Annie the Owl Bar – pops up in London

4-3-2015

In London ‘Annie the Owl Bar’, a pop-up bar will open for a week in March. In this pop-up bar you can stroke owls while drinking cocktails. Like all animal themed bars, where you can stroke cats or for example bunnies, the owl themed pop-up bar also originates from Japan.

Annie the Owl Bar

‘Annie the Owl Bar’ is inspired by a bar in Tokyo (the video above is from that bar) and is already very popular. Tickets are only available by lottery. Entrance is 20 pounds and includes two cocktails. The entrance money is going to the charity ‘The Barn Owl Centre’. The bar will pop-up from 19 till 25 March from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. The opening hours are adjusted to the sleeping habits of the owls. The exact location will be revealed to the winners of the lottery on 16 March.

A visit to ‘Annie the Owl Bar’ must be a dream come true for the diehard Harry Potter fan! 😉

Floral workshop with Dutch flowers at the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris

4-3-2015

The Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris offers an exclusive experience to participate in a floral arrangement class hosted by Jeff Leatham, the hotel’s artistic Director and famous rock & roll florist.

Floral workshop

Jeff Leathman quarterly organizes a floral arrangement class in the Four Seasons Hotel George V. It’s a rare opportunity to meet the famous artist and discover his secrets about how to make stunning flower bouquets. The class starts with a demonstration followed by a practical lesson.
Every month Jeff comes up with a new theme and creates his bouquets with flowers from the Netherlands. Every week 9.000 flowers are delivered at the hotel.

Jeff Leathman

Jeff Leathman is well known for his spectacular floral creations. He’s not only responsible for the decoration of the hotel, he also made the decorations at the grand opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, made floral creations for the wedding of Tina Turner and was a guest at the show of Oprah Winfrey.

Wagamama & crowdfunding: they raised € 177.000,= in two hours for their new location

3-3-2015

Wagamama, a Japanese noodle restaurant, raised € 177.500,= through Collin Crowdfund in only two hours for their new location at the ‘IJ riverside’ of Amsterdam Central Station. A total amount of € 225.000,= is collected from the public. The new Wagamama restaurant opens her doors at 1 June 2015.

Wagamama fast casual dining

Arjen Schrama took London’s Wagamama formula to the Netherlands in 2000. After the Wagamana restaurants at the Rembrandt square, Leidseplein and Zuidplein (WTC) the ‘IJhall’ will be the fourth location in Amsterdam. The restaurant will have 120 seats and a terrace with 60 seats. The restaurant is completely transparent on the front and the back and offers a view over ‘the IJ river’ and the Eye Film Museum across the river.

The “fast casual dining” formula provides freshly prepared food and lots of choices for travellers who need a fast, affordable meal or a 2- or 3-course dinner.

Wagamama & crowdfunding

The total investment of the new Wagamama restaurant is € 450.000,=. Half of this investment comes from the company’s own funds. The other half is loaned by private investors through a linear loan of 48 months with an interest rate of 6,5%. The network of Arjen Schrama already invested € 47.500,= in Wagamama. The remaining € 177.500,= was later added by the investors of Collin.

Collin Crowdfund

Collin is the bridge between investors who are looking for more return on their investment and smaller companies in need of financing funding. Companies in need of funding from € 50.000,= till € 2.500.000,= can go to Collin. In order to make both sides successful, Collin introduced ‘Crowdfund Coaches’ who will accompany the entrepreneurs through the process. The Crowdfund coaches will also be coordinating the contact between the entrepreneur and the investors after the completion of the loans.

About soup – Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat

3-3-2015

Soup and broth are popular especially in those cities and regions where it is very cold. Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat in Montpellier (France) is one of those new soup places.
Earlier we wrote an article about Urban Fruit, a concept of Marc Veyrat. In the summer months you can go to the centre of Montpellier to compose your own smoothie, milkshake or frozen yoghurt with fruit at Urban Fruit. Very yummy frozen yoghurt and Montpellier is great as well and worth a detour if you’re in the vicinity! Now you can also go there in the winter months for a warm soup-to-go. Urban Soup is also a concept by Marc Veyrat.

Urban Soup – create your own soup

The concept is the same as in Urban Fruit, you grab a bag and start to fill it with vegetables that you like. You can choose between 20 different vegetables. Within minutes they make a healthy and delicious soup-to-go, to warm you during the cold winter days.

Speaking of soup

Broth is very popular, especially in the eastern part of America where they are currently (2014/2015) experiencing a very cold winter. Several Dutch journalists wrote articles about the trend broth-to-go instead of coffee-to-go. Unfortunately only available in Dutch. Although we also hear enthusiastic stories about soup-to-go instead of coffee-to-go especially from the Boston and New York City areas, we think that the key factor for success is a cold winter. And unfortunately we didn’t have one in the Netherlands.

Cooking at solar power with the GoSun

27-2-2015

GoSun is the portable solar cooker for your nature outings and picnics.

About the GoSun

The Gosun crowdsourced through Kickstarter is available now. The GoSun manages to integrate its sun-powered technology in a highly-portable form factor, making it convenient to bring along. Designed for environmentally-friendly cooking, the stove uses nothing but sunlight as fuel, allowing you to cook a variety of food items, provided the sun is peeking from the sky. But you can use it next to your barbecue to make bread or prepare vegetables.

The GoSun is 2 feet long with a 2.25-inch diameter, it’s clad in the shape of a tube. To use, you place the food inside the cylinder-shaped cooking chamber, open the lid wide, and face it towards the sun. The mirrors retain the heat from the sunlight it catches. The only obstacle for the use of the GoSun is no sun, which might make it a problem in The Netherlands. Up to three pounds of food can be cooked at a time. The GoSun can be used for steaming, baking, frying, roasting and boiling.

The GoSun is trying to break the cycle of poverty

The GoSun is trying to save lives, protect the environment and empower communities around the World. Today nearly 3 Billion people cook with dirty fuel sources, such as wood, dung or charcoal. As a result, the second leading cause of death on earth is smoke inhalation related illness. With every 5 device sold, the people behind the GoSun donate 1 device to change the way they cook at poorer parts of the world. Check this video about the stove and their plans.

Creating great meals in the GoSun stove

As you can see in the video above they asked well known chefs to help them with creating new dishes with the stove. In the video above, the famous chef José Andrés is working with the GoSun.

Tosti van Josti

26-2-2015

Tosti van Josti, a new breakfast & lunch restaurant, will open her doors at the centre of The Hague at the end of February. A concept that is different from all the other lunchrooms. The ‘Tosti’s’ (sandwiches) will be served and made by people with a mental or psychological work limitation.

Tosti van Josti

‘Tosti van Josti’ works with organic and healthy products as much as possible. The assortment will exist out of sandwiches, yoghurts, soups, salads, juices, homemade lemonades and organic soft drinks.

In the Netherlands we have a band with boys and girls who suffer from down’s syndrome they are called: ‘The Josti band’. To give the word ‘Josti’ a positive vibe and to show that people with a work limitation can function well in a lunchroom, the founders came up with the name ‘Tosti van Josti’. Check out their website, there is a countdown until the big opening at 28 February. We wish all the staff a lot of fun with working at Tosti van Josti.

Power to the Pieper

25-2-2015

The potato is already hundreds of years super nutritious and contributes in combination with vegetables, meat or fish to your daily amount of vitamins and minerals. Earlier we wrote an article about the ‘opperdoezer’ potato . The potato is often put in a negative light. To change this view aardappel.nl launched a campaign: ‘Power to the Pieper.’

Superfoods

Lots of people are fans of the superfoods but after quinoa, goji berries or wheat grass they now want to introduce the potato. The potato contains many essential nutrients. And a portion of cooked potatoes (200 grams) contains 150 calories, almost 100 calories less than the same portion of cooked rice. Besides that the potatoes are also quite cheap and easy to prepare.

Power to the Pieper

The next few weeks the #PowertothePieper potatoes will be placed in the spotlights throughout the Netherlands. All the potato farmers and traders participate in this campaign and have renamed their potatoes into ‘Power to the Piepers’. Take a picture of the packaging with #powertothepieper and share your pieper at the social media.

About the ‘Bakkerswinkel’

24-2-2015

This is an interview with a Dutch entrepreneur and is only published in Dutch. You can read more articles about his lunchroom/bakery store on our website. The first article is about the second store of the ‘Bakkerswinkel’ in Rotterdam and the second article about the ‘Bakkerswinkel’ in Amsterdam who started serving dinner as well.

The Holland Food Valley house

24-2-2015

Thursday 26 February, the ‘Night of the Gelderland economy‘ will take place. Gelderland is located in the Netherlands. During this event, visitors can get acquainted with innovative products and ingredients. In the Holland Food Valley house guests can learn more about sport’s bread, European quinoa, Beeter and “Low-Cal” ice cream.

The house

This house is organized by Food Valley NL in collaboration with InnoSportLab Papendal , the top restaurant of Sports Center Papendal and some companies in Gelderland. In the Holland Food Valley house Erik te Velthuis, chef of the Topsport restaurant at Papendal shows sporty dishes based on innovative products and ingredients. Visitors can discover food innovations from Gelderland and start a conversation with the entrepreneurs behind these innovations.

Inspiration from the Holland Food Valley house

Energy efficient terrace

Holland Food Valley house is in the Innovation Garden, centrally located on the property. There is a heated, low-energy terrace in front of the house. Only when visitors sit on their cushions from Sit & Heat they will become warm, this to avoid unnecessary energy consumption.

Live e-Cooking

E-Cooking by IXL Netherlands, is a new, energy-efficient method to prepare tasteful dishes quickly. This method uses electrical pulses.

European quinoa

This whole wheat, saponin free quinoa was developed through conventional breeding by the University of Wageningen and has no bitter taste. These quinoa is cultivated by farmers in Northwest Europe. GreenFood50

Beeter®

The meat substitute Beeter is one hundred percent vegetable and has the “bite” of high-quality chicken meat. Like chicken Beeter can be used in all kinds of dishes, including salads and snacks. We wrote about Beeter in 2011.

Sports Bread

This bread from Sportgrain is the first bread product with sport-specific characteristics. The combination of farina and fruit provides an optimal mix of fast and slow carbohydrates. The bread is rich in fibers and sugars from fruits.

Creamy “Low-Cal ‘ice

The ice cream from NIZO tastes creamy, contains virtually no fat and 25% less sugar than just ice cream. We wrote about ‘Low-Cal’ ice-cream before.

Scandic Hotel in Stockholm revitalizes the Vasateatern theater

23-2-2015