Sparkling, flat water or tap water
21-3-2013
During the ‘Water4daagse’ guests can order tap water (for a small fee) at a number of restaurants in Zwolle, the Netherlands. During 4 days the revenue will go to the drinking water projects of Join The Pipe in Africa. The campaign runs from 20 till 23 March and is an initiative of the students at the Landstede Institute in Zwolle and part of Upgraden.nl. ‘Upgraders’ are young people who execute positive actions for a better world. The actions contribute to one of the Millennium Goals or human rights.
Inspiration on your sandwich
21-3-2013
The toaster ‘The Image Toaster’ surprises you every morning with a random image from Google, toasted on your sandwich. The toaster can be connected to the computer via USB and searches for pictures that are related to a date, such as Easter. The toaster roasts the pictures on the slice of bread. This is still a prototype that has been created for a Creative Technology course “Innovation Lab” at the University by Scott van Haastrecht. But it would be nice a portion of inspiration in the morning or even be fun to serve in a restaurant!
Escape Flight choose a destination for people
21-3-2013
Sometimes it’s difficult to choose a destination when you want to get away for the weekend. Recently the travel site ‘Escape Flight’ launched in the U.K. ‘Escape Flight’ chooses a destination for their clients, they only have to give input as what they are looking for, like culture, food, nightlife or outdoor and sort results based on price, hassle or weather. So ‘Escape Flight’ works by finding locations that provide characteristics and attributes selected by the user, rather than searching directly for a specific deal. ‘Escape Flight is currently only operational for flights that depart from London.
Fridge with Touch screen
21-3-2013
Samsung and LG are set to introduce a smart fridge with touchscreen. The Wi-Fi fridge allows you to make a shopping list, or suggest recipes based on ingredients stored inside. The fridge can be connect with a smartphone, so you can continually add ingredients for a recipe. There is also a Twitter feed and Google calendars. With this system the fridge can reduce the food waste. The system without the connection to Evernote has been introduced in 2011.
Meat Free Week in Australia
20-3-2013
“Lamb chop move aside, it’s MY time to shine,” (said Mr Beetroot). This week is the ‘meat free week’ in Australia (18-24 march). During this week Australia needs to think about how much meat they consume, because as a nation they consume way too much. The land-based food sector and also the seafood industry are under pressure. With the meat free week the organisation hopes that people realize that they need to contribute to a brighter future for their environment, animals and farmers by eating less meat and more vegetables. On the website of The Sustainable Table you can download a recipe booklet with meat free recipes.
Easter: Marshmallows and cocktails
20-3-2013
Easter is in the air! In the coming weeks we will occasionally publish remarkable recipes or action on horecatrends. For example, the trend of the last year ‘chocolate room‘. Do you have a special recipe or does your restaurant or hotel plan a special activity, let us know by mail via tip@spronsen.com. Who knows your company might be on horecatrends.
During Easter, you do not just make the dishes special, but also the drinks you serve. Very simple yet fun, decorate a cocktail with a bunny or a chicken made of marshmallow. You can choose to make your own marshmallow, or just buy them. While the kids search for eggs, the adults can enjoy their Easter Cocktail….
Google Birdhouse
20-3-2013
The designer Shu-Chun Hsiao in Taiwan developed a number of birdhouses inspired by the Google Maps icon. Shu-Chun Hsiao creates the Google Birdhouse a merger between the physical and virtual worlds. Today people find their way through technology, the designer wanted to make the birdhouse become the destination as Google Maps does. Actually every hotel or restaurant in the country needs to have a birdhouse like this on the outside.
Pay the bill with an app
20-3-2013
How often did you get a great service at a restaurant and as only point of irritation had to wait too long for the bill? With the new app ‘Cover’, that will be introduced soon, you can walk out of the restaurant without physically paying the bill. The payment is taken from a credit card stored on the app. Guests do make their reservation through the app and enter the payment information. The ‘Uber’s payment experience at restaurants’ according to Clover. It’s a new way of paying that is in particular useful for restaurants, it saves time and turns tables faster.
La Bullipedia a new revolution in gastronomy
19-3-2013
The famous Catalan chef cook Ferran Adrià presented an online encyclopedia called ‘La Bullipedia’ at the University of Barcelona. The project is a new revolution in gastronomy and is primarily adressed to chefs and cooking schools. Ferran Adrià expects that ‘La Bullipedia’ will be operational around January 2016.
Recharge your phone at McDonald’s
19-3-2013
Together with the Finnish company PowerKiss, McDonald’s is developing special tables to recharge your phone automatically when you put him on the table. By using the QI technology and a wireless power transmission the tables can transfer power to phones and / or headsets. At this moment, McDonald’s is testing the tables in Europe.
Cyclists get a free salad
19-3-2013
Bistro ‘Le Repas’ in Brazil is offering a free salad for any guest who rides his or her bike to the bistro in reward for being green. Sommelier Karen Ferrari was inspired by the number of cyclists she saw on a trip to Paris en introduced this action. The French-themed restaurant hopes that the reward will stimulate visitors to come by bike and also to inspire other companies to do something similar.
A note in a lunch bag
18-3-2013
Class up your simple brown lunch bag with the waxed canvas lunch bags from ‘Peg and Awl’. The bags have sewn-in spot for handwritten notes to make it more special. Especially the handwritten notes or sayings are great to put even in a a plain brown lunch bag. And if you add a “free” item occasionally, your customers will know this rapidly by either word-of-mouth or through the social media.
Fancy lunch bag with note
18-3-2013
Class up your simple brown lunch bag with the waxed canvas lunch bags from ‘Peg and Awl’. The bags have sewn-in spot for handwritten notes to make it more special. Especially the handwritten notes or sayings are great to put even in a a plain brown lunch bag. And if you add a “free” item occasionally, your customers will know this rapidly by either word-of-mouth or through the social media.
Fancy lunch bag with note
18-3-2013
Class up your simple brown lunch bag with the waxed canvas lunch bags from ‘Peg and Awl’. The bags have sewn-in spot for handwritten notes to make it more special. Especially the handwritten notes or sayings are great to put even in a a plain brown lunch bag. And if you add a “free” item occasionally, your customers will know this rapidly by either word-of-mouth or through the social media.
Protest Lasagne
18-3-2013
Slow Food Italy conducted, together with a number of restaurants in Italy the campaign ‘Ne le Abbiamo tasche Ripiene!’ last week. This action (from March 6 until March the 17th) was launched to protest against the escalating incidence of food scandals. During this action chefs across the country prepared their traditional filled pasta dishes, revealed the recipe and the exact origin of the ingredients to their customers.
Carlsberg put friends to the test
15-3-2013
A phone call in the middle of the night: your best friend is in trouble. Would you go out and help him? Carlsberg tests some friendships. What would your friends do? Are they true mates?
Urban Coffee Farm in Melbourne
15-3-2013
The Australian design firm HASSELL designed the ‘Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar’ for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. A total of 125 coffee trees have transformed the ‘Red Stairs’ (a popular public Amphitheatre in Melbourne) into a terraced coffee farm. Shipping containers, packaging crates and timber pallets have also been added to demonstrate the journey that coffee beans take. This will creates a unique experience while visitors sit among the trees sipping their coffee. More pictures at PSFK.
Floating vending machine
15-3-2013
Enjoying the sun, swimming in the sea and in between drinking an Ice Tea.. That’s possible in Cape Town. At one of the trendiest beaches of Cape Town, Lipton Ice Tea has introduced the first driving vending machine in the world.
Urban Coffee Farm in Meldbourne
15-3-2013
The Australian design firm HASSELL designed the ‘Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar’ for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. A total of 125 coffee trees have transformed the ‘Red Stairs’ (a popular public Amphitheatre in Melbourne) into a terraced coffee farm. Shipping containers, packaging crates and timber pallets have also been added to demonstrate the journey that coffee beans take. This will creates a unique experience while visitors sit among the trees sipping their coffee. More pictures at PSFK.
Rent a smartphone in Hong Kong
15-3-2013
Hong Kong-based Handy is leasing Android smartphones out to visitors, pre-loaded with free calls, 3G internet access and apps to help them navigate their destination. Handy provides users with the most up-to-date information and the latest happenings in Hong Kong. The smartphones can be picked up from the Hong Kong International Airport and it is possible to connect the phones with laptops to the internet and helps tourist avoid spending time looking for free wi-fi. Earlier we saw that tourist can hire a tablet with free wi-fi in Singapore and guests of the London’s Stratford Holiday Inn can use a Samsung Galaxy S III during their stay.
Culinary cocktail lab
15-3-2013
A nice new concept of molecular chef cook José Andrés. The cook has several restaurants in Washington and opened a cocktail bar named ‘Barmini’ in the space adjoining restaurant ‘Minibar’. More than one hundred artisan cocktails are crafted and served with the combination of art and science as well as tradition and technique. Earlier we saw that José Andrés applied his innovative style to the American cuisine at restaurant America Eats Tavern.
Now you are cooking
14-3-2013
The new blog ‘Now you’re cooking’ developed by Electrolux, helps prepare the tastiest dishes. The blog collects cooking videos, exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ material and thus inspires food lovers. Often it is impossible to keep pace with the TV cook during cooking. You can turn the movies of ‘Now you’re cooking’ on the cooking mode, so you can easily cook at the same time as the chef cook. The video shows short pieces of text that will help you go through the cooking process and when you pause the video the cooking process is even step by step explained.
Classy red cups
14-3-2013
The famous red cups used in the United States are redesigned into a classy and fancy shape. The old red cups weren’t classy enough pouring wine into it so the Red Cup Living designed four new cups that debuted at the International Housewares Association show. The cups are also reusable.
You are not funny
14-3-2013
A great announcement of a comedy festival that takes place from 27 March till 21 April in Melbourne. Well, maybe her husband isn’t that funny, but this commercial definitely is!
Free access to the New York Times at Starbucks
14-3-2013
Soon people will be able to get free access to 15 articles a day of the New York Times through the Starbucks Digital Network. Starbucks customers will be able to view three articles a day from five different sections. This action approach benefits for both companies, because it attracts people to visit Starbucks over a local coffee shop and it widens the reach of the New York Times.