Eating in a piece of art at restaurant Rebelz aan de Rotte

3-3-2016

At restaurant ‘Rebelz aan de Rotte’ in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), you eat in a piece of art and support a social purpose.

The 27th of February restaurant ‘Rebelz aan de Rotte’ opened. An extraordinary restaurant in many ways: the interior, the kitchen and the staff. The restaurant seats about 70 guests that can go there to have lunch, high tea or dinner. They also cater meetings and parties. In the summer there will be a terrace on a pontoon where people can dock their boats.

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Fries with…

16-2-2016

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

Flavours & Grooves by DJ Martin Damen & François Geurds

11-2-2016

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.

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The wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’

3-2-2016

During the December month, restaurant ‘Lot & de Walvis’ (Lot and the Whale) in Leiden had a ‘wish tree’ instead of a Christmas tree. The guests of the restaurant could write down their wish and hang it into the tree. The wish that will be carried out by Lot is chosen through Social Media.

Utrecht

Everyone knows them; a ‘wish tree’. Especially when you visited Utrecht last December you couldn’t have missed it. The ‘wish trees of Utrecht’ were put down on five different squares in the city in which the people could hang their wishes. The trees on the squares were getting decorated with many different wishes and some wishes were granted. This idea came from entrepreneur Sidney Rubens in order to promote the Knuss Winterfest in an original way.

All about the wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’

It is also possible to apply a wish tree on a smaller scale. Guests of ‘Lot & de Walvis’ could write down their wish and hang it in the tree situated in the restaurant. Besides that, they involved their community on Facebook in the final decision for the best wish and managed to achieve a relatively large audience. The message in which the people could vote was shared, liked and received a lot of attention. Also the message with the announcement of the winner was popular with 132 likes. The power of Social Media!

The Hospitality Group Leiden

‘Lot & de Walvis’ is a part of the Hospitality Group Leiden together with Van der Werff, La France, City Hall and The Bishop. The board consists of the brothers Richard and Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen. Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen are responsible for the hospitality companies in Leiden. Richard van Leeuwen focuses on the four Harbour Clubs based in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and on Ibiza.

Bram’s, Gourmet Frites

2-2-2016

On 11 February Bram Ladage is opening ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites.’ At this new, international formula fries are prepared on a high culinary level and will be sold from a remarkable, black shipping container. The pilot store is going to be at the ‘Kop van Zuid’ in Rotterdam.

Bram’s, Gourmet Frites is going international

This new, international formula is going to be a worldwide standard for quality fries, says Bram Ladage partner Rocco Ladage. They are starting in Rotterdam but there is more and more demand from abroad. At the new concept ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites’ it’s about traditional preparation. The real Dutch potatoes from the Hoeksche Waard are cut into thick fries and prepared right in front of the costumers. Because these fries are so thick they absorb less fat and they also use oil with ‘good’ fats.

Collaborating with Herman den Blijker

Together with Herman den Blijker, Bram Ladage developed five new stews: Pulled pork BBQ, Captain’s beef, Asian chicken stew, the vegetarian Truffle mushroom and Pumpkin veal stew. With these stews, fries will no longer be a ‘side dish’ but a full meal component.

About Bram Ladage

Bram Ladage is a family company that’s originally from Rotterdam. But apart from Rotterdam they are getting more well known in Europe as well. Besides the formula Bram Ladage itself they also exploit BroodExpress, Ezprezzo, Ladage Events, Ladagerie and The Wold. With Bram’s they are taking the first step to go abroad.

The container is ideal for a franchise business; it will be delivered on location, it’s fully furnished and as franchisee you can start working immediately.

Cold Brew Parlor in lobby Wyndham Grand

21-1-2016

The Wyndham Grand brings a new buzz to the traditional coffeehouse experience with the launch of Brew Parlor. A fresh take during afternoon happy hour where people can meet, recharge, or simply take a breather over cold-brewed coffee-based drinks and cocktails.

As from the beginning of 14 January, coffee lovers will be able to experience cold-brewed pick-me-ups and hand-crafted caffeinated cocktails from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. every Monday through Friday at Wyndham Grand’s Brew Parlor pilot hotels in Chicago (U.S.), Doha (Qatar), Shenzhen (China) and Istanbul (Turkey). According to a study by Euromonitor International bottles filled with cold brew coffee are growing in sales worldwide, faster than any other bottled non-alcoholic beverage.

Cold Brew Parlor

Although it takes a while to brew cold coffee, the installation is a beautiful artisanal installation in your lobby! In the Netherlands we do have the company Batavia Dutch Coffee of Jits Krol and Robert Nijhof. They are penetrating the hospitality industry with the cold brewing method from the Dutch East India Company era. They bottle their cold brew…

Wouldn’t it be a great idea to have an installation at the hotel lobbies of the big hotel chains in Amsterdam and Rotterdam? As part of their coffee corners, like the hotels of the Wyndham Grand chain are doing.

But even museums, like our ‘Scheepvaartmuseum’ with topics regarding the Dutch East India Company should serve cold brewed coffee.  ^Marjolein van Spronsen

KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner

31-12-2015

KFC organized a Christmas dinner in three restaurants in the Netherlands on Boxing Day, KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner. Together with chef Bert van Buschbach, known as ‘Chef Bertus’, owner of restaurant ‘De Compagnon’ in Amsterdam, they created a special Christmas dinner of four courses.

Chef Bertus about KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner

Guests got the KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner served at their table,  in three locations of KFC in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam (Marconi Square), Nijmegen and Amsterdam (Foodstrip). Bert van Buschbach: “It was a kick to tackle this project with KFC. We had a look in each other’s kitchens and grabbed the best of both worlds. We made our guests happy with KFC icons combined with aspects from the haute cuisine. For example, we started with an amuse served on the finger of our guests, made of Pepper Mayonnaise and panna cota with truffle, crumb of the Original Breading and chicken with some grated truffle. We also served a crispy egg yolk in the famous Orginal Breading of KFC. When KFC approached me for this project I was immediately enthusiastic. It has been very instructive to work with KFC executives. We have learned a lot from each other.”

Thousands of entries

Marinho Bouwland, brand manager KFC Netherlands told that they received more than 2.000 entries, eventually 260 people were invited. “We wanted to do something back for our regular guests. Last year we organized our first Christmas dinner in Rotterdam. That was a great success. People even came from Hengelo to attend the dinner in Rotterdam. To give as many people as possible the opportunity to join us on Boxing Day we organized Christmas dinner 2015 at three locations.”

The croquettes in the leading role

4-12-2015

Kroketten (or croquettes) and Bitterballen (small croquettes) are a real Dutch treat. The last two years we spotted a couple of tasty varieties appearing in the market. We have made a list of them.

For years I used to make this Dutch treat at home, using recipes from the book ‘The great culinary croquettes cookbook’ by Edwin Kats, and of course I always got compliments! Truly amazing are the game croquets from this season but the croquettes with smoked eel are very special as well. We even wrote about croquettes with snails and goose meat on Horecatrends, both of whom are no longer for sale, but it truly indicates that the possibilities are endless! ^ Marjolein

Our list; croquettes in the leading role

1. CROQUÉTJE! a pulled pork-croquette

Sausage-maker Paul van den Hooven from Wild Vleesch in Rotterdam, has developed his own croquette under the name of CROQUÉTJE! The first CROQUÉTJE is a croquette with pulled pork which contains meat that is smoked low & slow on a barbecue.

2. Croquette made of Shiitake mushrooms

A croquette with Shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are healthy, delicious and a good substitute for meat. FungiFuturi grows delicious and super nutritious mushrooms in the cellar of an abandoned office building in Eindhoven. They are crowdfunding an innovative snack line of mushrooms. The first product of the line is the shiitake croquette, they presented these croquettes during the Dutch Design Week last October.

3. Bieterballen, croquettes with beetroot

The vegetarian Bieterbal, from Jonathan Karpathios of restaurant Vork & Mes. It’s content? Beet, beet and even more beet! The Bieterbal is available in wholesale at: Deli XL, De Kweker, HANOS and VHC de Jongens. The Bieterbal has also been nominated for the Dutch Horecava Innovation Award 2016 in the category Food & Beverage.

4. Bitter Balzz, a bitterbal with insects

At BUGZZ they make food with insects. Their goal is to bring the durable snack, the ‘Bitter Balzz’ in production. They reached their target amount by 117% on their crowdfunding page. We recently ran into them on the Foodfestival in Amsterdam, where they were already completely sold out halfway Saturday evening.

5. Croquette made from 100% organic spelt

The first croquette and bitterbal worldwide made from 100% organic spelt. Prepared with fresh spices, vegetables and the best organic beef, made by Royal Spelt.

6. Restaurant Valuas’s gluten free croquette

Star restaurant Valuas (*) in Venlo has developed a gluten free croquette. The gluten free croquette is made from ragout of corn, rice and 36% pure beef and contains a crust made of rice.

7. Croquette made from the queen of vegetables

Kwekkeboom introduced a croquette made of the queen of vegetables, the asparagus, in 2013. Since I regularly make a variety of the bitterbal with asparagus in the leading roll, this croquette proves that you can make endless variations with the salpicon of the croquettes and bitterballen.

8. Arancini, the Italian bitterbal

Lightly fried balls made from risotto with a core of mozzarella and smoked ham. Simple and a delicious appetizer! Italian restaurants would have their own variation of ‘our’ bitterbal.

9. Sichuan Bitterballen

For her Sichuan bitterballen Robin Kok used ‘Sichuan style red boiled beef’ that includes ingredients like ginger, chilli bean sauce, rice wine and Chinese dark soy sauce. The Asian bitterballen.

10. Chef Thor

Chef Thor makes bitterballen with different flavours and flavours you won’t expect, such as spinach with Dutch blue cheese, coconut curry with peas or scrambled eggs with porcini mushrooms and truffle. The traditional Dutch concept of a kroket, but just something different and delicious without meat. Chef Thor has been around for six years and have seven different flavours, all vegetarian.

11. Fingerfoodballs

Scelta Mushrooms is the founder of a healthy alternative for the snack range: the Fingerfoodballs. The Fingerfoodballs are vegetable snacks that doesn’t contain artificial colors or flavors.

CROQUÉTJE! a pulled pork-croquette

3-12-2015

Sausage-maker Paul van den Hooven from Wild Vleesch in Rotterdam, has developed his own croquette under the name of CROQUÉTJE! The first CROQUÉTJE is a croquette with pulled pork containing meat low & slow smoked on a barbecue. The artisanal products Paul sells are based on his obsession of the American Style barbecue.

CROQUÉTJE!

Pulled pork which Paul prefers to call ‘rafelvarken’, as they say it in his hometown Rotterdam, is one of the most well-known dishes in the American world of barbecue. Paul makes his handmade croquette with real pulled pork, smoked slow & low on the barbecue. This really brings out the taste of the smoked pulled pork. For the croquette he developed a rub for the meat and a mix of spices for the salpicon. The meat originates from Dutch bred pigs. The pulled pork croquette is the first in the series of CROQUÉTJE!

Availability

CROQUÉTJE! is for sale on the website of Wild Vleesch for the hospitality industry, commerce and consumers. Wild Vleesch can also be found at the ‘Oogstmarkt’ in Rotterdam, the croquettes are part of the assortment. In Brasserie STROOM in Rotterdam guests can already enjoy a pulled pork-croquette. We look forward to taste them and we will let you know once we did!

A pop-up space next to Osteria Vicini

24-11-2015

Osteria Vinchi has always been open for innovation, the space next to the restaurant will be the place to carry out new ideas from now on. They will start with Bar Vicini, a new pop-up cocktail bar.

Pop-up cocktail bar in Osteria Vicini

There appeared to be demand for a bar in Kralingen (Rotterdam) where you can drink good whisky’s, gin & tonics and cocktails in a stylish atmosphere. This atmosphere is created with a carefully selected interior with lots of velvet, shining elements, mirrors and a few special eye-catchers. For example, they use bar stools from an old Belgian casino and one can’t miss the giant bronze tusks from Spain. In a big box there are records from the sixties to the eighties, which will be played upon request. Another important aspect to the atmosphere is the barman, a professional who makes the finest cocktails without seemingly much effort. The bartender will occasionally make a round with olives, bruschetta’s, aged pecorino, prosciutto or oysters. Bar Vicini is accessible via the Osteria through heavy, red velvet curtains and has its own entrance.
Bar Vicini is part of the Dudok Group which is a leading company since 1991 in the hospitality, event and hospitality industry in the Netherlands.

Inspiration

Do you have a vacant building next to your restaurant and is it possible to make a good price and agreement with the landlord? The example of the Dudok Group to experiment with new ideas in a pop-up formula, is a pretty good idea.