reservations are necessary. ^ Marjolein Spronsen
The German premium beer Warsteiner transformed the Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos) last June 7 to a golf course with a ‘par-3 course’ specially designed for the occasion. LED lighting and striking ‘glow-in-the-dark‘ golf balls guiding the players along the golf course in an exceptional setting that was made up of temporary tee boxes and greens. As the sun went down, the game started (at 23:00 hour) and the last ball found the hole at 02:00 hour. As sponsor of the KLM Open and as official sponsor of the European PGA Tour, the top European golf competition, Warsteiner wants to help golf to a wider audiences.
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