The first edition of the cooking competition ‘Region Chef’ will take place on 28 September in Amersfoort. During this competition amateur chefs cook with locale produce. By promoting locale produce the organization wants to reduce the ecological footprint of the food consumption. The goal is to make consumers more aware of it and to show them in which season the products will have the best flavors.
Last week the new bar named ‘A Bar’ of the InterContinental Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam opened. The bar has a chic and modern look with an in copper and marble executed bar. The terrace with several dining and sitting areas, has a splendid view over the Amstel. The bar serves cocktails with a 2.0 twist. The barrel aged cocktails like ‘The Negroni’ is served in a special way: when ordering, the guest will get a barrel of 1 liter and everyone at the table can tap their own drink. The classic ‘Gin Flip’ is served with an eggshell filled with an ‘orangebitter’, so guests can add this to their taste. Dutch distillates are the basics of the cocktails. They prepare components for cocktails like ‘syrups of flowers’ or ‘raspberry-strawberry shrub’ in the hotel kitchen. The menu is inspired by the Nordic Food trend. Traditional Dutch products and seasonal ingredients served fresh, pure and simple.
A very useful gadget for the summer: an iPhone case with a built-in bottle opener. First you need to install an integrated app before you can use the bottle opener. The app will track how many bottles you have opened, what kind of beer you’re drinking and how many gallons you’ve consumed. You never have to look for a opener, because you will always have your iPhone that opens beer bottles!
A nice example of augmented reality. An interactive Tiger Beer video wall ( of beer brand Tiger Beer) situated along the connecting walkway within Dhoby Ghaut MRT station detects passers-by through infrared motion sensors, displays the persons walking past and triggers speech bubbles to appear above their heads, as if they were thinking out loud. The speech bubbles contain quotes with excuses to not miss the football match. Fans can post their most original and innovative suggestions on how to make it in time for a match online. The best submissions will be featured on the video screen.
Why serving a scoop of ice cream in a cone or in a bowl, when you can also serve it as a sandwich? Chocolatier Pierre in the Netherlands offers this delicacy: a sandwich with ice cream. The sandwich is a light brioche bun with the sweet taste of cake and a hint of orange. Recommended is to fill the sandwich with “creamy” ice creams such as nuts and chocolate. The sandwich with ice cream is inspired by Sicily, where locals eat the delicacy regularly. Chocolatier Pierre sells this sandwich for the second year.
Last week Jack Daniel’s launched a global advertising campaign with the legends of the music industry in the Netherlands. The campaign shows classic images of Joey Ramone, Bad Brains, Franks Sinatra and Freddie King. The campaign of Jack Daniel’s shows the close connection between Jack Daniel’s and music over the years. The campaign will be shown on Discovery Channel and online via Youtube and Facebook, until March 2014.
Six top chefs from the Netherlands will prepare a lunch with asparagus for a location of the Salvation Army on Wednesday 24 April. The chefs will work with participants of 50|50 Food for catering, a labor rehabilitation project of the Salvation Army. Besides preparing the asparagus lunch, the participants of 50|50 Food for catering have the opportunity to attend an internship for two days at the restaurants of the top chefs.
Tree houses are hot! Sleeping among the squirrels, high in the trees and surrounded by nature. Tree houses are an original, inspiring, environmentally friendly and adventurous way to spend the night. Tree houses aren’t only fun for children but also for families to spend their holidays. There are more and more accommodations located in tree houses. A new crowd funding project is the ‘Treehouse Island‘. An island where guests can sleep, seek zip line thrills and hike in the woods. Besides an adventurous way to spend a night, a tree house can also be an inspirational environment for meetings. Earlier we saw that the Kapellerput has build a conference room in the trees. At the website thecoolhunter.net you can find a lot of inspiration if you consider building tree houses.
In California the first Legoland hotel in the United States has been opened. The Legoland hotel has 250 rooms and each room is decorated after one of the three themes: pirate, adventure or kingdom. The children have their own separate room with bunk bed and a treasure hunt game. The hotel is not entirely build out of tiny bricks, but it does have 3,400 sculptures created with approximately 3 million Lego pieces. For example the wall behind the check-in desk is entirely made of Lego bricks, but also the potted plant on the counter. The hotel guests can also enter the Lego Park, that is located besides the hotel. Watch the video about the hotel.
After about 15 years the non-alcoholic beer will return in the shelves of gas stations in the Netherlands. To celebrate the return of non-alcoholic beer, Bavaria will introduce their beers in a pop-up non-alcoholic bar in a Shell station near Amsterdam. In this pop-up bar visitors can taste the Bavaria 0.0% Original beer for free. With the introduction of non-alcoholic beer in the gas stations, Bavaria wants to create a new moment of use for Bavaria 0.0% Original, Lemon and White.
Pinch Food Design is a boutique catering team lead by chef Bob Spiegel and designer TJ Girard. These NYC culinary veterans aim to “impress, entertain and inspire with food as delicious as it is daring, and design as inviting as it is innovative.” They specialize in creating surprising and exciting cuisine with imaginative presentation for clients at dinner parties. Their new idea, Pinch Plated, offers “inter(active)courses” for diners that encourage them to play with their food. For example Tuna sushi and beets with “trim your own” micro salad is served in a peel-back sardine tin with embroidery scissors on the side. Their website offers great inspiration…
During the Milan Design Week Heineken introduced the beer bottles ‘Heineken Ignite’ that interacts with people and its surroundings, by shining. The interactive beer bottles have micro sensors and wireless networking technology to sense when people are clicking the bottles together to toast. The bottle also lights on when someone takes a sip and it responds to music. With this bottle Heineken is trying to get a greater range in the nightlife. The bottles are specially designed for the Milan Design Week, hopefully we see them in bars and clubs soon…
The building 11 11 in Miami Beach, Florida is a beautiful example of an elastic environment. The building is designed to function as a parking garage as well as a venue for weddings, wine tastings, yoga classes and more. The building can ouse up to 300 cars but the seven floor structure can easily be transformed to suit a variety of purposes. The building is developed by Robert Wennett and Herzog & de Meuron. The building features high ceilings and thanks to the absence of exterior wall it offers guests stunning views of the city.
Today the new bar Spark The Hague opens its doors. The bar is part of the Hilton Hotel The Hague, but has its own entrance and address. The trendy bar is a location to relax with night entertainment like Funky Jazz Live, Ladies First and Sparks & Bubbles. At the Spark The Hague you can enjoy quality cocktails, wines and champagnes supplemented with Asian finger food and international snacks. The cocktails are made by bartenders Michael-John Straatmand and David van Panhuys who have a broad knowledge of cocktails and wines.
The Ramada Apollo Amsterdam Centre and Urbanics Amsterdam organize the ‘race to the top’ on Saturday April 20th for the first time. Participants will run up and down three times and will finish on Floor 17 (bar). They need to overcome a total of 51 floors and 2020 stairs. The race starts outside at the parking lot and the stairs runners will be welcomed with a drink and a healthy snack at the top. The fastest man and woman will both win a hotel stay including breakfast for two.
We discussed which products show up the most on social media, in all kind of shapes, flavours and colours, this year. The first product that 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
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
In the G-pier at Amsterdam Schiphol airport a new gate opened. The pier was developed by Philips. The lighting in the gate can be tailored to the style and colors of the airline. By using illuminated billboards passengers can distinguished the various stages of the boarding process. In the hall there are also business hotspots.
The Australian low-budget airline Jetstar offers passengers iPads to entertain themselves during the flight. For AUD 10,= passengers have a choice between several movies, games, magazines, books and music.
Simple, but fun anyway. Also very useful for those who can’t remember which cup is his.
This hotel, located in downtown Rome, is built from 12 tons of waste from European beaches. The architect wanted to increase the awareness on garbage. And is there a better way to illustrate this, than to live surrounded by garbage? Sponsored by the Corona beer, it’s only been open for 5 days.
Bclean washes company cars without using water. Once every two weeks, the cars are washed at a designated location. Cars are washed using a citruswax, and a specially designed cloth. Every time this saves 150 liters of water.
Is air conditioning too expensive, or do you still sweat in your bed? Then this may be the solution. It is a mattress cover, which is constantly filled with cool air.
This street furniture is designed by the local residents of the neighbourhood Lombok in Utrecht. The furniture “pumps” itself up from the ground and after use it disappears into the ground. This means that residents can decide if they want to use the object and how.
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A new concept from China, where trains no longer have to stop. See the movie for an explanation.
In the US 80 million pounds of cigarettes end up on the street or in the garbage every year. Councillor Michael G. DenDekker of Queens, New York, has recently discovered that cigarettes can be recycled into many useful products such as glue, sealants and even clothes. Smokers themselves will pay part of the costs. On each cigarette pack is a ‘recycletax’ of 1 cent.
Carpe Diem developed a new drink for the summer: Carpe Diem Kombucha. It is a healthy tea drink that is also healthy for the body. The drink is available in three different flavors.
This outdoor kitchen, designed by Jamie Durie, is stylish and made from organic materials. By styling plants in the interior, the kitchen is really part of the garden. Jamie Durie wants people from to enjoy the outdoors even more.
The biggest music and motorcross festival of eastern Netherlands, The Black Cross, has created a new campaign for his guests to come back home safely. The designated driver can drink soft drinks for free during the event showing a special wristband. This way the Black Cross tries to prevent drinking and driving.
This sushi popper contains eight pieces of sushi that are ‘popped’ from the bottom to the top. The sauce is included in the cap on top and of course the package contains ‘chopsticks’.
On the eve of the biggest IT fair in Asia, Microsoft has opened a restaurant. The restaurant is called “77 Concept Store”, which refers to the operating system Microsoft’s Windows 7, but also the cost of each dish, which is 77 Taiwan dollars (2.40 U.S.). There is also a menu of seven dishes, which are named after gadgets.
This Magimix toaster is transparent so you can see what’s happening to your toast. No more burnt toast!
The French architect Patrick Nadeau has designed a new green roof, a house disguised as a grassy knoll. It doesn’t only looks nice, it’s also good for the environment as more space is created for plants to survive.
Chez Bogato is a pastry shop that opened in 2009 in Paris. In less than a year the playful concept of Bogato already made a big impression. Bogato is known for elevating his delicacies to art pieces.
Star Chef Jilt of restaurant “De Vlindertuin” in The Netherlands has respect for each link in his company. So he found that the most underestimated place, the dishwashing area, had to be converted into the coolest spot of his restaurant.
100 flavors in your assortment, but only 32 simultaneously in your store. How do you make clear to your customers which flavors are available? Izzy’s ice cream provided each ice bucket with a RFID tag, which is read the moment it’s put at the counter. The tag contains information about the taste, production date, and more. The information is directly adjusted on both the ice cream menu and the website. So guests will always know which flavors are available.
As we are saying for a long time, fashion and food are inspiring each other. Here’s proof! Hand-painted shoes by Oyee design.
Nivea introduced a sunindicator to responsibly enjoy the sun. This iPhone application tells you how and where you can enjoy the sun best, based on your skin type and the UV strength at your location. In addition, the timer indicates how long you still can enjoy the sun.
Johannesburg has 2 exclusive bars where online social media are combined with hospitality. You must be invited online to have access to one of the two locations. At the locations one will find touch screens mounted in the tables, on which one can use the internet. But one can also make contact with another tables.
The famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where normally a thousands of cars a day pass by, has been temporarily transformed into a giant garden. On the day of biodiversity a farmers’ organization has turned the street in a garden of 1.2 kilometers long. Over 800.000 people visited the garden.
According to the constitution, whoever is born on U.S. soil automatically is an American citizen. This causes increasing “birth tourism”. Hotel Marmara is responding to this by offering facilities before and after childbirth. Rooms are rented by the month, including cradles, airport transfers and a gift for the mother.
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