Sustainable wine cooler made of sheepskin

24-12-2014

KYWIE (K-eep Y-our W-ool-IE), sheepskin keeps your bottle trendy cool. The isolating fleece on the inside keeps the temperature fixed from the moment you place the bottle in a KYWIE wine cooler. A sustainable wine cooler that cools effectively and does not feel cold.

Sustainable wine cooler

Made of sheepskin this cooler also keeps a red wine at the right temperature when it’s cold outside. A thermos and a cooler in one because wool keeps warm and cool. Natural material and therefore durable, no condensation, it does not break, weighs almost nothing and is traditionally produced in the Netherlands. In short, an authentic and sustainable cooler. The wine cooler is available in different colours (camel, blue and white) and as a champagne cooler and cup holder as well.

Restaurant ‘T Amsterdammertje uses KYWIE

Chef – owner André Gerrits of restaurant ‘t Amsterdammertje in Loenen aan de Vecht (The Netherlands): “We have the KYWIE wine coolers in operation for the last 6 months now, recently, with ‘t Amsterdammertje logo. Guests respond very positively to it and it’s nice as branding for us. The wool suggests otherwise, but the coolers are also very suitable for our summer terrace. We are very happy with them”.

Dishes of amateur cooks on your menu

23-12-2014

Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo (Grau, Friesland, The Netherlands) inspired us with their search for the tastiest meatball and ‘snert’ (a famous Dutch pea soup) to place on their lunch menu. If campaigns like is are done right, you can reach a lot of potential guests. Especially if you involve local food bloggers.

Meatballs and ‘Snert’ on the lunch menu

Restaurant Oostergoo started a competition to find the best home-made meatballs and snert. On 13 December, the meatballs and the soup were tasted by the famous Dutch chefs Joop Braakhekke and Albert Kooy to assess whether the dishes would fit in a restaurant as well. This because the winning meatball and snert will be on the lunch menu at the Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo. The winners are Mr. Scholten de Weerd (meatballs) and Ms. Gerda Uiterwaal (pea soup).

Dishes of amateur cooks on the menu

The amount of variations of food competitions you can think of are of course numerous. But especially with the huge amount of amateur cooks and the popularity of cooking it’s not difficult to create your own theme. Enthuse the local press to pay attention to your search for a great dish, have a (local) celebrity judge the dishes and leave a spot (or a few) free at your menu. And of course, make a party from your food competition!

Restaurant SILO: as ‘green’ as possible entrepreneurship

22-12-2014

SILO, a new restaurant in Brighton, has got an ‘zero waste’ perspective on sustainable behavior.

According to Douglas McMaster, joint owner of restaurant SILO, there is too much waste and processed food nowadays. That’s why he created SILO, a green restaurant, bakery and a coffee house in one building.

Restaurant SILO reduces waste

Restaurant SILO takes different types of actions to reduce waste. SILO emails the menu to their guests to avoid paper waste. The leftovers are going to a composting machine where it is processed into usable compost. But it doesn’t stop there. The interior is made from repurposed materials, such as used school furniture and scaffolding shelves. SILO created a trendy, green environment to have dinner or to drink coffee.

Sustainable products

McMaster works together with sustainable suppliers. He is in direct contact with local farmers and makes sure that the products aren’t processed. Besides that he works together with a coffee supplier who has his coffee beans shipped by a sailing boat. Interested investors can buy themselves in via Crowd2Fund.

NH Hotels show their hearts!

22-12-2014

The NH Hotel Group recently launched this year’s edition of the annual globally Christmas Campaign “Hotels with a Heart”. The campaign is in partnership with the Ronald McDonald Children Fund, Iris Hospital in Belgium and the Lenval Children’s Hospital in France.

Hotels with a Heart

The NH Hotel Group offers free nights, afternoon teas, Christmas dinners and cooking workshops in its hotels for families who have had a hard time because of the illness of their child. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the “Hotels with a Heart” initiative, which has gained a prominent place in the Corporate Responsibility Program of the hotel group.

Corporate Responsibility ambassador

In the Benelux, UK and France 43 hotels will invite special guests in the period from 22 December, 2014 until 11 January 2015. In total, about 300 hotel nights are offered worldwide. To make sure the families will lack nothing during their stay, every hotel has an ambassador to watch over every need of the families.

Campaign video

The campaign video about this initiative is published in several languages. It could have been an even stronger campaign if every country would tell another story instead of ‘just’ another variation in subtitle and voice-over. This would have strengthened this great gesture!

Eye tracking app tested by Pizza Hut

19-12-2014

A digital app that makes choices for you. Pizza Hut and the Swedish eye tracking innovators of Tobii are testing the possibilities in an app. They hope to launch with their subconscious ordering feature by the end of 2015. It could change our dining experience, especially for those who have difficulties choosing between pizzas.

Check out their video to see how it should work!

About eye tracking innovator Tobii

Tobii is the world leader in eye tracking. They transform industries and lives with humanized technology using eye tracking as core. Tobii delivers comprehensive, market-leading eye-tracking for applications such as computers, gaming and vehicles.

Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum

18-12-2014

The standard & gluten free Valuas croquettes by chef Eric Swaghoven of restaurant Valuas (1 Michelin star) in Venlo is going to be served in the café the Limburgs Museum. They start serving the Dutch specialty (croquette) from the official start of the exhibition “War & Freedom”, along with other culinary snack creations by Eric.

Core values of his culinary snacks

Chef Eric Swaghoven has created his luxury and artisan snacks by the motto; tasteful and conscious snacking. Core values of its croquettes and ‘bitterballen’ (bal size croquettes) are quality, taste and sustainability. The Valuas croquette is the starting point of his line of snacks.

The Valuas croquette at the Limburg Museum

The Limburgs Museum is a family museum and the daily practice at the Museum shows that the visiting youth still prefers to snack during their visit. With that fact in mind, the choice to put the ‘kroketten & bitterballen’ by Valuas on the menu, is a choice for quality snacks.

The Valuas croquette

The Valuas croquette is made with pure beef and a French roux sauce in proportion 35% meat, 45% roux to obtain a 110 grams of croquette. Tasty, full-bodied and creamy because of the broth used for this receipt. They also have a gluten-free version.

Other culinary snacks

In addition to the iconic Valuas croquette, a veal croquette, shrimp croquette, vegetarian croquette and a mushroom croquette will be served in the Museum. Also on the menu: fried king prawns in shrimp crackers crumbs.

The ‘chicken soup’ croquette by grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen

The ‘chicken soup’croquette is a tribute to Grandma Jo Swaghoven-Eupen, who did manage café Modern in Venray with her husband, in the years after the war. The chicken soup grandma Jo made has become legendary. The family recipe inspired her grandson Eric to make his ‘chicken soup’ croquettes.

Pop-up hotelroom ‘Scandic To Go’

17-12-2014

Hotel guests in Sweden can now have their hotel room delivered anywhere in the Nordic region. Prospective guests of  ‘Scandic To Go’ can apply to have a room, complete with air-conditioning, shower, Wifi and breakfast, moved to their favourite location.

Pop-up hotelroom

Instead of picking a location and then try to find a hotel nearby, the service lets guests select the exact location of their hotel room. The Nordic hospitality chain has built a special 18m2 mobile hotel room complete with two beds, bathroom and a terrace area for enjoying the sights of the chosen destination. And it even includes a breakfast each morning. The ‘Scandic To Go’ is of course kind of a mobile home. It has already been placed at the beach in the South and in central Stockholm.

Scandic To Go

Scandic To Go is part of the Scandic Hotels, they even offer you the opportunity to win a night at your favorite Nordic spot. The only thing you have to do, is snap a photo of that place, share it on Instagram and tag it #scandictogo and explain why you want to enjoy the #scandictogo experience there.

Experience in theater as storytelling for your product

16-12-2014

Undergo storytelling, experience a 3D animation and taste the product in a theater.

Recently I joined one of the theater tryouts by Glennfidich. Tony van Rooijen, the enthusiastic Dutch brand ambassador of the whisky makers gave a virtual tour of the distillery in Scotland during a tasting where he presented six different whiskys.

Experience in theater

Apart from the enthusiastic narrator and a stylish tasting kit, the virtual tour consisted out of a very detailed 3D animation of the brewery that had a lot of resemblance with the computer game ‘The Sims’. While the presenter went through the various stages of the brewing process he showed the buildings of the brewery from the outside and inside. Everywhere there was a visual explanation from a first person view, so you had the illusion walking through the brewery itself without leaving your lazy (theater) chair.

Virtual tour

A virtual tour like this can be very interesting for products with an authentic character. A rookie (like me) gets to see more about the brewing process of whisky and the expert will for example learn more about the typical taste each barrel emits.

Flexibility is the future

For theaters, but also for cinemas this way of a product presentation is an interesting case. The stage remains a wonderful place to tell your story and to combine this with a tasting your product and (controlled) experience of it. At most hospitality fairs and food festivals the stage plays an important role in the total concept thus the hospitality industry is already familiar with these crossover concepts. My experience fits in well with a recent article in Fast Moving Targets that shows that flexibility of the theater is the future. ^Armand

Communicating with your guests before the opening

16-12-2014

Nikie Houben, manager of the Terhills hotel in Maasmechelen is already busy tweeting about the hotel. Whilst the opening is planned for March 2015, she already inspires with her tweets.

Communicating with your guests before the opening

Recently we read a tweet from Nikie Houben who is the – Guest Loving – hotel manager of the Terhills Hotel. She tweets about preparations leading up to the opening of the new hotel by the ‘Different Hotels’ group. Mood Boards, products from suppliers, photos of the property, inspiring lyrics and so on. We often see that entrepreneurs / managers are so busy in the pre-opening process that they forget to communicate about it or outsource the communication to an agency. The beauty of communicating about the project you are working on, is the fact that it shows your commitment. The enthusiasm of Nikie is a great inspiring example, we really believe she is a guest loving hotel manager.

Quote of Nikie Houben

“At Terhills Hotel it’s all about the experience. A personal and friendly approach and contact is very important! So the sooner you get to know your guests the better. This way the Terhillls Team will also be able to respond to the taste and needs of its future guests. And isn’t it fun when you feel this on arrival?!”

Terhills Hotel

This new lifestyle experience Hotel is located in the former main building of a coal mine in Eisden, part of the city of Maasmechelen. The hotel offers a cocktail of fashion (located near Maasmechelen Village, Outlet Shopping), nature (National Park Hoge Kempen), comfort and culinary enjoyment. It includes 60 luxurious rooms including 7 suites, a cozy bar with lounge corners and a spa in the neoclassical baroque style building. Designers from Limburg county contributed to the realization, Simoni Architects from Hasselt has made modern and clean lines in the building and the interior is provided by Dôm Deco from Dilsen-Stokkem.

Different Hotels

The Terhills Hotel is part of this hotel group which originates in Belgian Limburg. The group has a total of 11 hotels in Limburg and Antwerp.

Recruiting staff

Last year the nhow hotel in Rotterdam had some interesting pre-opening communication as well. The hotel opened in January 2014 and launched a recruitment party in 2013. Next to communicating with your guests you can start a conversation with potential suppliers and staff as well.

Christmas cocktails by Cocktailicious

15-12-2014

We read more and more about winter cocktails, innovative cocktails with tea, coffee or other strange combination and newly opened cocktail bars. On the website Cocktailicious cocktail lover Caroline writes about cocktails, including 250 different recipes and various cocktail bars. For the Holidays we want to suggest the recipes for the Christmas Spoom and the luxury Christmas punch to surprise your guests.

The first cocktail shaker that composes a unique ‘Hospitality Trends cocktail’ for us will be awarded with a spot in our hall of fame!

Check the recipes for the Christmas Spoom and the Christmas punch (Dutch).

Winter garden in Amsterdam

15-12-2014

How do you use your outdoor area during the cold days? Do you transform it into a cozy winter garden or do you prefer a skating rink on the roof terrace? For three months Restaurant & Bar Herengracht changes its outdoor area into a winter wonderland. With heaters, fire places and a semi-roofed terrace it is a nice place to be during these dark days.

The Winter Garden Amsterdam

The Winter Garden is open from late November till late February 2015. There will be three matching winter events, each with a cool theme.

Typical wintry

At the terrace the temperature will be a few degrees higher than on the streets. Not only the ‘heaters’ cause these higher temperatures, but also by the nose warming winter cocktails, mulled wine and hot chocolate served from the special outdoor bar. Typical wintry snacks and dishes like homemade pea soup, cheese fondue and game completes this winter concept.

Three special winter events

The winter garden will set the stage for three events at Restaurant & Bar ‘Herengracht’, which is located near the ‘Koningsplein’ in Amsterdam. The first event will be hosted in Christmas spheres on 20 December, the second event highlights the theme ‘let’s go wild’ on 24 January with wild boar on the spit, the final special is a huge cheese fondue party.

Robots manage restaurant

12-12-2014

A restaurant owner in China completely replaced his staff by robots.

Robots manage restaurant

Recently we wrote an article about flying robotic waiters in Singapore. The flying robotic waiters are created to help the waiters with difficult tasks. Lu Dike from China has a different mindset and lets robots serve his whole restaurant. The restaurant is located in Zheijang, a province in China. Lu Dike is convinced that it will save him a lot of money in the future. The robots are able to formulate 40 sentences which allows them to take orders from customers and transmit the orders to the kitchen. The robots have sensors that prevent them from bumping into something.

Mealworm spread

11-12-2014

Green Kow is a Belgian company that launches products based on bugs (mealworms). They came up with vegetable spread that contains 5% mealworms.

Mealworm spread

At the trade fair of Health Ingredients Europe 2014 the Green Kow presented mealworm spread. The vegetable spread is full of vitamins, proteins and mineral salts. This is all because of the mealworms that are incorporated. Besides the vegetable spread has a high nutrition value, the production process of it is more efficient and less polluting because of the breeding of bugs instead of for example chicken.

Products

The Green Kow has four types of spreads. There are two salty and two chocolate spreads. The spreads consists of carrot-mealworm, tomato-mealworm, dark chocolate-mealworm and milk chocolate-mealworm. The salty spreads are available at the organic shops in Belgium. The chocolate spreads will be added soon. The recipe for the mealworm spread is created by Belgian two star Chef Sang-Hoon Degeimbre.

Inspiration from Retail

10-12-2014

What could the hospitality industry learn from the ‘Future of Retail 2015’ report of PSFK? Rehab Studio Ltd. has made a video with a number of recommendations from the report. The recommendations include:

• Retailers will be challenged to create custom tailored experience for every shopper.
• They need to create the technical ability to embrace this personal experience.
• The stores will increasingly need to focus on the fact that they need to be a hub for community involvement. That’s one of their benefits over online shops.
• Checkout must be faster and more easy; paying mobile could just bring that!

Inspiration from retail to the hospitality industry

Especially for larger catering and fastfood companies there are a number of recommendations in the movie of the rehabstudio Ltd. that can be inspiring for the future. Could it work for you if you would receive personalized lunch suggestions by ‘La Place’ if you regularly eat there?
For restaurants in smaller villages, it is important to be the community hub. More and more services disappear from the smaller villages, so you could start operating as collect point for the mail, the dry cleaners and so on. As long as a large part of your potential guests does visit your restaurant on a regular base!
The catering is of course faced with new payment methods, such as paying by mobile. However, many bar, restaurants and café still only accept cash payments! The video ends with a hospitable gesture: home delivery of the groceries! Why doesn’t the hospitality industry turn this around… Why don’t they deliver a custom-made meal at the home of their guest?

Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza

9-12-2014

Pizza Hut Launches Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza In Australia.

A lot of pizza inspiration

This Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza is a great addition to our article: 10 times pizza inspiration and inspiration for Dutch pizza makers. On the other hand the pizza makers from Australia could be inspired by the pizza from Domino’s Pizza with sausage in the crust and with sauerkraut. Recently, we also spotted a pizza with 99 cheeses. The inspiration for this pizza comes from the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ movie where they try to seduce a Ninja Turtle with a fictional pizza with 99 cheeses, although described in the movie as a ‘culinary impossibility’. World champion pizza maker, Johnny di Francesco from Melbourne proved them wrong and made one.

Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza

The pizza crust is made of melted mozzarella cheese layered with smashed Doritos and sprinkled with cheddar cheese. So kind of like a pizza meets nachos! Another example of combining everyone’s favorite fastfood items! Pizza hut serves this crunch at different pizza’s. Would you like to taste a Doritos crunchy crust pizza? Or should we start a social media campaign to bring this crust to the rest of the world?