Getting started in the hospitality industry
8-6-2015
SVH has developed a game for newbies in the hospitality industry.
Getting started in the hospitality industry
We cannot stress enough that the personnel in the hospitality industry in general and at the terrace in specific is very important. It can be difficult to find the time and resources to train personnel in the right way. For (potential) personnel with little or no experience in the hospitality, SVH will launch the game ‘Getting started in the hospitality industry’. With the app, newbies can learn and test their knowledge and skills. Additionally, a restaurant owner or manager can prepare them for future situations that could occur on the terrace. The app will be launched officially on 22 June, we’re looking forward to testing it.
Hospitality
Because a satisfied guest often means word-of-mouth advertising and a disgruntled guest the opposite, training is important, especially during busy periods. This app is an accessible way to teach and test basic skills. Besides training of the personnel, small welcoming gestures can make a difference as well . Read more about small welcoming gestures in the hospitality industry.
Games
The municipality of Utrecht developed a game last year to positively impact the hospitality as well.
Siseng, the Asian Food Bar
27-5-2015
Siseng, the Asian Food Bar at the Quai de Jemmapes in Paris opened in December 2014. The food bar adds the Bao Burger to the thriving food scene of the Canal St.-Martin.
Siseng, worth the visit and the wait
The Asian Food Bar rapidly became popular amongst the Parisians! Last weekend there was a long line outside the small, packed but trendy and casual chic bar. Once inside you share a table with others in a tastefully decorated small bar with light bulbs, bare brick walls, dark table tops and bar stools. Very nice but busy servants who are having trouble delivering the food to the guests! And they make delicious cocktails with Asian ingredients like wasabi, ginger and sake. Combine a cocktail, glass of sake, or an Asahi beer with their great spring rolls or croquettes all served with an Asian sauce.
Tip to eat in Paris when you stroll down the canal Saint Martin
You don’t have to stroll down the canal, you can also have a relaxing afternoon with friends there like a lot of Parisians do, but anyway the signature burgers at Siseng are a great tip! The burgers are served in a bao, a steamed Chinese bun made out of rice flour. The bao burger 5 spices contains a beef patty (grilled medium rare, the French way), marinated in the 5 spices and comes with onion tempura, onion confit, rocket leaf and a caramelized tamarind sauce. But you can also choose the chicken burger Kaï with a piece of chicken, breaded in a Japanese style with coleslaw ‘maison’, fresh basil, confit de red peppers and a basil sauce with coconut milk. We also loved the tempura of vegetables and the sweet potato fries, which are really rare in Paris. The menu has been illustrated by Soba Paris.
Inspiration for those seeking for a new restaurant, we think that a small Asian Food Bar like Siseng would do great in Amsterdam or any place in the Netherlands as well!
The Dangers of Selfie Sticks – by Pizza Hut
26-5-2015
Pizza Hut has published a humorous and sarcastic video on 20 May about the use of the selfie and the selfie stick hype. Pizza Hut combines the actuality and humor in this great video, with the effect that now 7 days later, nearly 2.5 million people saw the video and probably smiled about it.
Using selfies and selfie stick in your marketing
We wrote about using the ‘selfie’ in your marketing earlier and we see more and more great examples. Like the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, which offers a ‘selfie in Paris’ tour. A select number of Marriot Hotels offers their guests the possibility to test a free GoPro camera during their stay. With the camera guests can share their vacation experiences with family and friends.
Selfie sticks aren’t unlimited popular
The hype of the ‘selfie’ stick has exploded to major proportions in the USA. We have heard that at several events the selfie stick is even prohibited. Recently friends of us experienced this at a baseball match of the Yankees.
Pizza Hut increases the ‘danger’ of the stick in this video and offers potential guests a smile. The only question is whether the relatively small connection with the Pizza Hut brand in the video works out and if the video will generate more guests for their restaurants.
Give your guests the choice of the cordial syrups by Agroposta
22-5-2015
Great to serve this summer, a lemonade box with the sachets of Agroposta, like a tea box. 1 sachet + 200 ml of ice water = 1 glass of refreshing lemonade, add some mint leaves … and done!
The cordial syrups
Agroposta cordials are offered in small secure sachets and filled with 32 ml of concentrated syrup with the following flavors:
Refreshing Lemon – created from the lemons grown and handpicked in the Croatian Islands of the Mediterranean.
Sage – a mild, subtle and distinct flavour. It’s made from handpicked sage flowers from the Adriatic coast.
Elderflower – The elderflower lemonade tastes just sweet enough. The aromatic elderberry blossoms is also picked by hand.
Raspberry – this lemonade tastes sweet with a subtle sour undertone. The raspberries are also handpicked in the many forests and mountains in the Balkan region.
Lavender (natural tranquilizer) – The lavender syrup is not too sweet and slightly different. The syrup is made from the ecologically cultivated Lavandula angustifolia plant that is also handpicked.
About Agroposta
Agroposta is a Croatian company founded in 2004 and with a lot of experience in organic farming. The company started in 2011 with the production of the cordials. Agroposta has its own factory in Zagreb, completely designed according to EU standards in terms of food and provisions. The requirements of HACCP are also strictly maintained. Agroposta stands for sustainability, love for the environment and fair trade in all processes and in all products.
Environmental friendly food carts – lessons from the food truck scene in NYC
20-5-2015
The green MRV100 food cart from the company Move Systems, is coming to the streets of New York City this summer. The new food cart is cleaner, more quiet and the unit runs on compressed natural gas with a solar panel providing supplementary power. The food cart has the ability to charge from the electrical grid. It’s equipped with a point of sales system including the ability to pay by credit card and has electronic inventory control. The cart is equipped with a restaurant-quality kitchen with better refrigeration facilities than typical at most food trucks.
If you have ever been to New York City in the past, you will remember the great ‘dirty water’ hotdog carts with the pretzels and in more recent years the famous food trucks. There are as many as 8.000 mobile food vendors, serving all kinds of street foods. Most of these food trucks are relatively old-school. The vendors are cooking with propane gas and their trucks are diesel-powered dirty and noisy verhicles.
Lessons from the food truck scene in NYC
Amsterdam is just allowing the first food trucks in the city and food truck festivals like TREK are getting more and more popular. This might be the best time to start working with new, sustainable, food trucks. We recently spotted another new generation food truck by Peugeot, which will be present at the French Pavilion during the World Expo Milano 2015. Before we spoil Amsterdam with the charming but polluting food trucks, let’s look at more sustainable alternatives.
The chefs of restaurant IDRW will be cooking from a vintage outdoor kitchen on location
13-5-2015
A culinary twist to the trend of outdoor cooking. Marcel Zomeren and Justin van den Berg, chef-owner and chef from the restaurant In Den Rustwat (IDRW) in Rotterdam will be cooking on various location this summer with only the basic essentials. They will use a wood-burning vintage field kitchen from 1944, complete with army tent.
Vintage outdoor kitchen
The chefs from restaurant In Den Rustwat (with a Bib Gourmand rating by Michelin) are available to cook underneath the starry sky at all kinds of parties and events. The outdoor kitchen is part of a new joint initiative called ‘Your Personal Chefs’. At www.yourpersonalchefs.nl you can hire the chefs for a culinary feast on location. The culinary duo is for hire with or without the tough field kitchen. The vintage outdoor kitchen will be pulled by a DAF army vehicle from 1955. Anyone that wants to extend their style can rent the army tent as well.
The chefs can also be used without the vintage kitchen, at any location. The dishes are prepared in camping style, but on a very culinary touch. Think of a perfectly prepared cote de boeuf, grilled tuna, stew or duck. Or flammkuchen, the Alsatian version of a pizza.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ by KFC
7-5-2015
KFC in the UK has unveiled the first edible coffee cup. It’s called the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’. The cups are currently under development but most probably available from this summer onwards.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ is made from biscuit, wrapped in sugar paper and lined with a layer of white chocolate. The chocolate keeps the coffee hot and the cup crispy. The biscuit slowly softens as the chocolate melts which it does in the mouth and not in the hand. The ‘Scoff-ee Cups’ will mark the launch of KFC’s Seattle’s Best Coffee (made from fairtrade Arabica beans) across England. We did spot edible coffee cups before, like the milk & cookie shots by Dominique Ansel.
Food scientist created the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’
Food scientists The Robin Collective created the edible cup in partnership with KFC. The cups are also infused with different scents (Coconut sun cream, freshly cut grass and wild flowers), that are known to improve your mood. And that together with a great coffee, there’s no better way to start your day!
Dominique Ansel’s answer to what’s next
6-5-2015
Dominique Ansel opened his second bakery and concept, the Dominique Ansel KITCHEN on 29 April. As we already wrote in February, Dominique Ansel KITCHEN will not be serving the Cronut™ pastry nor many of the items that are most popular at the original Soho flagship Bakery. So if you’re visiting NYC and want to taste some of the other delicacies by Dominique Ansel, you don’t have to wait in line at his bakery, although we think it might be a problem to get a reservation at his KITCHEN as well.
At Dominique Ansel KITCHEN time is an ingredient
More than 70% of the menu will be made, finished, or assembled to order. Chef Dominique and his team have changed the operations of a traditional bakery, fusing it with a restaurant service kitchen, to bring “à la minute” capabilities to some of your best loved baked goods.
In the fully opened kitchens, guests will see the cooks cut fresh vanilla beans and scrape the seeds directly onto your ice cream rather than have it mixed in and slowly lose the intensity of its flavor in the fridge. They fold the chocolate mousse to order so it doesn’t have to harden for hours in the fridge, and guests can even choose the intensity of the chocolate. The ham and cheese croissant is wrapped in premium freshly sliced ham when the order is placed. And they aim to have everything done in the same amount of time it takes to get a latte. If people will wait for a fresh pulled espresso, why not also for a pastry?
Pre-order and self-checkout at Dell canteen
23-4-2015
Dell employees in Amsterdam don’t have to wait in line anymore at the cashier in the company canteen. Since a short while they order and pay their own lunch with a special “Dell Cafe” app, the package can be picked up a little later.
Order Mobile
eMove.me was commissioned by caterer ‘Van Laar Catering’ to develop the Dell Café concept. The app is designed and developed by YES.TAP.
eWallet
The app has an integrated payment service so that the employee can recharge by phone. This “e-Wallet” saves the employee time, leaving more time to enjoy his lunch. The app works ‘cashless’: customers pay a prepaid credit. The transaction capabilities are an interesting alternative to the recently disappeared chipknip. Additionally, less cahiers are needed and transaction costs are lower.
No more waiting in line
According to Martijn Lukaart CEO eMove.me there is no need to stand in a row anymore in the retail and catering industry. eMove.me is an independent and exclusive distributor of several m-commerce solutions. Earlier, we wrote about the order application at foodcourt The World in Rotterdam where recently Open Tabs is implemented.
New urban hotspot in The Hague: MaMa Kelly
22-4-2015
The Oude Ketelhuis (the Old Boiler House) in The Hague has been transformed into an industrial all day hospitality concept.
MaMa Kelly is located alongside the creative Caballero factory. Ijsbrant Wilbrenninck (kitchen), David Trampe (bar), Stefan Coster (barista) and Rein Rambaldo (concept creator and owner of The Hospitality Factory) are the members of the creative team behind MaMa Kelly. They serve coffee, pies from their own bakery, lunch, dinner and you can go there for a few drinks as well.
MaMa Kelly: good, pure and delicious
MaMa Kelly is anything but complicated. Everything is pure, from supplier to preparation. The menu can best be described as ‘chicken or lobster’. Of course there are more dishes, like steaks and vegetarian risotto. MaMa Kelly works with a 2 meter long charcoal grill and authentic vendors such as bread from vanmenno and sausages by Brandt & Levie.
Architecture
The industrial property has undergone a huge transformation in the recent months, while retaining the authenticity. For example, the boilers of the former boiler house are still present and they kept the height intact. The interior is best described as industrial, design and urban. The huge open kitchen literally provides a look in the kitchen to every guest. With her comfortable couches, cool barstools, design tables and lamps MaMa Kelly shows that she has the looks.
