At Horecatrends we spot a lot of national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write articles about, the smaller trends we use in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others, the half marathon through the Walt Disney Studios Park and Icehotel 365 in Sweden.
If you like to read the whole article, click the title. Enjoy reading! read more
The Foodmaker opened their doors this week in The Hague, a restaurant for tasty, healthy and nutritious meals. The menu includes pastas, salads, wraps, soups and sandwiches. The concept is popular for quite some time now in Belgium, now it’s time for Dutch people to meet the brand. read more
Dinner in Motion is a temporary concept in The Wall (Utrecht, the Netherlands) where people can dine in a special environment. An additional experience is created through large visual projections which makes it possible to actually dine between four cinema screens. The concept will be open till the end of February. read more
Restaurant Spetters by chef and owner Laurent Smallegange is getting a restyling. The one Michelin star restaurant will be updated to the new standards with more comfort and fresh appearance. During the restyling in January, guests can get their food at the French pop-up bistro ‘Chez Laurent’. read more
Christmas advent calendar from the Conservatorium Hotel.The Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam is creating a special Christmas season this year. The hotel has a Christmas advent calendar at their website and on December 9, the official Tree Lighting ceremony will be held in the lobby. Their Christmas tree is decorated in collaboration with jewelry brand Buccellati and will be revealed with a performance by the Dutch National Opera & Ballet.
Nice collaboration between chef Michael Wolf and DJ Michel de Hey, together they will prepare a special dinner in Wolf Atelier (Amsterdam) on Friday, December 9th. At 22:00’s Michel de Hey will take of his chef’s jacket, put his headset on, the chairs will be replaced to the side and the volume will be up. Wolf Atelier will transform from restaurant into a club that night and the music will be attended to with just as much care as dinner will be served.
www.wineenhotel.beYou can win the YUP hotel in Hasselt (Belgium) for one night. The whole hotel is for the winner for one night, he or she determines the date and who can all come along. You can participate at www.wineenhotel.be where you can let them know why you should win, and who will be your guests.
At our Facebook page we spot more and more videos from hotels and restaurants participating in the #MannequinChallenge. Have you already seen one? In this challenge, a group of people remains ‘frozen’ like a mannequin while someone walks around with a camera and captures the scene. What makes it fun is that companies can use this challenge to give their fans a glimpse into ‘their world’. We gathered a few examples.
The spectacular wellness novelty at the Alpin Panorama Hotel Hubertus, their new Skypool. No visible boundaries, only transparent glass and fresh mountain water. With 25 meters of length and 20 meters high, the extraordinary pool blends harmoniously into the surroundings of the Hubertus Hotel. You probably have a spectacular view from this skypool in the snowy months as well… read more
The butchery of The Roast Room in Amsterdam will open its doors on the 5th of December. Thanks to the butchery you won’t have to reserve a table anymore to eat one of the delicious steaks of The Roast Room, just simply buy a piece at the butchery. The Roast Room anticipates on the butcher-to-table trend with the opening of their new butchery.
Xin Lu and Gilles Schepens are two young entrepreneurs from Belgium that want to conquer Europe with their Noodle Burger. By placing a tasty burger between two patties of crispy noodles with vegetables (cabbage and carrot) oriental style, coriander and a secret Asian sauce, they offer their guests a new hamburger product. read more
Logo Daring DiningDaring Dining is a new initiative of Chef Plaza. As the name suggests, you can expect special dinners while enjoying a Daring Dining event. Prior to the evening you won’t know what will be on the menu or know the location of the dinner. The location and the responsible chef will be announced 24 hours in advance. read more
Great initiative by Bagels & Beans to celebrate their 20th anniversary. From Tuesday, December 6th until Monday, January 2nd Bagels & Beans celebrates its 20th birthday by creating a special Christmas campaign for War Child. During this period, visitors will find a sticker on their table at their Bagels & Beans joint. This Christmas ornament sticker can be pasted with some small change on the cardboard Christmas trees located at every Bagels & Beans shop. The pasted coins will be donated to War Child. read more
At Horecatrends we spot a lot of national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write articles about, the smaller trends we use in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others, René Redzepi will open a Noma pop-up in Tulum (Mexico) and new details from Mangia!, the 20-acre Italian food theme park by Eataly. And the effects from the International Sherry Week at the beginning of November.
Die Deutsche Bank der Zukunft Q110 BerlinEven the banks start using blurring to sell their services. Recently in the USA, Capital One Cafés opened several outlets where you can combine working, relaxing and banking over a cup of coffee from Peet’s Beverages and of course free Wi-Fi. Blurring at the bank creates a ‘third space’ work / relaxing environment. Last year we already spotted that ‘Die Deutsche Bank der Zukunft / Berlin Q110’ is testing different ‘third space’ environments in their ‘bank lobby’ in Berlin, Germany.
With ambitions to double innovation, Taco Bell is sharing exclusive insights into its plan to R.I.N.G. The Bell for winning in the years ahead! The read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
National Geograpic celebrates its birthday in the coming months. To promote this, an exhibition of 36 premium photographs will travel to several train stations in the Netherlands until February. A giant virtual reality show is set-up to promote the exhibition. Passers-by can see and photograph themselves with a rhino, astronaut and dinosaurs. See the video for an impression. The exhibition travels to Eindhoven (December), The Hague Central station (January) and Arnhem (February).
Healthy food and superfood has become very popular over the course of the past few years. Look around and you will see more and more pictures of healthy food on Facebook and Instagram. Superfood is 100% natural healthy food and rich in nutrients like vitamins, minerals and more. It improves the immune system and may reduce the risk of heart disease. Popular superfoods are chia seeds, cacao, hemp seed, goji berries, bee pollen and more.
Europa-Park (Germany) is the first theme park with a Michelin star. Within a year after opening fine dining restaurant Ammolite, located in the lighthouse of the ‘Bell Rock’ theme hotel, has received the star rating. The restaurant has 36 seats and the kitchen is successfully run by chef Peter Hagen (36 years old). For the design of the restaurant designer Claudio Carbone was inspired by a snailhouse, the name ‘Ammolite’ refers to fossil shells from the Rocky Mountains.
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!
An increasing number of holidays are celebrated in the Netherlands, as well as Thanksgiving. Restaurant Midtown Grill, the steakhouse of Marriott Amsterdam, will introduce the ‘Turkey to Go’ concept on November 26 to get people acquainted with the American tradition to the Dutch. The restaurant will offer different to-go turkey packages, so people can eat a traditional Thanksgiving dish at home. The packages contain matching wines. It’s a good solution for those who don’t have time to cook or can’t prepare a juicy turkey. During Thanksgiving the restaurant also offers a special Thanksgiving menu for those who prefer to eat out.
An exclusive gastro-marathon specially for 3FM Serious Request (Dutch radio station). From December 22 to December 23 Restaurant EVI in the Netherlands will be the culinary center for 24 hours. Three Dutch top chefs will prepare three dishes per hour meaning that they will serve a total of nine top dishes with at least tree Michelin stars. There will be a long table in the restaurant with 30 chairs. The seats are available per session of three hours, so there are only 240 seats available. The total proceeds will go to the charity of 3FM Serious Request, the Red Cross. Amongst the Chefs that will cook during the 24 hours are Niven Kunz, Ron Blaauw, Menno Post, Maik Kuipers and Edwin Vinke. The seats are auctioned from 18 December via Dutch auction website vakantieveilingen.nl.
The Japanese fast food chain ‘Freshness Burger’ has developed a special ‘Liberation Wrapper’ for the Japanese women. The fast food chain noticed that their large size burgers were only a hit with the men and not with the women. Most Japanese women have an ‘ochobo’ (a small and modest mouth) and see this a paragon of beauty. During dinner they cover their mouths and eating a giant burger is not appropriate. Freshness Burgers has developed a special burger packaging with an imprint of a face with an ‘ochobo’ mouth. So, Japanese women can unabashedly enjoy a double cheeseburger.
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..
More and more inhabitants of The Netherlands have hearing problems. At the moment one in seven people has hearing problems. To provide every visitor with the optimal hearing experience Your Sense has installed YSFM hearing systems in the auditoria of the Wilmink theatre. People that wear a hearing aid can connect to a FM system for optimal listening quality. Apart from the acoustics the Wilmink theatre now distinguishes itself by offering an ultimate sound experience to its visitors with hearing problems.
The Flemish cookie baker Jules Destrooper has taken its authentic cookies to ‘taste professors’ of the University of Leuven (Louvain) and ‘Foodpairing’. Just like famous chefs, foodies, mixologists and taste professors they are on the lookout for the ideal taste combinations. The University of Leuven (Louvain) has a specialized device for it, a gas chromatograph connected to a mass spectroscope that measures aroma molecules in food and beverage. Products that have similarities in scent appear to combine very well and are visualized in a Foodpairing tree. The taste analysis of the Almond bread, Natural butter waffle and Cinnamon cookie products are surprisingly connected to taste allies like mushrooms, ginger and caviar.
Joachim Boudens and Gert De Mangeleer from Hertog Jan *** in Sint Michiels (Brugge) renovate the Michelin star restaurant to a modern bistro from February to June 2014. The original Hertog Jan restaurant moves to a protected farmhouse in Zedelgem. They are so eager to keep on cooking that they’re opening a pop-up restaurant ‘Yellow’ in the center of Bruges.
I hadn’t seen it on the menu for a while; half a grapefruit. During a brunch at The Breslin Bar and Dining Room in the Ace Hotel in New York I ate a super yummy grapefruit with ginger sugar flakes and mint. But again the same problem as always, the cutting isn’t easy and is often not done well, with the effect that you have to do it yourself or miss parts. I don’t understand why it’s not served in ‘clean cut’ wedges, much easier to eat! Marjolein van Spronsen
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.
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.
Ice cream maker Charlie Frances has developed a glow in the dark ice cream. One of the secret ingredients is glow in the dark jellyfish, it’s calcium activated and glows when licked. One scoop is quite expensive, around € 165 euro’s. He created a non-jellyfish version as well, with quinine from tonic as UV reflective substance.
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.
Cry like a real wolf and win tickets for the ‘I love Techno’ party in Gent, Belgium. Eristoff, ‘vodka from the land of the wolf’ started a partnership with ‘I Love Techno’ this year. The brand has taken the slogan ‘vodka from the land of the wolf’ very literally this time and launched a Facebook campaign. Till 6 November, everybody can send a video of their howling to the Facebook page of Eristoff and collect as many likes. On November 6, at 1 am, the 50 participants with the most likes will be selected. They can sit behind their computer and howl live with wolves in the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. When the wolf cries back within 1 minute, the participant will win 4 tickets for ‘I love Techno’.
In a park in Paris, the French design studio ‘Bruit du frigo’ has created a resting place for visitors. A wooden installation with bathtubs is placed around a fountain. Visitors can relax and enjoy the art installations. A number of bathtubs are filled with water and some with pillows. The wooden sculpture shows that the park is open for everyone, friends and family to spend some time together. A place for relaxation, wellness and hospitality.
Chobani, a Mediterranean Yogurt Bar in NYC, has a great slogan; ‘There are two people we’re 100% committed to. Mother Nature and You’. Chobani has been serving the highest quality and authentic strained Greek yogurt since 2005. They combine the yoghurt with only natural ingredients and fresh fruit. Some combinations; Blueberry + Power (blueberries, chia seeds, light agave nectar and walnuts), Cucumber + Olive Oil (cucumber, extra virgin olive oil, Coarse salt and fresh mint) and Peanut Butter + Jelly (peanut butter, concord grape jelly, red grapes and peanuts). Delicious yogurt and great combinations although we as Europeans didn’t dare to try the Peanut Butter + Jelly yogurt. The interior fits great within the philosophy. ^Marjolein
These plates are fun to use in restaurants that serve small dishes such as sushi, pastries or amuses. There is a print made on the plate with the outlines of a plate, knife and fork. It creates an optical illusion that makes the dish looks larger than it actually is.
Having a dinner without saying anything.. People who has no need of rowdy guests can have a dinner in silence at restaurant Eat in New York. The restaurant serves a four course diner with organic and local produce. Owner Nicholas Nauman was inspired by a silence breakfast during his time with Buddhist monks in India. By dining in silence, guests are not distracted and they can enjoy their dish with all their senses.
Last week we ate at the seafood restaurant, The Mermaid Inn at the Upper West Side in NYC. They have two more restaurants in town and serve delicious seafood, lobster and oysters. They have no desserts on the menu, all guests receive a chocolate mousse served with, instead of a fortune cookie, a miracle fish who tells the future. Just like the fortune cookies in Chinese restaurants remain very popular, these fish are also very nice. And can be used in other seafood restaurants as well! ^Marjolein
The Dutch pension fund Hospitality & Catering has noticed that the obligatory pension information sent to the customers is barely read. That’s why they have developed an accessible way to communicate pension information to the customers. The dynamic PensionCafé website contains information and videos to inform employees in the hotel and catering sector about their pension. Relevant information about, for example the influence of divorce and death on the future of their pension is easily accessible at the site.
Do you know someone who deserves a Starbucks coffee? Starbucks has launched the ‘Tweet-A-Coffee’ project in collaboration Twitter. People can send a Starbucks gift card a $ 5 to a friend, family or a stranger. Users only need to link their Starbucks account with a Twitter account and send a tweet with the mention @tweetacoffee to the person in question. The person will receive a link with the voucher for a Starbucks coffee. ‘Tweet-A-Coffee’ is only available in America.
As infants, we begin to experience new tastes by exploring our tactical senses. It is, in a sense, our original obsession. As adults, we still have an appetite to trigger those latent senses with fresh and unexpected delights. This desire is the motivation for the STIMULI — a sensory dining experience presented during Dutch Design Week.
STIMULI was brought forth through a cooperation between design studio Jinhyun Jeon, renowned Michelin star restaurant Treeswijkhoeve, and Ravanello Food & Concepts. Connected by their mutual passion for stimulating taste, they created an enhanced dining event: a five-course haute cuisine sensory menu served with tactile tableware — such as silicone ‘nipple’ cups, glazed ball spoons, and spiked tasting palettes — that excite the tongue, trigger taste buds, and alter the perception of salty, acidic, sweet, and bitter tastes for a new experience.
The project focuses on the subject of joint perception — sensorial disturbance inspired by phenomenon of synesthesia. The main objective of the food design experience was to understand how the human brain intuitively responds to different stimuli during eating, and as such contributes to a different way of producing consumer energy. This will provide insights outside of the existing food culture in which societal, technological, and environmental influences play an important role.
Read the full article by Hortense Koster
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