TOP Foodlab reintroduces forgotten veggies
26-11-2013
TOP Foodlab reintroduces forgotten vegetables through a new product range. With interesting names like ‘witches turnip’, ‘spine pumpkin’ and ‘kidney cabbage’ these vegetables get a second life. The witches turnip is bitter when it’s raw, but sweet if it’s done. The spine pumpkin has a sweet nutmeg-alike taste and the kidney cabbage has a spicy, mustard-alike taste. These old crops are not edible raw but pickled for conservation and consumption.
Update: The article is a hoax by TOP Foodlab. With these ‘forgotten’ vegetables TOP Foodlab wants to raise awareness for the real forgotten vegetables; 40% of the vegetables that are wasted in the entire food chain from producer to consumer.
KLM shows current response time
25-11-2013
Nowadays you get quicker response to a question/problem by sending a message via Twitter or Facebook than using customers service by phone. KLM will show how long it will take before you get a response to your question. The airline introduced the current response time in the header of Twitter, on the customer support page of KLM.com and soon on Facebook. KLM receives approximately 30,000 messages per week and promises customers to respond within one hour. By showing the current response time, KLM will show if they really stick to the promise to respond within one hour.
Champagne vending machine
22-11-2013
To approach the shoppers in the British department store Selfridges in London, Moët & Chandon sells mini champagne bottles in a vending machine. The champagne vending machine is located at the Christmas section at the department store. The 200ml bottles cost $29,- and are packed in a gold with crystal packaging. Moët & Chandon wants to make the luxury drink more accessible to a broader audience.
Ghee Easy
20-11-2013
Ghee-easy makes traditional Indian cleared butter from Holland. In India Ghee is used to bake and fry food. It doesn’t splatter nor burn and has a smooth nut-alike taste. According to the traditional Indian Ayurvedic philosophy, Ghee is healthy, stimulates the digestion and supports the absorption of nutrients.
Elegant bottle packaging transforms into ice bucket
18-11-2013
Veuve Clicquot has introduced a new limited edition packaging. The packaging looks like an elegant bottle sleeve, but can unfold into a functional ice bucket. De packaging has the characteristic yellow and black colors and the inner part consist of a water-resistant coating against leaking. Convenient and stylish!
Lidl pop-up restaurant at Michelin-star level
14-11-2013
Restaurant Dill opened on September 13 in Stockholm. London-based chef Michael Wignall** made the menu and organized the kitchen. A 9-course menu was prized at an astonishing € 55,-, and the restaurant was fully booked from day one on. Too good to be true? Yes it was! It appeared to be a marketing stunt for Lidl. Only four ingredients (including liquid nitrogen) that were used for the preparation of the courses weren’t part of the supermarkets assortment.
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.
Parmesan cheese above the dining table
11-11-2013
A lover of Parmesan cheese over the pasta or risotto? Well, you can hang it above the dining table as a lamp! Curelle and Tom, both Parmesan cheese lovers, were inspired during their visit to a Parmesan cheese maker in Italy. They came up with the idea to make a plastic replica of the Parmesan cheese. The Parmesan Cheese Lamp is available in two variants and it has the same size as a real Parmesan cheese with the same details. The caps are made of plastic material and they only differ from the inside. Funny detail for in an Italian restaurant or as centerpiece in you dining room at home.
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.
Light spectacle in the streets of Zwolle
4-11-2013
On November 1st, the opening of the light project Sassenstraat Allicht took place in Zwolle, the Netherlands. This autumn/ winter the ‘Sassenstraat’ (name of the street) is illuminated with over 300 lights. Business owners, residents, property owners, City Centre Zwolle, volunteers and more have worked in recent weeks to make this lights show possible. The goals is to create a meeting place where living, working and shopping comes together. Especially during the dark winter days, the light show will be very attractive.
