Gastronomy captured at Chefs®Evolution
22-9-2014
At this year’s Chefs®Evolution of Jonnie and Thérèse Boer all dishes of the chefs were photographed, captured and spread through the social media channel of apicbase.com. APIC is a solution for chefs who always want to photograph the development of their dishes without losing precious time in the kitchen. All images are quickly taken with the special device of APIC and are immediately send ‘to the cloud’ where the pictures are ready to use. Chefs can choose to keep the pictures for themselves or choose to give their guests the opportunity to post quality pictures on their social media channels as well. APIC is giving the control back to the chefs about what pictures are published online: no more blurry or incorrect photos online that doesn’t temp potential guests to visit the restaurant for dinner. Apicbase gives you an insight into which photos appear online. Check out the pictures, made by the APIC camera, for an impression of the dishes prepared at Chefs®Evolution.
In April 2014, we already wrote about a #dinnercam that was used at El Burro restaurant in South Africa.
Packaging design for beer
19-9-2014
A creative beer packaging design that shows the colour of the beer inside: Spanish creative agency Txaber developed a packaging design that combines the type of beer with the matching Pantone colour code. In this way you only have to look at the package to know what kind of beer is inside. For example, the package of a ‘lager’ beer has a golden colour with Pantone code 123C and a ‘stout’ beer has a dark brown colour and code 4975C.
Behind the packaging design
Txaber was born in 1969 in Bilbao and studied Graphic design at CVNP (Bilbao). He is not only developing packaging design but is specialized in text and color design as well, as seen on his website. He quotes “They say everything is invented and I struggle every day to go against.”
Packaging-free supermarket
19-9-2014
Many initiatives are designed to make supermarkets more sustainable: we have spotted the first dump supermarket in Amsterdam, there is a supermarket chain in Denmark selling local products and we have seen how supermarkets work together with restaurants to reduce their waste.
Bay & Buy
Wim van Dijk hopes to open a new concept through crowdfunding: the first packaging-free supermarket in the Netherlands ‘Bag & Buy’. In this store customers can pick their own products from containers, barrels and jars and can thereby determine the amount they need.
International developments
A comparable initiative can be found in several countries. In Germany packaging-free supermarket ‘Original Unverpackt‘ was funded by crowdfunding as well. The starting capital for this supermarket was collected in one day. Earlier this year ‘Robuust, the zero waste shop’ opened its doors in Antwerp and in France, Spain and Austria are a packaging-free grocery stores as well.
The crowdfunding for the supermarket ‘Bag & Buy’ in the Netherlands starts on 1 October. The crowdfunders also determine the location of this store: “Bag & Buy will open where there is the must enthusiasm” as said by Wim van Dijk. The initiator thinks he will need € 100.000,- to open the grocery store.
Bilder & De Clercq introduces interactive wall
17-9-2014
From 9 September the Bilder & De Clercq grocery store from Amsterdam introduced an interactive wall at the Google Office in Amsterdam. The grocery store weekly offers fourteen tasty, healthy and easy to prepare dishes with all the necessary ingredients in the right amount. YES.TAP makes it even more easy for consumers to order a meal: they only need their smartphone to touch a dish on a screen. The interactive wall was introduced as a response to the trend of online groceries ordering. Customers can order the fourteen dishes and other products via the Bilder & De Clercq Wall and via the app at home. If the order is send before 4 o’clock pm the cooled groceries can be picked up from 5 o’clock pm
More interactive walls? In 2011 we’ve already spotted a virtual wall from supermarket chain Tesco in a subway station in South Korea.
For sale: the VeloPresso
16-9-2014
We already wrote an article about the VeloPresso in 2012. After three years of developments the last details are worked out as well and from 16 September the mobile coffee bar can be ordered online. The VeloPresso is a unique and highly innovative coffee tricycle. It has a great mobility and does not require electricity. The VeloPresso can be ordered from £9,995,-.
Bionina the organic drink
11-9-2014
Bionina is an organic drink made of fresh fruit and sparkling water. The ingredients find their origin in Italy. The mineral water is from the Italian mountains and the fruit is from the organic farms in Sicily. No colorants, fragrances, preservatives and flavoring are added to the drink. Bionina is available in four distinctive flavors: cranberry/pomegranate, blood orange, grapefruit and lemon. Another trendy, non-alcoholic drink.
Gordon Street Garage, West Perth
10-9-2014
The Gordon Street Garage in West Perth is located in a former garage. The restaurant is based on the idea of simple and local produce. The coffee is for example roasted and ground on location which allows the garage to daily serve different types of coffee. The dishes on the menu are yard-to-table inspired and mostly designed to share. The restaurant has an industrial-chic interior which shows the origin of the building. A lot of furniture and fittings are even made from the wood and steel of the original garage itself. The large space of the Gordon Street Garage is divided into different zones to create a wide range of dining experiences. A part of the space is arranged for a quick cup of coffee, the large bar and high tables are created for a cocktail and a bar snack and another part of the area is used for extensive lunches or dinners. Watch the video for an impression of the Gordon Street Garage.
The potato store in Amsterdam
10-9-2014
A temporary potato store will open in Amsterdam on 26 September. The pop-up store ‘Pieperboetiek’ (pieper is a Dutch nickname for a potato) will be opened for two weeks and is dedicated to potatoes. Besides giving information, 30 kinds of potatoes are sold as well. All types of potatoes are organic and grown locally in the Netherlands. The goal of the store is to reduce the gap between the city and countryside. Visitors can ask questions to potato farmers, a fries-debate is held and a potato dinner is organized. The ‘Pieperboetiek’ is an initiative of Krispijn van den Dries, a biodynamic farmer and slightly a potato activist. Earlier Krispijn protested against the low prizes of potatoes by dumping 6.000 kilos of potatoes on the Dam in Amsterdam. Krispijn is, together with city farmer and journalist Felicia Alberding and the Youth Food Movement, committed to an honest food system and better relationships between the city and the countryside.
The Netherlands, Land of Whisky
9-9-2014
The documentary ‘The Netherlands, land of Whisky’ will premiere at the film festival ‘Film By The Sea’ in Vlissingen on 20 September. The initiative of film maker Gwen Jansen shows the remarkable whisky culture in the Netherlands: Over 2,5 million people drink whisky, world’s largest whisky fair is in the Netherlands and a lot of whisky media and whisky writers are Dutch. The first whisky camping is even founded in the Netherlands. The documentary is produced by JansenJager, Beeldmakers and is mostly established by crowdfunding and without use of subsidies. It will appear on DVD and Blu-Ray at the end of this year in Dutch and English and can be ordered via the website ‘NederlandWhiskyland’.
Baidu smart chopsticks
8-9-2014
It all started as a April fools’ prank last spring: chopsticks that are able to analyze the quality of food. This summer Chinese web giant Baidu launched a prototype of smart chopsticks that focuses on health and hygiene. The smart chopsticks will tell you whether the oil that has been used is fresh: sensors of the chopsticks discover the oil’s temperature and judges its fitness for consumption. Poor food safety is a big problem in China, one of the concerns is ‘gutter oil’. ‘Gutter oil’ is illegal cooking oil what is made by reprocessing waste oil or by dredging up leftovers from restaurants.