Five-star hotel educates local youth
27-11-2013
The Ritz-Carlton is the first five-star hotel at Aruba. Next to the 320 rooms and 450 local jobs the hotel brings education to the island as well. Together with maritime biologist Dr. Richard Murphy from the Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, the hotel developed an innovative environmental curriculum for primary school students. The education modules will be available on the Green Aruba website to learn about the island’s unique environmental assets and how to protect them. The youth is introduced to the ‘Ritz-Calton Succeed Through Service Program’ to enhance their leadership qualities. Though these and other collaborations Prime Minister Mike Eman and Bill Marriott agreed to a long-standing commitment to enriching education on the island and a Green Aruba.
Sander van Veenendaal drafts perfect beer
26-11-2013
To enhance the draft beer quality worldwide, Heineken introduced the Star Serve program. The goal of the program is to optimize the skills of bartenders and enhance customers’ expectations of draft beer. As a part of this optimalization, the brewer has challenged bar tenders around the world to draft the perfect beer. At the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, Dutchman Sander van Veenendaal (Grand Café de Lindenhof, Soest) overclassed 19 bartenders from i.a. Malaysia, Ireland, Dubai, Brasil and Mexico and won the Global Bartender Final. Over 3000 locations worldwide participate in the Heineken Star Serve program, 300 of them are Dutch.
NIX18
21-11-2013
The age limit for buying alcohol and tobacco in the Netherlands will increase to 18 years on January 1, 2014. The Ministry of Health has launched the campaign NIX18 in collaboration with a number of partners. The campaign was kicked of on November 18 in the Feyenoord Stadium by Ronald Koeman and the secretary of Healthy Martin van Rijn. NIX18 draws attention that young people under the age of eighteen should not smoke or drink. Some famous Dutchies tell their story about not drinking or smoking under the age of eighteen on the website of NIX18. Partners of the campaign also organize some one-on-one activities for children and their parents to encourage to explain that they are not allowed to buy alcohol and tobacco.
YESTAP puts the FAST back into fast food
20-11-2013
Startup YES.TAP is removing the annoying queue’s at fast food restaurants. They’ve developed an app that lets you order by tapping your smartphone on a poster of the product you want to order. Through this innovative approach, they expect to attract new customers and retain loyal customers by offering a simple one tap mobile solution. The YES.TAP team are supported by Startupbootcamp to boost their concept. Visit getyestap.com to learn more.
Inspiration from NOMA
12-11-2013
By Julia Soldic.
Last Thursday, November the 7th, we were at a lecture of René Redzepi (Noma. Copenhagen) about his new book ‘A Work in Progress’. Organized by Babooka, a bookstore in Leiden and LeidsLekkers to herald the Restaurant Week in Leiden. During this lecture René rapidly exchanged reading passages from his diary with images and videos of his restaurant and chefs. Julia Soldic, a Norwegian who recently graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague, has had an internship of a few weeks at Noma in 2012. She was at the lecture with us and writes in her column below of her experience and leaves between the lines a number of ‘learnings’, such as encouraging creativity and the importance of team building and contact with your guests.
Culinary mustache
11-11-2013
When you order a dish at restaurant Kom Eten there is a chance that you will get a mustache served. Not a real hairy mustache, but a dish in the shape of a mustache. The Movember campaign calls for worldwide attention for prostate and testicular cancer by encouraging men to grow moustaches and raise funds. Restaurant Kom Eten has set up a great promotion during the Movember month. The restaurant serves as much dishes as possible in the shape of a mustache and 5% of sales will go to charity. Want extra discount of the ‘mustache’ dishes? Ask fathers, grandfathers, brothers and other Mo bro’s and get 10% off the bill.
For fans of Franch chansons
8-11-2013
Marc Cruellas, de zingende patron van ‘Le Bistrot de la Place’ in Den Haag, treedt elke vrijdag- en zaterdagavond samen met zijn pianist Guillaume Marcenac op in zijn eigen bedrijf. Hiermee creëren zij telkens een Parijse sfeer van ‘Montmartre’ en ‘La vie en rose’ in de bistrot.
Op zondag, 1 december, treden zij echter samen op bij de Franse Bistro Bord’o in Leiden. Tijdens het optreden verzorgt het team van bistro Bord’o een 3-gangenmenu ‘Beaujolais Nouveau’, met typische Franse bistro gerechten. En Marc en Guillaume zingen en spelen alle bekende Franse chansons. Voor de liefhebber hiervan een heerlijke avond! En een mooi voorbeeld van samenwerken!
Hospitality experienced in New York
6-11-2013
A blog about whether or not tap water; additional chips to the sauce and free Wifi or not? Experiences in New York City.
After visiting New York you won’t really understand the discussion of tap water in the Netherlands anymore. In the USA you are welcomed in each restaurant with the question, if you would like to have some tap water? Of course this is in the DNA of the American restaurant industry but the habit is very welcoming. You also hear a lot of complaints about the taste of chlorine in the tap water causing many people to still buy mineral water. In that respect I would have less problems with the taste of the Dutch tap water. However, especially in areas which are visited by many tourists , restaurant owners must realize that guests from America, are used to the ‘free’ tap water service . They don’t understand our policy to even ask money for tap water! Read more..
Crowd funded supermarket
5-11-2013
The first crowdfund project for a supermarket in France is started. The location is planned in the 18th district in Paris. Shoppers are expected to work in the supermarket for 3 hours per month to keep the labor costs and thus the prices low. A similar project is already set up in Brooklyn, New York. That supermarket has 16.000 members.
Kitchen video stream
5-11-2013
On the terrace of ‘A Taberna do Pescador’ in Albufeira, Portugal there is a television screen with a live stream from the kitchen. The terrace is situated in a busy shopping street and the screen combined with a glass display full fresh fish seduces passersby in an original way.
