Some people may be disgusted by it, but the edible insects are becoming more popular. Currently you only see them as an exciting snack on exclusive parties, but they already are in the supermarket as well. This superfood pasta Bugsolutely consists of 20% cricket flour and also has loads of protein, calcium, iron and vitamins. Besides, cricket flour makes the pasta even tastier. read more
Credits: @dominiqueansel’s Instagram. Guest blog of Leonie van Spronsen, living and working in Paris, heard her colleagues complain about the long queues during the ‘Taste of Paris’ last week. Due to the start of the festival season last weekend with the ‘Taste of Holland’, Leonie blogs about the annoyance of queues. It is not too late to do something about them yet..
Over the past few years they have been popping up all over the world, these “foodie-festivals”we mean, they are either indoor or outdoor, focus on astonishing gastronomy or on variations of our favourite snacks. I personally feel that this is a great development, as the average foodie enjoys these more than a dance festival. But much to our dismay, queueing up has become a regular activity at all these “foodie-festivals”.
Every small but delicious bite you want to try is ruined by a spectacular waiting line. At ‘Taste of Paris’ the average waiting time was 30 to 45 minutes for basically every stand. But also last summer, while visiting ‘Rollende Keukens’we had to conclude that the festival has had its best days, the terrain gets way too busy these days and this takes the fun out of it for us and many others. Obviously these huge crowds are great for the organizers and illustrates the large demand for these types of events, but the negative effect of over-crowdedness will clearly affect your event and the future of your event quickly.
So how come this situation arises on these festivals? The fact that there are long lines at amateur festivals is to be expected, their organizers usually aren’t specialized in the logistics of F&B. Besides, true hospitality is usually not their main goal. But these “foodie-festivals” consists mostly of hospitality entrepreneurs am I right? How is then still possible that these festivals create such un-hospitable situations? Hospitality is their core business!
For the future of the “foodie-festival”it seems to be very important that we solve this ‘queueing up-situation’ because if not.. Will they still be as popular as they are or will people get sick of it soon?
You can either solve this or accept the lines and entertain your guests!
In regards to entertaing your queueing customers, festival entrepreneurs could take some inspiration from baker Dominique Ansel. With two lines a day in front of his bakery (early morning for the cronuts and at 4 PM for the milk cookie-shots) this is the man that can tell you a thing or two about lines and people in lines. He excels in entertaining his waiting customers, like last weekend when he personally handed out roses to ‘his line’ for Valentine’s Day at his bakery in New York City. But on any given day, him and his team hand out warm madeleines, hot chocolate milk, appel cider or lemonade if it’s hot out.
At the opening of his bakery in Japan they even went as far as doing social media challenges between the lines in New York and Tokyo. They arranged for breakdancers to entertain the crowd and when it got really sunny and hot, they sprayed their customers with water sprays to keep them cool.
You can check out our article about the opening of the Tokyo bakery on our website hospitalitytrends.eu.
So consider entertaining your guests while they wait and thus make sure your “foodie-festival” visitor keeps coming back for more. We would love to visit festivals without lines but if that’s too much to ask.. at least keep them entertained!
Sunday the 21st of February ‘’t Soldaatje VOC’ (The Soldier) in Voorhout (the Netherlands) will be opened, located in the middle of the ‘Bollenstreek’. This restaurant serves dishes that are inspired on countries that the Dutch visited as soldiers in the colonial times, from Suriname to Indonesia. read more
It’s getting more popular nowadays to use a digital menu. This was also noted by Vision Multimedia, the company behind Vision Menu. Through crowdfunding they managed to raise enough money to grow both domestically and abroad. But why would you switch to a digital menu? read more
Every year one out of four festival visitors leaves their tent behind on several festival campsites all over the Netherlands. The amount of waste that this creates is bad for the environment. The solution is simple: from now on you can camp in a cardboard. read more
Hospitality entrepreneurs in Belgium and the Netherlands are challenged by Hellmann’s to make ‘The Ultimate Bite’. The winner gets a commercial campaign for his/her own business, to the value of €5.000,=, at The Ultimate Bite live finale on the 23rd of May in the ‘Kookfabriek’ in Amsterdam. You can sign up till the 20th of March 2016 on UltimateBite.com.
Read more about the conditions in the rest of the article. read more
One of the unique characteristics of fries is that you can endlessly combine them with different ingredients. Fries with caviar, Parmesan cheese, truffle mayonnaise, chocolate, Nutella and stews. In the Netherlands, fries are very popular. We eat them with mayonnaise or ketchup but also with ‘mayonnaise, curry sauce and chopped onions’, with hot peanut sauce or sometimes even with truffle mayonnaise but the fries noted below aren’t often on the menu! In response to an article in the Dutch AD newspaper about Tante Nel (aunt Nel), the haute friture shop in Rotterdam, we made a list of unique and weird combinations with fries. ^Bram Kosterink read more
Foodhall 88, the first pop-up food hall in the Netherlands will open the 18th of February in Tilburg. At this moment the lobby of building 88 at the Spoorzone (Railway zone) is still under construction but as from next Thursday you’re supposed to smell fish, meat and vegetables here. Foodhall 88 is open until late April.
In November 2015 we wrote about Dorset’s culinary food plaza. A unique collaboration between AVIA and Willem Dankers. The food plaza has opened recently and we received beautiful pictures of it, special thanks to Marieke Dijkhof. The article about the food plaza is stated below. read more
Great news, still some spots left for you! ‘Brouwerij Troost’ in Amsterdam is giving you the opportunity to brew your own beer. The registration for the second quarter in 2016 is now open. read more
The restaurants of François Geurds always create a lot of rumour around their brand. Now this star chef has launched a CD with tasty music, the CD Flavours & Grooves. As the CD is hidden in the dessert at FG Restaurant and FG Food Labs, you have one more reason to eat there.
The Fédération Internationale des Logis, the quality label of small European hotel–restaurants with 17 affiliated hotels in the Netherlands, reinforces the current hotel supply with two new brands: Maison by Logis and Isolite by Logis. 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
Starbucks introduces ‘Mondays can be great’ in the UK. From 7 January to 18 February you can get an extra strong cup of coffee for £1,50 until 11am. Click here for the promo video by Starbucks.
The chefs at Restaurant Kom Eten in Hoogmade (The Netherlands) show their passion for food on Valentine’s day. They’ve made a special desert and combine the ingredients directly on the table for a total experience. The combination of chocolate mousse, cocos crumbles and fresh blood orange will definitely impress your date. Check the video.
Tasting menus give people the chance to sample each delicacy the restaurant offers. With three or four dishes the chef simply can’t present his entire range of skills. The 5 most expensive tasting menu’s of America:
1. Masa***, New York City. $1160 for 2 persons
2. Joël Robuchon***, Las Vegas. $1115 for 2 persons
3. Meadwood**, St. Helena. $1080 for 2 persons
4. Ursasawa**, Los Angeles. $967 for 2 persons
5. Guy Savay**, Las Vegas. $ 891 for 2 persons
Once every ten days ‘The Pinnacle Grill’ restaurant at the luxury cruise ship MS Rotterdam will be turned into ‘The Librije’. The staff is trained in the Librije in Zwolle (The Netherlands) and is dressed in the same clothing as their collegues in the 3-Michelin stars restaurant. The wine is selected by Thérèse Boer and the five-course menu consists of signature dishes by Jonnie Boer.
Evian has placed a big swing and seesaw in the business district of London. This to mark the end of the holiday season and the return to work even in the greyness of January. To support its commitment to youth ‘Live Young’ placed these devices and the more people play, the more snow comes from the machines. Evian offers participants a childhood moment.
Designer Karl Lagerfeld will collaborate with Sofitel So Singapore (opening July 2013), for whom he provides the logo for the new hotel. The emblem will represent the original style of the hotel in Singapore in combination with the classical French twist of Sofitel. The Sofitel So Label works with designers to present collaboration between two countries as did Christian Lacroix at the Sofitel So Bangkok. Sofitel has recently opened new hotels in Mumbai, Rio and Sydney.
The new lobster and fish restaurant ‘The Lobster House + Studio’ opens its doors on the Frederiksplein in Amsterdam. You can go there for a dinner with oysters or lobsters but also for fresh sandwiches, salades and pasta with fish. The restaurant is located in an old parking garage. That gifs it an industrial look and feel. Look at the website for the menu.
The FabCafe in Japan features a mix of 3D printing, laser cutting and regular coffee menu. They introduced a high-tech machine that can make 3D shapes. In February, the shop organizes a special workshop where participants can make a unique 3D chocolate shape off their own faces. Nice for your Valentine?
A nice way to present your amuses on the table. A tree trunk from about 1 meter long suitable for 15 amuse slides. For sale at the First Impression Shop.
This handmade out of solid oak ‘Linger a little longer’ table designed by Jay Watson reacts to heat. The table is covered with a black thermochromic coating which allows people to leave a temporary mark. The surface responds to heat from a body part or a any warm dish or cup and becomes transparent to reveal the wood beneath.
Restaurant Belle and next door B&B Swaenenvecht in Utrecht organize a overnight lotery on Valentine’s Day. All couples who come to enjoy a 3-course dinner in Restaurant Belle may bring their suitcase. Because this evening a overnight in B&B Swaenenvecht will be raffled.
Only this week during the National Storytelling Week family restaurant Giraffe in London presents ‘Tell Us A Story’. Kids get free meals when they bring a book and their parents, grandparents or carers. Simply bring the kids to the restaurant untill 5pm, read them a story and the kids get a free meal when the adult orders a main course.
Pathé a chain of cinema’s, is testing a couple of new products. They now serve convenience fruit from the brand Chiquita and various flavors of popcorn in a rainbow presentation. While watching the movie, one can try 4 flavors of popcorn for € 7,50. Pathé does also rollout a selfservice concept Drinks & Bites.
The First Impression shop sells different kind of wooden plates. When you serve game, these plates are an assest to the dish. They’re light of weight and they can be cleaned in a dishwasher.
The restaurant ‘In de keuken van Floris’ in Rotterdam (Netherlands) offers vegetarians a surprising nine-course menu. With culinary delights without meat or fish, a delight for the vegetarian taste buds. Chef Floris Versluijs plays with acids, structures and contrasts. The restaurants also offers a menu with fish and meat.
The magazine DER FEINSCHMECKER launched a new restaurant app with the best restaurants of Germany. The app is always actual: openings, closings and for example the switches of chefs are updated daily.
If you’re looking for a job in the hospitality branch in the Netherlands, download the app from ‘Werkenindehoreca.nl’ and receive all jobs on your mobile phone. Available for iPhone and Android.
American top chef Grand Achatz has made a new movie. We came across it on the Twitter from Gastronomixs. We would love to go and eat at his restaurant whenever we visit Chicago. See also other clips as – Course comprised of 86 individual components – and – edible helium balloon.
Gastronomic safaris by boat, walks in Nordic Noir Copenhagen, concerts in warehouses and pop-up restaurants. All this during the Wondercool festival – Copenhagen’s cultural month of February. It’s a festival of music, art, food, design, architecture and fashion.
KRNWTR thinks it’s time for an app that maps tap water in the hospitality branch. Still you can’t order a glass of tap water everywhere. With this app you can see where they serve tap water and where they don’t. You can indicate where you’ve got tap water as well. Through crowd funding KRNWRT is trying to realize this app. You can invest from €2,50. Look here for more information.
Women-only venues in the big cities are rising. Bar/restaurant SofaKingcool in London will become “women-only” themed and is renamed to KC’z Bar from February 1st onwards. Networking is the main purpose, but also the demand for an after work hangout place. It’s by women for women and it’s not just for gay women.
McDonald’s in Australia, better known as Macca’s, introduced a new iPhone app. With the app ‘TrackMyMacca’s’ the guest can see where the ingredients originate from and what happens before they are served. Another example of transparency at McDonald’s. In Canada they’ve created a YouTube movie about the difference between the hamburger in an ad and in your own box. There is also a ‘behind the scenes‘ about the French fries.
We think that it would have been nice if all restaurants near of the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht served these cookies with their coffee and tea during the KamaSutrA convention was held last weekend. Or do you dare to serve them with Valentine’s Day? The cookies are here for sale.
In Amsterdam Purewtr/Pro from entrepreneur Stijn Weijns soon starts with the construction of a swimming pool in a “sustainable” hotel. After having built small pools for individuals the last years, the company now wants to expand to project development and designing public swimming pools. In the pools of Purewtr there is not a drop of chlorine or other chemicals. They use plants such as the yellow iris, the schoenoplectus acutus and the small-leaved lily to clean the water. The water quality is high and the pools uses 70% less energy than regular pools.
Valentine’s day 2013 is approaching, so Marjolein van Spronsen has highlighted a few potential actions. Check the article for inspiration for your café, restaurant or hotel (use Google Translate) What are you going to organize for your guests?
Bezoek horecatrends op
