Popup Melksalon

13-3-2015

A milk bar (de MelkSalon) will pop up in Amsterdam. The MelkSalon is a temporary pilot and design room where the value of milk will be rediscovered. From 1 to 30 April at the Oude Spiegelstraat 6.

The Melksalon brings consumers, dairy farmers, dairy processors, designers and scientists together, to rediscover the value(s) of milk. Amongst other things they will organize lectures, design sessions, movie nights and walking tours. The full program is available here (unfortunately only in Dutch). With as highlights some Milk Talks and design sessions under the guidance of experts, an Old Amsterdam Milk Tour and some dinners with catchy titles such as Milk Unchained! And Milk Multi Culti! The dinners are in cooperation with Gilbert Kolff. The pop-up Melksalon is both a shop and a milk bar where you can walk in to taste special kinds of milk.

Why a Milk bar?

Around 1900, the streets of Amsterdam knew many milk parlors, where inhabitants could buy a glass of milk of local farmers. Today we buy milk in the supermarket, but milk still holds an important role in the Dutch history, (food)culture, economy, innovative spirit and in the countryside. Yet, many know little of this rich influence of milk. Milk in the supermarket has become an anonymous bulk product. At the same time there is a strong public debate about the consumption of milk, the impact on the environment and landscape, and the price one pays for it. With the pop-up MelkSalon they want to remove milk from the anonymity, and start a dialogue about the meaning of the product for our culture and society.

The pop-up Melksalon is an initiative of Sietske Klooster and Food Cabinet and is supported by the Dutch Dairy Association, The Milk Story, Triodos Foundation and the Committee Agricultural Innovation North Brabant.

Papa Poule, the new rotisserie chicken hot spot in New York

12-3-2015

Rotisserie chicken served from the counter by Michelin starred chef Arman Arnal and team in New York.

The team behind the bakery Maman, with Michelin starred chef Arman Arnal (former chef at the Michelin starred restaurant ‘La Chassagnette’ in the south of France), Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall opened their new project Papa Poule in the beginning of February 2015. Papa Poule focuses on French rotisserie chicken that is only available for takeout and delivery.

Inspiration

Papa Poule had a lot of attention in the American press with their culinary (grill)chickens and Resto Poule & Poulette in Antwerp is also very popular. We wonder if we get a culinary revival of the chicken in the Netherlands as well?

The menu at Papa Poule

The menu includes a variety of flavoured rotisserie chickens, all massaged, marinated, and stuffed. The chicken will be finished with different sauces, including BBQ, honey mustard, béarnaise, chimichurri, and aioli. If a whole chicken is too much, you can also choose for a quarter or half a chicken to take away. There will also be a daily changing selection of sides, specials and desserts, like chicken potpie, potato gratin, sage-and-onion stuffing, Israeli couscous and profiteroles.

Location

Papa Poule is located at Lafayette street in New York. It is a small room with no seating. The restaurant is inspired by a typical French farmhouse. The kitchen is enclosed with chicken wire and the lamps are made from this material as well. Check their Facebook page for pictures.

The PancakeBot, 3-D printer for pancakes at your breakfast buffet!

12-3-2015

The PancakeBot allows you to ‘print’ out pancakes into just about any design you can imagine. Especially easy and fun for kids! Great for at your breakfast buffet.

Inspiration: A PancakeBot at your breakfast buffet.

Wouldn’t it be great to serve pancakes with your logo for breakfast? Or the logo of a company visiting your hotel? You could also organize a drawing contest between your youngest guests and serve the drawing of the winner for breakfast. We think that you could make a lasting impression with the PancakeBot.

About the PancakeBot

Although designed to inspire, entertain, and to enjoy the creativity of the users, the PancakeBot also has a commercial durability, it can make your brand leave a lasting impression. The designer of the Pancakebot, Miguel Valenzuela, wanted to make a pancake machine out of LEGO for his two daughters but the PancakeBot evolved into a complete patent pending product capable of creating pancakes. Miguel Valenzuela is succesfully funding at Kickstarter at the moment.

How does it work?

The user-friendly software allows you to design your own pancake by tracing any image right on your computer. From your favorite piece of art or character, a child’s drawing, a product image or your company or team logo, the software creates the file and the PancakeBot does the rest. Once you have traced the image, the files can be stored on an SD card allowing you to print the designs you have created without having to re-trace the image. The PancakeBot uses a patent pending batter dispensing system to ‘print’ the batter onto the included griddle. By using a combination of compressed air and a vacuum, the PancakeBot controls where the batter is dispensed.

A postcard from Istanbul, short film by the St. Regis

11-3-2015

The opening of the St. Regis Istanbul on 1 March 2015 is celebrated with a short film to introduce the St. Regis into Istanbul. St. Regis Hotels & Resorts and Emmy award winning actor and director John Malkovich have partnered to make this film.

About A postcard from Istanbul

A film about Istanbul and love, A Postcard from Istanbul was shot at the historical locations of the city and at The St. Regis Istanbul. Featuring Julian Sands and Turkish actress Belçim Bilgin, the film unveils the sensory treasures and charm of the city. It tells the story about a screenwriter in search of inspiration, who travels to Istanbul and discovers the city’s attractions with the help of a tour guide.

The St. Regis Istanbul

The St. Regis Istanbul is situated close to the Bosphorus and is surrounded by luxurious boutiques, the very best culinary offerings and the finest of art and entertainment. Mere steps away are attractions such as the Maçka Park and Taksim square. The 5-star luxury hotel has 104 rooms and 14 suites.

Inspiration: Create your own ‘short film’ around a special occasion in your hotel or at your location. It could go viral and reach a lot of potential guests.

Cooperation into practice between MeetingReview and Olery

11-3-2015

Guests can write a review about their experience in the conference hotel ‘Kontakt der Kontinenten’ at one of the issued iPads, the App or in a aftersales survey of the hotel. These reviews are now visible on Meeting Review. This is an independent review platform for meeting locations. The conference hotel is the first location that uses business reviews not only internally but also publishes those reviews externally.

Conference hotel ‘Kontakt der Kontinenten’

Reviews are not yet common for conference and events centers. Commercial manager Lars Beckers of the conference hotel knows how important reviews are and has directly embraced the initiative of MeetingReview.com. He thought it was not desirable though to ask his guests to write a review twice about the same meeting (on MeetingReview and his own website).

Cooperation between MeetingReview and Olery

Integration with Olery Feedback provided the solution. Olery is the company that collects and analyzes reviews of hotels, for example on TripAdvisor.com, Zoover and many other website. Guests start a survey about their meeting and are asked if their assessment may be published on MeetingReview. If no permission is given, the answers will only be available internally. If there is an authorization, the answers to the questions are also passed to MeetingReview. The assessment will be screened by MeetingReview and if it complies with the terms of use, it will be published on the website of the Conference hotel.

The partnership between Olery and the conference hotel derives from the need to be able to publish the guests experiences, posted on various website, transparently on the website of the hotel. Visitors of the website of the conference hotel are able to see the exact and average score of the online reviews due to the Olery integration. At the same time the employees immediately know how the provided service has been rated. By merging various sources, the reliability increases. A partnership that provides transparency to future guests and guests who attended a meeting at the hotel.

Serve Cuipo Water and help to make a difference

10-3-2015

Drinking Cuipo Water is a way to make a difference. With every bottle sold, 1 square meter rainforest is protected and preserved. As from May Cuipo Water is also available in The Netherlands.

An innovative online concept

Due to the concept of Cuipo Water everyone can do something to preserve this planet for the upcoming generations. With every bottle sold, 1 square meter of rainforest is protected and preserved. This is how it works, at every bottle of Cuipo a code is printed, customers have to enter this code at the website of Cuipo and after registration with their email address, they can check ‘their’ square meter on Google Maps and share it through Social Media. With each bottle sold a donation is given to the foundation ‘One Meter at a Time’. This foundation already owns around 105 million square meters. The sustainable PET bottle is made of recycled PET and has a 65% lower carbon footprint. Cuipo water is available in 500 ml. and 330 ml.

Cuipo Water available in the Netherlands as from May

Hoo Koen Tan and Han Kamminga of ‘Water Concepts Benelux’ were introduced to the originally American brand, and decided to contribute on saving the rainforest by introducing Cuipo in The Netherlands. Hoo Koen: “With Cuipo we want to increase the awareness: we need to protect the rainforest. The Cuipo approach is fun and sustainable at the same time, which makes it accessible, effective and it actual contributes to the world. We all drink water, so for everyone this is the way to make a difference.”

Give your guests a great feeling

Selling Cuipo bottles to your guests is a great opportunity to do something good to the world in an easy way. According to the people behind Cuipo this is possible without losing on retail value and margins. An additional advantage is that guests sign up with their email address. ‘Water Concepts Benelux’ is the exclusive seller of Cuipo in West-Europe.

Travel light

10-3-2015

Travel light is powered by TNT Express, they take care of the transport of your skis, snowboard, golf set or even your luggage to your holiday destination. The luggage will be picked up at home and ready upon arrival at your holiday destination.

Travel light as part of the service to your hotel guests

We have already seen several hotels that accommodate in solutions for the luggage of their guests. At the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne, they have a ‘Leave it at Hyatt’ service, enabling visitors to safely store their belongings on site, ready for their next stay.
Some hotels in ski resorts offer the same service for skis and snowboards, with the effect that their guests travel lighter and return! If your hotel welcomes guests who take extra luggage such as skis or golf sets regularly, you could point them to this possibility. The service of Travel Light allows your guests to book flights with only hand luggage. The luggage is traceable via a track and trace system. On the website of Travel light you will find an instruction video, how to pack your luggage and send it to your holiday destination and back.

Culinary Nut Bread

9-3-2015

Nut Bread created by Michelin starred chef Wouter van Laarhoven and baker Edwin Klaasen. Their nut bread is available in several flavors and contains ingredients as dried fruit, honey and flavored rye.

Wouter van Laarhoven

Wouter van Laarhoven worked as chef at restaurant ‘De Molen’ and recently started his own company, ‘By Wouter.’ This is a creative company that realizes unique food-, wine- and styling projects and concepts. Earlier we wrote an article about his creative culinary skills.

Edwin Klaasen

Edwin Klaasen, the owner of ‘Desem En Zo’ is constantly experimenting with sourdough bread. Edwin and his team are conquering the hearts of top chefs in the Netherlands and Belgium with these sourdough breads. He also wrote a book about his passion: ‘I bake great, you do too by the way.’ Unfortunately only in Dutch.

Culinary Nut Bread

Wouter and Edwin created the nut bread together. Bread that is created in a shared dream of a baker and a Michelin starred chef must taste amazing. Besides that is their individual commitment to perfection a guarantee to create delicious bread. We can’t wait till we can taste it ;-). ^Marjolein

Art in the Plate

9-3-2015

On the occasion of Art Brussels (from Saturday to Monday 25 – 27 April at the Brussels Expo in Heysel), Bowery restaurant celebrates his passion for art. Chef Maxime Maziers and his team created an exclusive menu ‘Art in the Plate’, which will be available in a limited edition.

Restaurant & bar Bowery

Bowery Restaurant & Bar is located in the heart of Brussels and is part of the creative space of Smets Premium Store. A unique location that offers a mix of fashion, beauty, design, art and gastronomy. Bowery consists of three rooms with a refined and cosmopolitan decor combining design and contemporary art.

Maxime Maziers

Chef Maxime Maziers offers a modern, seasonal cuisine with special attention to the quality and flavors of the product. With passion, determination and sophistication Maxime Maziers brings these products to a higher level to offer his guests a gastronomic experience in the Bowery.

Art in the Plate

The limited edition is available on Friday 24 April and Saturday 25 April. As chef Maxime Maziers is as creative as the designers of the restaurant, ‘The Art in the Plate’ should be great! We are particularly interested in pictures of his dish ‘The Apple of Bowery’. So if you are near Brussels on these dates …..

The next generation Starbucks

6-3-2015

‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ of Starbucks in Seattle is the new next generation Starbucks. In this concept store their Coffee brand Reserve (their premium coffee line) is being roasted. Starbucks hopes to attract coffee connoisseurs and amateurs alike with this new concept.

We already read articles about ‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ with all the great pictures of this new Starbucks location. But recently we saw the video above and thought that our reader had to see this one as well. For pictures you can have a look at the article by PSFK.

The next generation Starbucks

‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ opened December 2014 and is located in Starbucks hometown Seattle, just a couple of blocks of their first location. The Starbucks ‘Roastery and Tasting Room’ is thoughtfully designed as an immersive, all-sensory experience where coffee takes center stage. They like to describe it as if guests experience a Willy Wonka feeling! A detail in the interior you notice right away, coffee beans traveling in clear and copper tubes from the roaster to the bar where they will be brewed.

Starbucks has plans to open more ‘Roastery and Tasting Rooms’ in cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Chicken restaurant Poule & Poulette

6-3-2015

Recently our colleague Guido Verschoor wrote a blog entitled ‘The one 2.0 after another….’ He ends his blog with the statement that he expects to see a revival of the (take away) chicken restaurants. By coincidence we were writing about Papa Poule in New York. A takeaway restaurant where chickens are grilled and prepared by top chefs. But the chicken is also popular closer to our home, Poule & Poulette is very successful in Antwerp.

Poule & Poulette

The four owners of the restaurant got a ‘Bronzen Palm’, a price for the best restaurant concept of Belgium, at the Hospitality Fair in Ghent. This happened when they were only open for four months, and of course they are very proud with this achievement!
Poule & Poulette is an original concept for a chicken restaurant. The restaurant is located in a small place of 35 square meters, with space for 35 people. The owners of the restaurant have designed their own table boxes. Everything at Poule & Poulette is based on chicken. The chicken is slowly grilled on a spit which takes around 75 till 90 minutes. The grill is the central part of the restaurant. They also serve chicken croquettes, salads with chicken, chicken soup and so on. They only work with Belgian chickens.

Expanding with shops

In Brasschaat (near Antwerp) Poule & Poulette have a shop and they will also open a shop in Antwerp this March. In the beginning of next year Poule & Poulette will go to the student area to open a shop. Takeaway chicken for a student price! Poule & Poulette want to open more shops and restaurants in the next couple of years.

‘Slag op de Schelde’, an unique culinary competition for chefs at the Oosterschelde

5-3-2015

Michelin starred restaurant Katseveer and chef Hans Everse are organizing a culinary competition ‘Battle on the Schelde’ on the 18th of May 2015. Chefs and sous-chefs will compete on board of a ship at the Oosterschelde. They have to prepare dishes with asparagus and a product from the Oosterschelde. Amongst others the jury includes two Michelin starred chefs Edwin Vinke and Dick Middelweerd.

Slag op de Schelde

‘Battle on the Schelde’ is the sequel to the asparagus-amuse competition that was held for nine years in restaurant ‘De Zeelandburg’. Hans Everse, ‘Hero of the Taste of the region Zeeland’ and chairman/speaker of the ‘Koksgilde Zeeland’, has initiated the revival of this culinary competition together with Jessica and Rutger van der Weel, owners of the Michelin starred restaurant Katseveer. Hans Everse indicated in the press release that he only wants participants which are on a high level, that’s why only chefs and sous-chefs can sign up for the competition.

During the competition the participants have to make a dish with asparagus and a product from the Oosterschelde for 20 persons. They have to present it with a matching wine or cocktail. The dishes may be prepared, only the final preparation can be done on the spot. The participants can be assisted by one student.

They want ‘De slag op de Schelde’ to become a yearly returning culinary competition. Participants can sign up at their website, until the 15th of March 2015.

Jury

The members of the jury are Edwin Vinke (restaurant De Kromme Watergang** and SVH Meesterkok), Dick Middelweerd (restaurant De Treeswijkhoeve** en SVH Meesterkok), Sjaak Jobse (SVH Meesterkok) and sommelier Mike Dooms (restaurant De Kromme Watergang**) who judges the food / wine pairings.

Inspiration

This is a great way to put yourself in the spotlight as chef, for the regions it’s a way to promote local products.

Poptails

5-3-2015

Poptails, the summer funs at Sky Bar, Bangkok’s highest rooftop bar at the Lebua State Tower hotel. Poptails are premium classic cocktails paired with brain-freezing popsicles. ‘Poptails’ derived from the two words – popsicle and cocktails.

Poptails are made of…

The master mixologist at ‘The Dome’ at the Lebua State Tower hotel created the poptails to create fun and excitement around his cocktails! Premium is referring to the base spirits – the Havana 3 Years Rum, Absolut 100 Vodka, Olmeca Tequila and Plymouth Gin – that are used to create these cocktails. They serve a Rocky Road Martini: (Chocolate martini) – 1.5 oz Absolute 100 Vodka – 0.1 oz white chocolate liqueur – 0.5 oz hazelnut liqueur, rimmed with dark, Dutch chocolate and garnished with a Rocky Road Popsicle made of chocolate, marshmallow, peanuts, water, simple syrup and milk.

The other cocktails which are served with a popsicle: Berrymania (with a creamy berry / lemon popsicle), The Clover Pop (with a pineapple popsicle) and The Pop Star (with a melon and raspberry popsicle).

The Sky Bar

Due to the Sky Bar’s innovative cocktails, striking atmosphere and spectacular views, it earned the distinction of being named “the most stunning rooftop bar you’ll ever see” by The New York Times and is one of the highlights of Bangkok’s nightlife scene. So, if you’re planning to go to Bangkok, this is the place to drink a cocktail. They also serve a Hangovertinis, a cocktail created for the cast of ‘The Hangover Part II’ while they were filming at Lebua. This cocktail has gone on to become Thailand’s signature drink.

As said the view is amazing and the cocktails at the Sky Bar are delicious! I know, it’s one of those places I can say of: ‘Been there, done that’. But unfortunately they didn’t serve the popsicles then, so I don’t mind going back! ^Marjolein

Annie the Owl Bar – pops up in London

4-3-2015

In London ‘Annie the Owl Bar’, a pop-up bar will open for a week in March. In this pop-up bar you can stroke owls while drinking cocktails. Like all animal themed bars, where you can stroke cats or for example bunnies, the owl themed pop-up bar also originates from Japan.

Annie the Owl Bar

‘Annie the Owl Bar’ is inspired by a bar in Tokyo (the video above is from that bar) and is already very popular. Tickets are only available by lottery. Entrance is 20 pounds and includes two cocktails. The entrance money is going to the charity ‘The Barn Owl Centre’. The bar will pop-up from 19 till 25 March from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. The opening hours are adjusted to the sleeping habits of the owls. The exact location will be revealed to the winners of the lottery on 16 March.

A visit to ‘Annie the Owl Bar’ must be a dream come true for the diehard Harry Potter fan! 😉

Floral workshop with Dutch flowers at the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris

4-3-2015

The Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris offers an exclusive experience to participate in a floral arrangement class hosted by Jeff Leatham, the hotel’s artistic Director and famous rock & roll florist.

Floral workshop

Jeff Leathman quarterly organizes a floral arrangement class in the Four Seasons Hotel George V. It’s a rare opportunity to meet the famous artist and discover his secrets about how to make stunning flower bouquets. The class starts with a demonstration followed by a practical lesson.
Every month Jeff comes up with a new theme and creates his bouquets with flowers from the Netherlands. Every week 9.000 flowers are delivered at the hotel.

Jeff Leathman

Jeff Leathman is well known for his spectacular floral creations. He’s not only responsible for the decoration of the hotel, he also made the decorations at the grand opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, made floral creations for the wedding of Tina Turner and was a guest at the show of Oprah Winfrey.