Vegetable fries
22-5-2013
Enjoying fries while eating healthy vegetables. The Dutch supermarket PLUS is the first who sells ‘Vegetable fries’. Vegetable fries looks like potato fries but are made of corn, carrots and white beans with herbs and spices. Vegetable fries contain less carbohydrates, calories and no added sugars or artificial substances. With one portion of fries children get more than 50% of their daily recommended amount of fiber.
A fresh alcohol-free aperitif
22-5-2013
Grapedistrict introduced a new festive nonalcoholic drink. The new PasDuTout is an alcohol-free bubble from the Provence and made of Airen, Riesling and Rivaner grapes. During the winemaking process, the most of the alcohol vaporizes. At the end the drink contains 0.2% alcohol. The PasDuTout is a fresh and fruity wine with a strong bubble and can be served as an aperitif or as summer drink. The PasDuTout is available in restaurants, bars and beach clubs.
Donut croissant
22-5-2013
The crispy sugary crust of a donut with the layers of a croissant… Dominque Ansel has created something new, namely a croissant + donut = cronut ™. The cronut ™ is a with cream-filled croissant-donut with glaze. Already a big hit in America!
Transform an empty bottle into a lamp
22-5-2013
With the Statechi Touch USB LED lamp you can easily transform an empty bottle into a lamp. Use empty bottles as a light, fun and original for restaurants and bars!
Pedestrians bring tree to life
21-5-2013
The China Environmental Protection Foundation launched the ‘Green Pedestrian Crossing’ campaign to encourage people to walk instead of using the car. The organization placed a large white canvass with an illustration of a leafless tree on a busy crosswalk. Sponges with environmentally friendly and washable green paint were placed on either side of the street. Every time when someone crossed the street, green footprints became the leaves of the bare tree. As more people crossed, more leaves were created.
Gourmet with pizza
21-5-2013
The Italian ‘Pizzafestijn’ Catering serves a pizza-gourmet besides Italian snacks and a live cooking buffet with pizza appetizers. With the pizza-gourmet guests can cover small fresh pizza bases with pizza sauce and ingredients of choice. These mini pizzas can be baked in a small pizza oven. A buffet of salad and oven baked Italian bread with herb butter is served with the pizza-gourmet. ‘Pizzafestijn’ also provides the ‘live cooking’ concept on events, where they bake fresh pizza appetizers.
Green GaultMillau
21-5-2013
Earlier this month, Gault & Millau Benelux published the ‘Green Gault & Millau’ for the first time. The guide highlights restaurants in the Benelux that give vegetables a preference on their menu. The book contains usefull addresses, tips about vegetables and interviews with health experts. Gault & Millau shows that cooking with vegetables is healthy and can be very delicious by offering vegetables recipes from chefs like Jonnie Boer, Niven Kunz and Gert Mangeleer.
Rabarcello
17-5-2013
Rhubarb is a plant from the knotweed family. These red stems have been sought for more than 5000 years for its medicinal purposes or processed into compote and used for desserts. Mister Kitchen and distillery Herman Jansen have captured the unique taste and fluorescent color in a bottle: ‘Rabarcello’. The sour, sweet and bitter taste are in perfect composition and without any additives a subtle 18% alcohol. Rabarcello can be served pure with some ice next to a fitting course, but also for cocktails.
Online market
17-5-2013
In response to our previous article about ‘Foodem‘ appears that we also have an online marketplace for suppliers and byers in the Netherlands, namely ‘Vers 24/7’. ‘Vers 24/7’ is part of Deli XL and started in September 2012. It’s an online platform for specialists and the hospitality sector, without the intervention of wholesale. Every fresh specialist has its own profile where he can determine his assortment and price range. ‘Vers 24/7’ transports the products of the specialist to the hospitality sector. At the moment the platform consist of more than 75 specialists including meat, fish, cheese but also Dutch wines. With this platform, regional products become more accessible for the hospitality sector.
Customize your meal before flight
17-5-2013
The Latvian airline AirBaltic gives passengers the opportunity to choose their meal before they are going to fly. When to costumer books his flight online, they can choose their own meal. They can choose from a range of meals, salads, bread, drinks and desserts. And to make the consumer more conscious of what they are eating, the nutritional information is described of each menu item . The customized meals are served by AirBaltic during the flight. An interesting way to offer passengers more choice and it can help to increase revenues.
Taste of the Netherlands
17-5-2013
Syntens Innovatiecentrum organizes the ‘Taste of the Netherlands’ for the sixth time in a row. It’s an annual election of the best product of Dutch origin. The regional qualifying rounds take place in June, where the products will be tasted by the jury. The ultimate finale of ‘Taste of the Netherlands’ will take place on 25 November.
Cheers sessions
16-5-2013
Drinking a glass of Duvel beer and get a two years ripened L’etivaz or Comté Fort Saint-Antoine cheese served with it.. The provocative character and the bitterness of beer fits well with cheese, and it is something different than a wine-cheese combination. Brewery Duvel Moortgat organizes master classes of cheese and beer tastings in cooperation with cheese specialists Michel and Frederic van Tricht. For each type of beer you can find a suitable cheese and vice versa. The cheers sessions start with a fragile cheese and a light beer and end with a strong cheese and beer. Combinations are for example Liefmans Cuvée Brut with a blue cheese or La Chouffe blond with Munster Fermier cheese, a hard cheese with a red crust.
Recharge your phone through an umbrella
16-5-2013
As the summer season begins, people often work outside. With this umbrella, guests at your terrace can recharge their laptop or mobile via an USB outlet. The umbrella has a small solar panel that converts solar energy into electricity for the USB outlet. Restaurants can provide their guests with extra service, allowing guests to spend more time on the terrace.
Saying it with flowers
16-5-2013
Obviously The Netherlands is a country filled with flowers that are used in every hotel bouquet or beautiful garden. But special details made out of flowers are not as day-to-day, like in the “Pangkor Laut Resort” in Malaysia where they make little pieces of art of flowers and put them in your room, in the garden or between towels. Do you want to read more examples of small gestures, read our last edition of ‘Royal hospitable gestures‘.
Baking burgers
16-5-2013
A totally different way to bake burgers! A wonderful movie about a burger seller of Singapore.
Yes Amsterdam has it all
15-5-2013
This video shows how America sells Amsterdam. A fun video to watch, but also a nice city to visit or live in.
Each day a different tea
15-5-2013
Each day a different cup of tea with the tea calendar of Hälssen en Lyon. The calendar days are made of tea leaves that dissolve directly into a cup of hot water. Nice to serve to your guests!
Online marktplace for food
15-5-2013

June 2010, we spotted Food Hub, an online sales system for local products. Producers tell online what is salable of their harvest and restaurateurs / retailers know where fresh local products are for sale. An initiative that has also been launched by other parties. Food Hub is active in the West of the USA (started from Portland) and we recently spotted Foodem that started from Baltimore (Maryland) with their B2B platform for food suppliers (farms, specialty food producers and distributors) and food buyers (hotels, connects restaurants schools, hospitals, etc.). The latter have recently launched a new version of their platform. Foodem 2.0 has added price transparency, more efficient processes and increased possibilities for analytical reports. The websites are becoming more professional. In the article of 2010, we were already wondering who will start a similar website in the Netherlands and we actually still do! The film above by Food Hub gives a clear idea about the impact for buyers and sellers.
Bring the nature to your bedroom
14-5-2013
Create a special vibrant atmosphere in a hotel room with the ‘Forms of nature’ light. This light was developed by Hilden & Diaz and inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s (1834-1919). This creation is elegant and it look like it is made of tree branches. When the light is turned on, you will find yourself in the middle of a forest. The shadows are cast on the walls in the form of branches and trees. An interesting way to bring light into a hotel room.
A hotel room in a suitcase
14-5-2013
Finding a cheap hotel is not always easy, but with the suitcase ‘Hotello’ you can easily set up your own hotel room or workplace anywhere. The suitcase on wheels does not immediately look like a bedroom, but when you unpack the suitcase you transform a empty building in a hotel room. This flexible room can be placed in just any empty space. The suitcase contains a bed, desk with chair and a storage. The ‘Hotello’ is developed by Roberto de Luca and Antonio Scarponi for the Swiss company Daskonzept. The big question is who is going to facilitate space to unpack this ‘suitcase’. More pictures at PSFK.
EatWith
14-5-2013
Imagine, you are on a holiday and you want to eat a local dish. You can eat a meal at a restaurant, but you can also have a dinner at someone’s home… The global community EatWith invites people to dine in homes across the world. Users can offer their ‘kitchen’ on the website of EatWith as an alternative for the restaurants in the area. Travelers can have a cozy dinner at someone’s home, share stories, have an unique experience and meet new people. It is a similar concept as AirBnB. The question is to what extent providers on this website must meet requirements such as hygiene and so on.
Eat your spoon
14-5-2013
Eating your spoon as well after dinner… could a chef get a better compliment? We have seen chocolate, cookie and peppermint versions but the ‘edible spoon’ from Triangle Tree is organic and a responsible replacement of a disposable plastic spoon. The spoon is composed of organic ingredients such as corn flour, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, herbs and spices. This spoon comes in three flavors: Plain, Spicy and Sweet. The Edible Spoon can be used to eat a variety of foods. It’s tasty, it’s healthy, it’s convenient, and it promotes a cleaner tomorrow. The spoon could be served alongside appetizers and meals at restaurants or at events such as festivals. Or serve this previously spotted edible teaspoon with a cup of tea.
Glad Tent
13-5-2013
The Glad Tent is a tent and a compost bag in one. So when you are done partying at the festival, you can leave the garbage in the tent where you spent the night. A brilliant way to be more environmentally friendly this festival season.
BeanGenius
13-5-2013
Coffee that really fits your taste, is hard to find. BeanGenius offers a service where you can discover high quality coffee beans sourced from independent coffee roasters from across the USA. Consumers can indicate their preferences in a coffee taste profile and BeanGenius will recommend which coffee fits the best. They will ship them three different freshly roasted bags of specialty coffee from independent roasters across the country. Consumers can try a monthly bag of coffee and tell BeanGenius how they liked them. The more you use it, the smarter BeanGenius gets in catering to their tastes and preferences.
Arty napkins at conference hotel Kapellerput
13-5-2013
Pay attention to the initiative of “arty napkins” at the “Kapellerput” conference hotel. Every year they choose a piece of art that touched them and have it printed on their linen napkins. They give it out as corporate gifts. The ‘arty napkins’ symbolizes what their conference hotel is about; hospitality and inspiration. The original piece is bought and one napkin is framed, the restaurant uses a disposable version. A true royal gesture. The napkins so far are made by the artists Marijn Moree, Saskia Heuer, Janne Hopman and Jolinde van Poppel. Do you want to read more examples of small gestures, read our last edition of ‘Royal hospitable gestures‘.