Scary cakes that nobody wants to eat
Looking for an original cake for your birthday? Katherine Dey can help you with that! This nurse from New York has a very special hobby. She makes scary cakes based on her experiences as a nurse. read more
Looking for an original cake for your birthday? Katherine Dey can help you with that! This nurse from New York has a very special hobby. She makes scary cakes based on her experiences as a nurse. read more
Drinking an alcohol-free beer at the dentist, again an excellent example of ‘Blurring’. There is a new dentist located at an old party centrum in Amsterdam, with an old bar which turned into a waiting room. Nervous? You can drink away the nerves with an alcohol-free beer, if possible ;-). read more
Hilton Rotterdam will open a new restaurant soon and this restaurant needs a name. Help is needed! As creator of the new name you will be rewarded big. Until the 10th of May, entries can be send in.
Lennert Rietveld senior counsellor at van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy gave an inspiration session last month about co-creation. In this blog an insight into this session; which shows that the focus during events is shifting to influencing the guest journey!
The inspiration session for 80 event organizers showed powerful examples of co-creation. The presentation focused on compelling examples from entrepreneurs working together to improve the visitor experience. Everything is evolving around the guest journey. A good example is the initiative of the Dutch amusement park the Efteling to develop an app in co-creation with a Belgian company. They offer their visitors a lot more experience around their visit of the Efteling through ‘mixed reality’ and smartphones. Brilliant for kids, for example at the route app a witch voice gives directions.
A couple of other examples from the inspiration session around co-creation:
Research has used brain wave technology to measure the reactions guests have to different colours in the hospitality industry. The brain wave results of the colour green indicate a relaxed lunch with friends. The colour red stands for love and going for a drink with a date. Tork examined which colours work well in the hospitality industry. With a link to the study of Tork where they made moodboards in different colours and looked at the effect of that. Tork wants hospitality businesses to be clever with their colour choices.
In the line of extra ordinary pop-up restaurants: TOAST in Toronto, Canada. As from the 7th of May this pop-up restaurant will be open for four weekends in a row. The only thing you can order here is toast with a spread. The bread is from different bakeries from the region and all the spreads are homemade.
Back to the future? More like forward to the past. Coop Italy, Italy’s biggest grocery cooperative introduced their idea, the supermarket of the future at the Expo Milan in 2015. At the beginning of April 2016 they showcased it at Microsoft’s Envision Conference. They are using futuristic technology to help shoppers return to the sociable days of open-air markets, when there were shopkeepers at every stall, ready to answer any question a customer might have about their wares. read more
At the redaction of Horecatrends we spot a lot of national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write articles about, the smaller trends we use in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others, an article about a gin bar in London where the owners claim having the largest collection of gins, and HIHAHUT started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to build more sustainable cabins. read more
Les Mills Live is a collaboration between Reebok and Les Mills, who organize fitness festivals all over the world. They started organizing the festivals a couple of years ago, and today the festivals are extremely popular by thousands of fitness lovers. read more
Yesterday The Localpolitan launched as the newest, customized hospitality service available online. Instead of visiting a travel website looking for content that fits your needs, The Localpolitan aims to turn the process around, and puts the traveler in control of the content they receive. read more
How much fat is in this dressing? How much sugar contains this sugar beet and which melon is better at the moment? SCiO gives you answers to all these kind of questions, SCiO is a small gadget which scans the products you’re about to buy and shows you what these products are made of.
Katy Seibel created a unique way of presenting her cocktail recipes. The 30 drink recipes are presented on classic tarot cards. The tarot cards are hand drawn by Katy herself, each card has key elements of the cocktail recipe in it.
There is a crowdfunding campaign for wireless chargers for the hospitality industry with the possibility of posting your menu or advertisements in it.
“Is it possible to charge my phone behind the bar?”, a question that almost all employees that work in the hospitality industry know. With the numerous apps that are available now a days, batteries die faster than we would like to. This wireless charger for the hospitality industry could be the answer for this problem! read more
This upcoming 21st of May, Justin Brown’s restaurant The Chippy opens in Amsterdam. He will serve Fish & Chips here! Justin Brown is a famous British chef who worked for plenty of famous people, such as Jamie Oliver and Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, besides that he also cooked for stars like David Beckham and Madonna. read more
From today on the Netherlands has a new Ice cream parlor. Today ‘The ice parlor of Breda – Bon Appetit’ opens its doors. The parlor is developed by the entrepreneurs Edwin and Kim van Es, they’re known from the cafeteria Bon Appetit in Rijsbergen.
Approachable inspiration, trends and highlights from 2025 that can be easily applied to your own business in 2026. A whitepaper to scroll through when you read more
We’ve been enjoying glorious summer weather for a few weeks now, and the popular seasonal drinks are already known. Mocktails, cocktails, spritz variations, rosé, and read more
We always say that local tapas is often received with enthusiasm by the guests, this is also the case at Catering Hanenburg. The company introduced the Frisian tapas 5 years ago and recently opened its cookery school at LOKAAL55. What started with organizing a reception for little budget with local dishes for a Frisian client, resulted in a success. Today the Frisian tapas is still a success. Many ingredients are besides local also sustainable. For example the Frisian cheeses, such as Riperkrite, Terschellinger red cheeses, clove cheese and blue cheese. But also the Frisian dry sausage from various butchers and tapas with shrimps and Frisian crostini are sustainable. On the picture you see smoked eel from the Sneekermeer with sushi rolls of beetroot and cream of potato.
In Canada Budweiser is appealing to hockey fans by offering them their very own ‘red light’. Every time their team scores, the light will go off with a honk. The light is connected via Wi-Fi network. Fun applicable for pubs as well! Maybe an ‘orange light’ for the Dutch soccer fans?
Rachel Howard searched in the heart of London for unusual bars en restaurants. She visited more than 100 locations looking for authentic dishes, magical interiors or eccentric hosts. At the Condé Nast Traveller website she gives a preview and reveals a few of her favorites. Like the secret cinema Wirled Cinema, shown on the picture above. The cinema is intimate and has a small bar where you can order cocktails, pizza and popcorn. The cinema is hidden in an alley and hard to find. Read the whole preview at the website from Condé Nast Traveller.
Hospitality is a subjective matter. What I experience as hospitality can be bothersome for others. However there are hospitable gestures that always score with guests. Especially small gestures can make quite the difference, these are the gestures that guests will remember fondly in years to come and maybe even make them come back. In the article ‘Small gestures in hospitality’ we do give great examples…. Click here to download the bookled for free.
Just great to watch, kids about Valentine’s Day. No trend or anything but we started this morning with a smile.
Have a nice day. Video and image courtesy of YouTube, Small Fry
Today one of the famous fast food item ‘currywurst’ (curry sausage) will be introduced at McDonald’s Germany. After the German specialties Big Rosti and McBrezer, the ‘McCurrywurst’ will be sold in approximately 1.400 locations. The next six weeks visitors can order the ‘McCurrywurst’ in combination with a Kaiserroll or with fries in a menu. McDonald’s Germany hopes that the McCurrywurst will soon become the company’s next classic menu item.
Another example of how to use Social Media. The campaign ‘Holiplay’ by Lego is simple. Simply building something with Lego, combine it with whatever you have in your surroundings and snap a photo. That concept captures the very essence of LEGO – use your imagination and play. Konstellation, the creative digital agency, responsible for the campaign likes to refer to it as ‘Brickmented Reality’. Watch the movie and see how Lego has used Social Media and the effect of it.
The Toasted Sandwich Factory, a living installation about the miracle that precedes the food on your plate. Situated in the middle of Amsterdam (in de Van Gendthallen) where the Toasted Sandwich Factory becomes part of the temporary city of Mediamatic. All the ingredients used in the toasted sandwich are grown or fed in the factory. Within a couple of months grain should be ready to harvest, the pigs ready for slaughter and the cows supply milk for the cheese. Anyone can come and visit or possibly help at the factory. The factory shows the origin and the production process of the toasted sandwich. Currently, the enthusiasts behind the Toasted Sandwich Factory are looking for donations.
Russian studio Arch Group has filled an old building in Moscow with its portable sleeping capsules to create the first Sleepbox hotel, Tverskaya. We already saw CityHub in the Netherlands, Tverskaya is founded the same idea. Each Sleepbox is mobile and can be placed anywhere, provided it can be connected to a power source. As well as beds, the rooms are equipped with LED reading lamps, plus sockets for charging laptops and mobile phones. Storage, toilets and showers are located outside the Sleepbox. Watch more pictures at Dezeen.
Inspiration from the Malaysian kitchen. Use crêpe batter instead of the salted coconut milk recipe of the ‘Roti Jala‘. Fill a mold as shows or a funnel with the batter and make circular movements above the stove. By circling you will create a perforated crêpe, streched over a dish will create a chic effect.
The Italian restaurant Sogno di Vino in America gives some families with children a discount on the bill. When children behave well during dinner, the parents will get a discount of 4 dollar. It is described at the bill as ‘Well behaved kids’.
Inspired by the Asian food court, the students Maaike and Charlotte devised the catering concept WE CANTEEN. This catering concept is for universities, businesses, hospitals or other institutions. There are several stalls where local entrepreneurs can offer their products and tell the story behind it. For each location WE CANTEEN determines which local entrepreneurs can offer their specialties for the relevant public. The offer will be diverse and the local entrepreneur get the opportunity to sell their products. During the Dutch Foodservice Congres 2013 (the 5th of February) WE CANTEEN is awarded ‘Most innovative Out of Home concept 2012/2013’.
The online restaurant reservation provider, OpenTable, has acquired ‘FoodSpotting’, a San Francisco start-up. FoodSpotting is an app and it’s sole mission is to let users showcase their latest restaurant meal, what it looks like and where to get it. OpenTable will intergrate the app into its reservation system. How the integration will look like isn’t clear yet except that the focus will be on visuals.
2021: the ‘FoodSpotting’ app, the Hot Trend of 2010, is no longer available. Check out the article at ChefsTemp about what happened to the app that once promised users they would help them decide “what to eat, not just where”?
A new shot of liquor, the bright green drink G-Shot. Introduced by two young entrepreneurs, Jeffrey van der Meer and Lars Bos from The Netherlands. According to the entrepreneurs: ‘The one and only tingling party shooter’.
Diageo, the owner of the famous whiskey Lagavulin, offers a whiskey fan the opportunity to spend two days at the distillery. Participants can register until 31 March on the website Friends of the Classic Malts. On the subscribers can be voted. The warehouse boss Iain McArthur who plays the leading role in the atmospheric film chooses the lucky one from the top 10 with the most votes. A nice way to put your company in the spotlight and start an application process at the same time.
Flip van Ierschot of Foodwire, has made a movie which shows the energy of the Slow Food fair ‘Terra Madre’ in Turin. It gives a nice overview of the exhibition in almost four minutes.
At the Fiturtech, the International Tourism Trade Fair, in Madrid the new concept ‘ITH Room Xperience’ has been presented. This prototype hotelroom has multi-touch transparant wallscreens which can be controlled via a smartphone or microsoft tablet. The room further has interactive floors and mirrors and a fingerprint payment system. The ultimate guest experience according to the architects, Serrona Brothers. Check out the Xperience is this movie.
The Leading Hotels of the World commemorates its 85th anniversary year along with Hollywood’s Oscars. To celebrate this exciting milestone, they have selected 85 Leading Hotels featured in iconic films over the past decades around the globe. Click here for the Leading Hotels.
Picture this; just before dessert, the waiter dimms the lights and serves a brown pyramid, the chocolate starts to melt slowly and a led lights appears. Sweden-based designer Alexander Lervik created this chocolate lamp with the help of Scandinavian LED specialists SAAS Instruments.
‘Sleeping Around’ rebuilds old Chinese containers into mobile hotelrooms. Four of these rooms are located at the Port of Antwerp, as a breakfast/ lounge container and a sauna container.
The Vaportini provides a special way of consuming alcohol. The drink is heated and the alcohol vapor can be inhaled through a straw. As the alcohol is directly absorbed into the blood, the effect of alcohol is immediately felt. The Vaportini has the advantage of no carbs and calories.
Another list with special hotels this time by SweetyDesign. They show hotels with photos of their interior. We already know a couple of them from lists in the past but it included a few new hotels. Like the Boat Hotel in New Zealand and the Anantara hotel in the Golden Triangle in Thailand. The photos are from the Museumotel (spotted in 2006) in France. Each bubble has its own decor. The room in the picture should do well for Valentine’s night!
On the website of Ediva they show how to make these eggs. Nice for on a salad on Valentine’s Day. For breakfast a heart shaped sunnyside up egg is great as well.
A taste of a dish debuting on the next menu at iNG Restaurant. Chef Charlie Harrison serves up the Chicken and Waffles course. Video by Future Food Films.
The first official Barbie Café opened in Taipei. Everything pink, dishes in the theme etc … Besides food and drinks you can also buy the official Barbie products. Mattel has chosen Taipei for this café because theme restaurants are very popular here. Watch the video of the opening.
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