Eat & drink your Christmas tree | Lowlander launches unique cookbook

17-10-2022

Did you know that the needles of your Christmas tree are packed with flavour and character? In Scandinavia, people have been cooking with spruce needles for decades; a valuable botanical ingredient. With their cookbook ‘Eat & Drink your Christmas tree’, botanical brewer Lowlander, together with chefs Joris Bijdendijk and Samuel Levie, provides more than 20 delicious vegetarian recipes to eat and drink your Christmas tree. The book is written in Dutch but it might be inspiration for other chefs!

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Trends we spotted | Week 40

10-10-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles about amongst other the PINKTOBER campaign from Hard Rock International, this year in collaboration with chef Dominique Crenn. And a social initiative in Rotterdam, ‘Heat and Eat’.

Hôtel Plaza Athénéé has teamed up with the talented fine art photographer Gray Malin for a photo shoot with dogs, great images on ‘My Dogs from Paris’! And in San Francisco restaurant Dogue serves a tasting menu for your dog. Some dogs have so much luxury around them.

Interesting initiative in London where Head Room Café brings awareness and access to mental health support. And ghost kitchen chain Casper from Belgium recently also launched in the Dutch cities The Hague and Rotterdam.

Last week, the hotels Moxy the Hague and Residence Inn by Marriott the Hague were officially opened, located in the Muzentoren in the city center. And chef Bart De Pooter opened his plant-based restaurant WILDn at the Sapphire House Antwerp.

The last week of September New York enjoyed ‘La vie en rose’ by Maison Valentino, a great example of going ‘Pink all the way’. And OneThird developed a scanner to determine the ripeness of avocados and received a voucher from the Foundation Together Against Food Waste to test this on the shop floor.

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Trends we spotted | Week 38

26-9-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles about amongst other the light and music shows in the Moselle region, in October and December. The Mosel Licht und Flammen & Wine Lights Enjoy! And the most Christmassy bar in Amsterdam: Miracle at Boom Chicago opens November 23.

Cédric Grolet at The Berkeley unveiled his ‘Goûtea’, Grolet’s fusion of goûter (the French tradition of sweet snacking) and best of British afternoon tea. And two inspirational reels, one rice/egg sandwich and one of a British Sunday Roast Burrito.

Here in the Netherlands we can finally enjoy plant-based Chocomel! And mid-September, popular vegan concept Wild & the Moon originally from Paris opened the doors of a second location in Amsterdam at the Zuidas.

The Art of Drinks is a three-day drinks festival (October 29-31 at the Gashouder in Amsterdam with a public event on Saturday. The Sunday edition is specially set up for people working in liquor stores and specialist shops and on Monday they aim at professionals in the hospitality industry.

Pizza Profs, the platform for all professional pizza bakers in the Netherlands, is organizing the very first Pizza Inspiration Event at SVO in Houten on Monday October 24.

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Sparkling Juicy Tea | Tasty 0.0% alternative at the dinner table

22-9-2022

The family business Privatkelterei Van Nahmen has been around since 1917 and started producing apple syrup. Since the 1930s, they started specialising in fruit juices also. Current owner Peter van Nahmen combines sustainability and tradition with innovation. Resulting, among other things, in ‘Sparkling Juicy Tea’. Three unique products have emerged from a collaboration with tea sommeliers, including Niklas Schmeink (Tea Master Gold): unique blends of cold brew tea and fruit juice. A beautiful, ecological and vegan alternative for those who have to drive everybody home or those who don’t drink alcohol!

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Renewed top restaurant Morille in Koudekerke even more plant-based and local

1-9-2022

Opening – Restaurant Morille in Koudekerke, Zeeland, is going one step further in cooking with local ingredients and its own wild pickings. By September 2022, the dishes will be largely botanical, with only an occasional dish complemented by a local and honest piece of fish, meat or venison. Only Dutch and Belgian wines will be served. Chef Dennis Willems’ restaurant achieved listings in restaurant guides such as Michelin, Gault&Millau and Lekker with its local nature cuisine since opening in 2019.

Reading Time: 2 minutes.

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I wish you many employees

29-8-2022

It is an old Jewish saying that means something like wishing someone a lot of worries and a lot of misery but many hospitality companies are currently having a lot of worries due to the lack of employees. Of course, the best approach is to discuss with your team what you can do to make sure those who work for you are staying. We’ve come across solutions such as closing an extra day, adjusting opening hours, but also snatching staff away from other restaurants. And of course making wages more congruent with other industries. Yet there are colleagues who approach it differently, we have made a list of examples for hospitality owners who are having a hard time finding new employees.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

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Trends we spotted | Week 34

26-8-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles about amongst others on-demand pay, a restaurant chain, honeygrow, offers their employees the possibility of daily payments. And Pizza Hut Japan created a new base for pizza’s: Rice Pizza.

Lucia’s Pizza in St. Louis is seeking a paid ‘Nonna’ to serve as a social media ambassador. Great idea?  And NapkinAds (napkins as ads) has reached a business milestone by partnering with over 100,000 restaurants and bars in the USA.

Dominique Ansel Workshop in Flatiron, New York has a  collaboration with Nami Nori, the team-up created a trio of ‘Mochi Ice Cream Temaki’. Looks delicious! And actor and Comedian, Kevin Hart, has opened Hart House, a vegan fast food restaurant in LA.

Diageo announced plans for a €200 million investment in Ireland’s first purpose-built carbon neutral brewery in Kildare. And a commitment to more sustainable chicken farming by McDonald’s.

Immersive Gamebox partners with Netflix to offer a ‘Squid Game’ experience, they recently started with placing ‘blackboxes’ to play in, on the streets of Hamburg and other German cities. And we spotted a ‘Cold Brew’ made without coffee beans by Atomo.

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Food start-up GREENFORCE launches a B2B platform for the hospitality industry

18-8-2022

Food start-up GREENFORCE is launching a B2B platform this month to serve the hospitality industry in the Netherlands with its vegetable powder mixes in bulk packaging. With this development, they are responding to the demand from restaurant guests for more vegetable options on the menu. GREENFORCE offers the catering industry the opportunity to experiment with vegetable powder mixes. The sustainable mixes have a long shelf life, are packed with protein and are easy to customise: with the bulk mixes, restaurants can easily put a vegetable burger or meatball with their own twist on the menu. On the platform, restaurants and caterers can order the bulk mixes in burger, minced meat, meatball, egg, schnitzel and smear.

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Kinfill | Sustainable cleaning products in concentrated form

1-8-2022

Kinfill is a sustainable brand that features an innovative collection of homecare products that contributes to a cleaner planet. Their reusable ‘forever glass bottles’ ensure that no plastic is used and refills are delivered in small bottles that can be diluted with tap water. They have a wide range of products (cleaning sprays, soap bars, hand towels etc.) for every area, including the kitchen. Since they do not use any chemical substances, their products are ideal to use in the hospitality industry and you never have to worry that harmful substances will reach the guest. Kinfill has recently been offered and used by several coffee shops, including the well-known coffee bar Saint-Jean in Amsterdam.

Reading Time 2 minutes

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Which summer drinks are popular on the terrace?

26-7-2022

Don’t you enjoy the outdoors again, being able to meet friends on a terrace? We do and we are curious which drinks are popular this year besides the standard white wine, rosé, white beer, special beer and non-alcoholic beer. The popularity of the Aperol Spritz remains undiminished, but we are seeing more and more versions of the Spritz and the non-alcoholic drinks are especially popular during the day! We have also spotted special glasses for drinks, a trend for 2022 as a colleague called it, but whether you can talk about it as a trend? During my time as a stewardess, I was given a small Buddha statue in which a plastic glass with a cocktail was placed at a Japanese Steakhouse, you could keep the Buddha. These Buddha’s were so popular with friends that I regularly enjoyed a cocktail there. And that was really a long time ago… ^Marjolein

A list of summer drinks that are now popular on the terrace and alternatives:

4 minutes read

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