On-Air will be a new iconic building in Amsterdam
29-4-2015
Real estate developer COD, architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis agency OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the NH Hotel Group and sustainable developer ‘Being Development’ have joined forces and came up with the ‘On-Air’ building as new icon for Amsterdam. It was the winning concept of the tender the municipality of Amsterdam and the RAI Convention Centre issued for the location in the south of the city.
About the alliance
COD developed two hotels in Amsterdam in 2015, Motel One at the Europa Boulevard (320 rooms) and Generator (168 rooms) at the Mauritskade. The recent projects of the OMA agency include the new headquarters for G-Star in Amsterdam (2014) and the towers of The Rotterdam (2013). The NH Hotel Group will implement the nhow-label at ‘On-Air’ with 650 rooms hotel. Being Development is a young and innovative company that develops the sustainable real estate from the end user’s perspective.
On-Air
The On-Air hotel is designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas. It will include a restaurant, a TV studio, a spa / gym, shops and a sculpture garden. The sustainability ambition for the building will be ‘BREEAM outstanding’ and it will be carbon neutral. With 650 rooms nhow Amsterdam RAI will be the largest hotel of the Benelux. The start of the construction of this 91 meter high hotel is planned for midst 2016. The location is triangle bounded by the Europa Boulevard, the A10 and the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre.
Prestigious landmark
The municipality of Amsterdam aims for a larger and more varied hotel offer and better spreading across the city. The new hotel and its facilities can be of great value to the city at this location on the south side of the city and the surrounding business district.
Corporation between KLM and SpecialBite
23-4-2015
Good news for the wine lovers. It’s possible to order the wines KLM serves in the World Businessclass. It has been a wish of KLM to make the wines they serve in the sky available for wine lovers on the ground as well. This is made possible by the new collaboration between KLM and SpecialBite.
Dutch chefs
KLM serves menus by Dutch top chefs in the World Businessclass. Sergio Herman, Richard Ekkebus, Mario Ridder and Jonnie Boer already took care of the air catering of the business class. The meals are accompanied with matching wines selected by wine connoisseurs.
Wines
In the month April the wines Brazin (USA), Aaldering-Stellenbosch (South Africa) , Gros-Tollot (South France) Villebois – Loire (France), Cono Sur (Chile) and Nicolas Feuillate (France) are served in the World Businessclass. These are the wines you can order in the webshop as well.
My chef, your chef
21-4-2015
GELINAZ! Is a chef’s collective that will organize a Grand GELINAZ! Shuffle in the culinary scene. On 9 July, 37 of the world’s best chefs will, according to their website, “be swapping lives, identities… and restaurants!”
The GELINAZ! restaurant-swap concept is developed by Andrea Petrini and Alexandra Swenden in 2005. They’ve hand-selected an impressive group of chefs from 17 countries. Check the video for the line-up which includes respected names in the culinary scene like René Redzepi, Albert Adrià, and Dominique Crenn.
My chef, your chef
During the shuffle chefs will be swapping restaurants and home countries, serve their best in another chef’s kitchen and will even be living in each other’s houses, a bit like Wife Swap. We wonder if this will be used for a new television format as well! Tickets will be for sale online beginning 13 May, according to the GELINAZ! website.
About GELINAZ!
According to their website GELINAZ! is a collective of international chefs responsible for wild, collaborative cook-off stunts. Every time pushing the boundaries, performing food and taking risk as a starting point. Longing to discover new cultures and exchange knowledge. Inventing collaborations with artists, musicians, scientists, thinkers, producers. Never willing to repeat itself, always exploring the unknown. Adapting to uncertain situations, charting new territories to sharpen creativity. Zooming on the beauty of nature, its elegant chaos and unending recreation.
Crowdsourced campaign by Grolsch
17-4-2015
This May Grolsch exists 400 years. To celebrate it, Grolsch organizes a crowdsourced campaign. The beer brewery is going to make an anniversary video and asks everyone from 18 years and older to upload a video of the ‘popping’ of a Grolsch bottle.
Crowdsourced video
We have seen a similar crowdsourced campaign in a different branch. New Balance asks their customers to make videos while running and upload it to the website Together We Run.
Participate in the Grolsch campaign
To participate in the campaign, you’ll need a swingtop bottle to pop. According to Grolsch, it will sound better if the bottle is at room temperature.
A video of popping a swingtop isn’t enough for the lead role in the anniversary video. A unique location is needed as well. The more unique your location is, the better your chances are to win a role in the video.
Grolsch advises to keep your phone horizontal. This makes the image better viewable and prevents the Vertical Video Syndrome (VVS).
In the hospitality industry, you can use the camera’s on the smartphones for your benefits as well. Organize for example an event with hundreds of livestreams from the phones of your guests through Periscope.
Easter campaign in Brielle
16-4-2015
We can’t say it often enough: if you do a sales promotion, point it at your potential visitor. After Easter we read about the promotional action of Sven Schreuder for his Brasserie Hotel ‘De Nymph’. Inspiration for Easter next year but in the way he implemented it could work for other campaigns as well.
Fans could hunt for giant Easter eggs in Brielle
Sven hid 10 giant chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. He did this in Brielle, the town where his brasserie and hotel is located. From 8 o’clock in the morning enthusiasts could try to find the hidden eggs. Last year, participants tried to follow Sven while he was hiding the eggs. So this year he went out extra early! As from 8 o’clock he gave hints on his Facebook page.
The finder of the giant chocolate egg could of course keep it, all finders could get a free ice cream in his ice cream parlor ‘De Koele Kever’ (The Cool Beetle). In addition as an extra incentive Sven hid in one of the eggs a free night at his hotel ‘De Nymph’. A great Easter action and an example of how you can implement a local promotion: local press was involved (the newspaper ‘AD Voorne Putten’ paid attention to the promotion before Easter) and the fact that Sven also used social media to give hints and placed pictures of the ‘finders’ on Facebook. Next to the annual celebration of the Brielle capture by the Sea Beggars on 1 April 1572, the city now has a new tradition.
Peugeot designs an urban chic food truck 2.0
13-4-2015
Peugeot has its own food truck, a bistro on wheels, conceived and developed by the Peugeot Design Lab. A super modern food truck, striking because one of the characteristics of the current food trucks is the ‘old fashioned’ image. With ‘Le Bistro du Lion‘ Peugeot will attend the Milan Design Week 2015 from 14 April followed by the French Pavilion of the World Expo Milano 2015.
‘Le Bistrot du Lion’, a Food Truck 2.0
The food truck was invented and developed by the Peugeot Design Lab, the Global Brand Design studio of the car brand. Cathal Loughnane, Head of Peugeot Design Lab, comments, “The end-users are always at the heart of all of our designs. For the Peugeot ‘food truck’, we wanted to create a complete mobile cuisine experience, not only creating a kitchen for the chef but a restaurant and cafe for the customers. A lot of attention was given to opening up the kitchen and allowing the chef and food preparation to be as close to the public as possible. We also wanted to create a real sense of surprise as the compact Peugeot ‘Food Truck’ transforms into an amphitheatre-like dining space ‘Le Bistrot du Lion’.”
The dynamic ‘Le Bistrot du Lion’ is compact, featuring short front and rear overhangs to provide enhanced maneuverability, with a long wheelbase to offer considerable load volume. Once on site, the food truck spreads its wings to double its width. Accommodating 30 persons comfortably, with separate areas for food preparation, eating and refreshments as well as a DJ booth. On board, chefs benefit from two grilling plates and four induction burners as well as a deep fryer. The ventilation system ensures optimum air quality and a 400-litre refrigerated under-foot compartment allows food to stay fresh. A 350-litre refrigerator keeps drinks cold. Attached is a professional espresso machine, by Rocket Espresso. Not only does the Peugeot ‘food truck’ provide a one-of-a-kind dining experience, it does so at an environmental way, having been specially designed to recuperate and recycle all waste.
Peugeot has selected the talented French chef Sven Chartier, of Saturne and Le Clown Bar in Paris, as the first culinary tenant of ‘Le Bistrot du Lion’.
Ciel Bleu IPA made by Brouwerij ‘t IJ
13-4-2015
Three years ago, two-star restaurant Ciel Bleu launched its first IPA (India Pale Ale) in collaboration with the renowned Amsterdam brewery ‘Brouwerij ‘t IJ’. While the intention was a single collaboration, guests kept asking for a new beer.
The chefs Onno Kokmeijer and Arjan Speelman thus faced the challenge to brew a new gastronomical beer that would taste even better than the first IPA. After many sessions and trying all kinds of ingredients, they chose kaffir lime as the main element of the Ciel Bleu IPA 2.0 beer. This citrus fruit is also known as Djeroek Poeroet and is widely used in the Asian cuisine. The dry-hop with Waimea and Citra hops gives the beer a flowery, freshly bitter character.
Brouwerij ‘t IJ
The brewery of Brouwerij ‘t IJ has two locations, one in East Amsterdam, next to the Gooyer windmill. This is also where the brewery began and where the pub is located. The second brewery is located on the Zeeburgerpad. The pub is opened every day from 2 pm to 8 pm. All the beers are brewed in the traditional manner, without filtering or pasteurization.
Ideal food pairing and serving
In restaurant Ciel Bleu the beer is served in a wine glass at a temperature of 10 to 12 degrees Celcuis. Dishes with mostly fresh elements best match the Ciel Bleu IPA, such as citrus combined with sweet elements. Like any IPA beer, it tastes best within a couple of months after production. The beer is available at the Ciel Bleu restaurant and several specialty beer shops. Of course the beer is also available at ‘Brouwerij ‘t IJ’ itself, which is worth a visit as well!
Chef’s Table Netflix series
1-4-2015
6 episodes on Netflix
Netflix introduces a new culinary documentary series about chefs and their philosophy about cooking. The documentary will be split into six episodes. Moviemaker David Gelb will visit a few top chefs during this series and has a look at their kitchens and private life’s. The trailer of Chef’s Table went online last Monday.
Participating chefs at Chef’s Table
Every episode the viewers of Chef’s Table have the opportunity to dive into the life of a different chef. The chefs will show their kitchen and private life for the viewers to have an idea. The participating chefs are Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy), Dan Barber (Blue Hill Restaurant in Stone Barns and in New York , USA), Francis Mallmann (El Restaurante Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Niki Nakayama (N/Naka Restaurant in Los Angeles, USA), Ben Shewry (Attica Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia), and Magnus Nilsson (Fäviken in Järpen, Sweden).
Chef’s Table is produced by David Gelb, Matt Weaver, Andrew Fried and Brian McGinn. The series is directed by David Gelb, Andrew Fried, Brian McGinn and Clay Jeter.
Chef’s Table premieres 26 April on Netflix.
Joint venture ‘World of Food’ a new streetfood food hall in Amsterdam
26-3-2015
Throughout The Netherlands more and more food halls are rapidly created. Recently a joint venture in the Southeast of Amsterdam signed the papers to transform a former parking garage into the ‘World of Food’, a new type of food hall. Dozens of entrepreneurs joined forces and are collectively responsible for both cooking the street food and running the joint project. The ‘World of Food’ opens late May 2015.
3D printed snack with edible soil
19-3-2015
Project designer Chloé Rutzerveld creates a bridge between new production and traditional cultivation with the “Edible Growth” project. The 3D printer produces a food soil. Printing food with a 3D printer is not new anymore but printing edible food soils with seeds and spores is. The soil and the seeds and spores grow into living edible balls.
Edible growth
Rutzerveld studied Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE). For the Edible Growth project she works together with the TUE and knowledge institute TNO. The technology is still in development, the software, hardware and assembling the ingredients has yet to be optimized. Edith Growth, however, has had a lot of international attention.
The technology is used to optimize the natural processes and to make the soil and plants grow together into the final product. During the growth the structure, smell and taste changes and intensify. Like, for example, a blue cheese.
3D printed snack with the edible soil
It’s a new way of producing food that connects nature, technology, science and design. The whole food chain will reduce considerably and the concept brings consumers closer to their food. It facilitates growth and reduces the ecological footprint with less food miles, it also reduces waste and freshness is in your own hands.
