Who joins the international Bar Fight by De Kuyper distillery?

19-1-2016

World’s largest cocktail liqueurs producer, De Kuyper distillery, invites the best bar teams to the Netherlands for an international Bar Fight …

Bar Fight 2016 by De Kuyper Distillery

Registration for the international “Bar Fight 2016” has opened. By submitting a creative short film, domestic and foreign teams can register for the competition. Team spirit and entertainment are the main focus. Registration closes on 29 February 2016. The finalist are announced on 28 March 2016. On 24 May 2016 De Kuyper invites the six best entries for the grand finale at Schiedam. The winners will go home with the prestigious title of ‘Best Bar Team’ and a cash prize of € 10 000,=.

The basis for cocktails worldwide

In the distillery in Schiedam, De Kuyper produces a wide variety of cocktail liqueurs which are sold and used as basics for cocktails in more than 100 countries. De Kuyper’s Bar Fight is a cocktail competition where national and international bartenders get the chance to show their teamwork and techniques. They should be creative and original because only skills aren’t enough in this Bar Fight. Especially making fun while preparing cocktails in a bar should be seen. A professional jury will select the top 20 entries then the audience can vote. The six teams that get the most votes for the short film and the best cocktail recipe are eventually invited to the grand final on 24 May in Schiedam.

De Kuyper Royal Distillers BV is one of the oldest family businesses in the Netherlands (since 1695). The brand products are sold worldwide in over 100 different countries.

A WineStation in your hotel lobby

18-1-2016

Bram Kosterink has immersed himself in the capabilities of the WineStation. Which is already used in some hotel lobbies where you can take a glass of wine via your room key (card) and the bill will be debited to your account ….

Bram Kosterink about the WineStation

This is one of those blogs that has been inspired by another blog. In response to my blog “Inspired by Tuscany’ I was approached for a drink at the systems of WineStation. The same system that I encountered in Tuscany, but now I was informed about the details for the owners of the system in the hospitality industry. I thought it would be interesting to share this information…..

For those who have not read my blog about Tuscany. With the system that I encountered at that time it’s possible to pour your own glass of wine as guests. By means of a pass which you have to upload with an amount, you can choose three different glasses; a tasting glass, half glass or a full glass. After the glass is filled, the amount is directly taken from the pass. Besides this option, the system keeps the wine in the same condition for at least 60 days.

Hilton and Marriott do use the WineStation in the lobby

Hilton and Marriott are already using this system in their luxurious suites and in the lobby of some of their hotels. The hotel room key, (card), can be used to access the WineStation. When the guest takes a glass of wine from the system, the amount is debited to the guests hotel bill.

Besides that the system can be used as described above, the company Napa Technology created the possibility to monitor the ‘wine’ behaviour of guests in a number of wineries. The passes for the WineStation are personalized to be able to send invoice every period. The wine drinking preferences of all guests are known, what they like to drink and how much they drink…. Allowing the wineries to meet every guest’s needs. The technology allows to actively target the sales. Cool if you can prepare a wine profile for all your regular guests. Moreover you can serve and inform your guest at their interest. I wonder how my wine profile would be, probably quite diverse. ^ Bram Kosterink

The Snertkroket, a taste of winter in a crispy crust

15-1-2016

At the Horecava Frio Food introduced the Snertkroket. The Snertkroket is a real Dutch speciality, a croquette filled with ‘snert’, which is a soup made of split peas.

Typical Dutch dish used in a croquette

The typical Dutch dish ‘erwtensoep or snert’ used in another typical Dutch treat the croquette; the Snertkroket. This real wintery dish has a crispy crust filled with a creamy ragout made of the best of ‘split pea soup’! Filled with vegetables such as peas, carrots and real pieces of sausage. Frio Food the producer of the Snertkroket recommends  to serve it on a slice of rye bread or just as a snack. We place the Snertkroket in our overview of variations on the traditional Dutch croquette.

Developer of the Snertkroket

This real winter delicacy was developed by Harald Swinkels, who dreamed of  his own croquette factory as a 15 year old boy. He prepares his products in a traditional way with the finest ingredients and uses traditional recipes that have been used by his father. From his father he learned the tricks of the trade. The Snertkroket is one of the many ‘kroketten’ Frio Food sells.

You might consider putting a kroket or bitterbal on your menu. It’s one of those streetfoods most foreigners love in Holland!

McDonald’s Next, is high-tech the solution to a healthier reputation and more sales?

14-1-2016

McDonald’s Next in Hong Kong; a new high-tech restaurant and a new experiment to revamp their reputation.

McDonald’s Next serves

The new high-tech restaurant, located in the Admiralty district, has touch-screen computers where you create and order your meal, so no more queuing in front of a counter. The new restaurant has a salad bar which is shown in the ‘theatre kitchen’. This allows consumers to watch the process of the making of their salad. Examples of the salad ingredients are asparagus, couscous, corn and quinoa. As you watch the video or check out the pictures in the article of the Daily Mail Online you can only conclude that the salad bar matches what you might expect in a deli. In addition they also serve fresh pastries and premium coffee in the McCafé style.

Besides the salad bar you can order from the regular hamburger menu or make use of the ‘Create Your Taste’ option, allowing you to build your own burger with gourmet ingredients. This ‘Create Your Taste’ option is already implemented at the McDonald’s in Australia and in New Zealand.

The Next interior

The interior; pleasant lighting for a relaxed atmosphere, long wide tables create a cafe / restaurant ambiance and like at many coffee shops chains they have wireless phone chargers. Furthermore the elements, wood, glass and stainless steel are used. They’re also experimenting with table service after 6 pm…

You will probably not recognize this McDonald’s except for the golden arches ;-). The Daily Mail concludes it’s a new attempt of McDonald’s to change direction and create a more healthier image. Well we would love to see a McDonald’s restaurant like that here in the Netherlands!

This is how we want to inspire …

13-1-2016

The BillyBird park at Hemelrijk has introduced his own Toilet Experience. They reacted to our questionnaire with an explanation how one of our articles inspired them to create a new toilet building at the park.

Inspire not copy.

Last week we included a questionnaire in our trendmail (only in the Dutch version). Ton Derks recreation-entrepreneur from BillyBird park reacted with a perfect example of how we want to inspire entrepreneurs. In March we wrote about the ‘Toilet Xperience’ on the Extrema Outdoor festival. The visitors of the festival could go to the Loo with a lot of extras. We published this article in our trendmail and Ton Derks got inspired to place three toilet units underneath the roof of a carousel. They created their own Toilet Experience, as shown above.

Did we inspire you? We love to hear it

A great example of how we love to inspire. We write 5 to 10 articles weekly with which we want to inspire entrepreneurs in the hospitality branch. It’s great to see a new twist to an old trend, we can’t all be innovators! Do you have similar examples, we love to write about it.

You can subscribe to our English trendmail here.

Ice cream macarons

12-1-2016

A new twist of a French specialty: the ice cream macaron! Otelli introduces these ice cream macarons in two flavours, mango-passion and raspberry during the Horecava in Amsterdam.

The ice cream macarons are made locally

The ice cream macarons by Otelli, producer of ice cream and patisserie specialties, are prepared in the Netherlands. At Otelli in Haarlem, the French almond macarons are baked. The macarons are filled with ice cream made from organic milk, pasteurized at a farm in the Haarlemmerliede. A swirl of mango-passion sorbet or raspberry sorbet is added to the ice cream. The macarons are 8 cm in diameter and served in a nice packaging with Parisian drawings.

Available at Otelli

These trendy ice cream macarons can be used as dessert or be served as a to go snack. Otelli offers a wide range of homemade ice creams, mono desserts, petit fours, tarts and dessert buffets. All products are made with real cream and butter, pure nut pastes, couverture and fresh fruit.

TapFruit: a healthy and sustainable thirst-quencher

7-1-2016

TapFruit is pure fruit to use in your tap water, without added sugars or any other nonsense. The founders made TapFruit to make tap water thirst-quencher number one again at the office, on the go or at home.

Fabian Roobeek and Ernst Visscher, the founders of TapFruit experienced a lack of alternative, healthy thirst-quenchers at the office. Tap water and syrups are often too sweet. TapFruit is fresh, fruity and unsweetened. The product is made from pure fruit puree and is not concentrated, has no artificial additives or sugar. It is easily preservable in handy stick packs. One stick contains 5 raspberries and one piece of pear. TapFruits fits a healthy diet, since one stick only contains 14 calories and 2,8 grams of fruit sugars. Fabian and Ernst think to offer an alternative; tap water with a natural twist and a delicious, fresh fruity taste.

Crowdfunding

With just 12 days to go the target amount to start selling TapFruit has been reached, of course the target amount has been adjusted so you can still join on One Planet Crowd. Besides tap water being healthy it also is a lot more sustainable and we’re lucky to have high quality tap water here in Northwest-Europe!

Founders of TapFruit

Fabian Roobeek and Ernst Visscher are the founders of Limo de Janeiro B.V., the company behind TapFruit. As previously mentioned they searched for an alternative, healthy thirst-quencher at the office, with TapFruit as the result after a lot of experimenting and collaborating with top experts. The founders of TapFruit not only try to convince people to live a healthier but also more sustainable lifestyle. The fruit is directly purchased from farmer Marinus Bunt from B&B Fruit in the Betuwe. Like this they can get the best fruit with a small sustainable footprint.

Sichuan bitterballen (small croquettes)

6-1-2016

On Aziatische-ingredienten.nl you can find a delicious recipe for Sichuan bitterballen. Bitterballen are small and round croquettes, which are a real Dutch treat.

Of course there is an Asian example of our Dutch pride: the Sichuan bitterballen

We received multiple reactions on the article about croquettes in the leading role, in which we also included the Italian bitterballen (Arancini). Amongst others Robin Kok send us her recipe for Asian bitterballen. The recipe, unfortunately only available in Dutch, sounds delicious!

For her Sichuan bitterballen Robin used ‘Sichuan style red boiled beef’ that includes ingredients like ginger, chilli bean sauce, rice wine and Chinese dark soy sauce. She makes a dummy proof roux with gelatin. Because of the gelatin the small croquettes are much easier to mold once the roux is cold and therefore need less flour. For the crust she uses panko! On Aziatische-ingredienten.nl Robin shares more recipes. I read some blog posts which are mouth-watering like dried tangerine peel, Youtiao (fried bread sticks) and Salak (snake fruit). ^Marjolein

Small gestures in hospitality for Valentine’s Day

5-1-2016

Valentine’s Day is originally an American holiday. But hey let’s celebrate it in the Netherlands as well because it’s a very convenient date for a small party!

The hospitality industry is very good at coming up with nice big and small gestures for Valentine’s Day. We have searched the internet and collected a lot of examples. About some we have already written before but it’s all collected in this edition of ‘Small gestures in hospitality for Valentine’s Day’. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out our Pinterest board for Valentine’s Day!

KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner

31-12-2015

KFC organized a Christmas dinner in three restaurants in the Netherlands on Boxing Day, KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner. Together with chef Bert van Buschbach, known as ‘Chef Bertus’, owner of restaurant ‘De Compagnon’ in Amsterdam, they created a special Christmas dinner of four courses.

Chef Bertus about KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner

Guests got the KFC’s Kickass Christmas Dinner served at their table,  in three locations of KFC in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam (Marconi Square), Nijmegen and Amsterdam (Foodstrip). Bert van Buschbach: “It was a kick to tackle this project with KFC. We had a look in each other’s kitchens and grabbed the best of both worlds. We made our guests happy with KFC icons combined with aspects from the haute cuisine. For example, we started with an amuse served on the finger of our guests, made of Pepper Mayonnaise and panna cota with truffle, crumb of the Original Breading and chicken with some grated truffle. We also served a crispy egg yolk in the famous Orginal Breading of KFC. When KFC approached me for this project I was immediately enthusiastic. It has been very instructive to work with KFC executives. We have learned a lot from each other.”

Thousands of entries

Marinho Bouwland, brand manager KFC Netherlands told that they received more than 2.000 entries, eventually 260 people were invited. “We wanted to do something back for our regular guests. Last year we organized our first Christmas dinner in Rotterdam. That was a great success. People even came from Hengelo to attend the dinner in Rotterdam. To give as many people as possible the opportunity to join us on Boxing Day we organized Christmas dinner 2015 at three locations.”

Burger Kitchen by New York Pizza

30-12-2015

Since yesterday (29 December, 2015), The Burger Kitchen, the hamburger by New York Pizza can be ordered in the Netherlands. During 2015 New York Pizza has researched and tested the way to deliver a perfect, warm hamburger. Having started as a pioneer in the pizza market (1993) New York Pizza is now going to create a market for delivering luxurious burgers. As the first chain in the Netherlands, New York Pizza has created a deluxe burger, made of pure beef with no artificial ingredients, to deliver.

Burger Kitchen

According to the CEO of New York Pizza, Philippe Vorst, is their hamburger, which they called ‘Burger Kitchen by New York Pizza’, made of 100% top quality beef, pepper, salt and love for the profession. At New York Pizza the delivery process is one of the core activities and this process is well managed. This allows them to ensure that they deliver a hot hamburger.

For the Dutch hamburger market Philippe Vorst foresees a big growth. According to the latest Foodshopper Monitor by FSIN (FoodService Institute Netherlands) the Dutch eat on average 25 hamburgers a year. The average American in contrary eats 150 hamburgers a year. In addition, the Monitor reports a sharp increase and continued demand for honest and fresh fast casual food, which include hamburgers.

Honey Spoon

29-12-2015

The Honey Spoon is a small cup within a spoon, filled with 100% flower honey. An unique way to serve honey without any mess. Convenient, hygienic and unique.

Honey Spoon

Within the out-of-home shops and thus also in the hospitality, alternatives for sugar are increasing in popularity. Honey in the tea is getting more popular. In order to keep it simple and clean and don’t mess with a cup of honey they created a new invention, the Honey Spoon. A small plastic spoon, filled with flower honey. The only thing you have to do is, just like with a normal cup of honey, remove the plastic top. Then you just put your spoon in the tea, stir well and you have got a nice cup of tea with honey, without the mess.

Availability

The Honey Spoon is available in a luxurious dispenser with 125 spoons or in a silo with 20 spoons. It is possible to order a sample via this link. The Honey Spoon is available in The Netherlands at several wholesalers like, Sligro, Deli XL and VHC.

Valentine’s Day at ‘De Nieuwe Poort’

28-12-2015

On the 13th of February ‘De Nieuwe Poort’ in Amsterdam will host a Valentine’s Day meeting for young and old people. The moto for this event is; before you know it, you have got a date!

Valentine’s Day 2016

According to the organizers, young hard working adults do need some quality time to break the workflow. The young adults often don’t know how to do this. Experiences and memories from elderly people can help to have a relaxed afternoon. Elderly people on the other hand are sometimes fighting loneliness; regularly these men and women live without any family or friends. As the organizers already mentioned, elderly people do have a lot to talk about, especially the ones from Amsterdam take no mince matters. These different types of ‘problems’ can be combined perfectly in order to satisfy both parties. This is exactly what the organizers of the Valentine’s celebration do. Previous years both ‘seniors’ and ‘young professionals’ celebrated Valentine’s day, and experienced it as inspiring and fun to do!

Costs

The ‘seniors’ have free entrance, the organisation assumes ‘young professionals’ will pay for them.

About ‘De Nieuwe Poort’

De Nieuwe Poort is a house to meet and be inspired. They want to counterbalance the forces of the economy and politics, because they often prevail in society. De Nieuwe Poort helps the mild forces, in order to make us more human and richer. Whoever eats the dishes of Chef Marcel Johannes, or is just there to drink, they will always be surrounded by poetry and music. In short, De Nieuwe Poort wants to fulfil the role of a community centre and gather different types of people for different types of activities.

Wrong Christmas Sweater party

23-12-2015

On the Korte Heuvel in the Dutch town Tilburg, they celebrated the last Friday Afternoon Party before Christmas with a ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ theme.

Wrong Christmas Sweater party

Last year, the largest Friday afternoon party from Tilburg has been a huge success as well and they had the same theme; Foute Kersttrui (Wrong Christmas Sweater). Hundreds of people gathered at  the party area of the Korte Heuvel to kick of the holiday season with colleagues and friends. Santa and his Christmas wives were present and there were torches everywhere. One could eat our famous Dutch  pea soup (snert) and there was plenty of glühwein (mulled wine) and beer. This year the ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ party was held on Friday 18th December as from 17:00 everyone was welcome. With a wrong Christmas sweater you received free mulled wine at Polly Maggoo. Initiators are the owners of Polly Maggoo and it is now adopted by a number of cafes in the area.

Inspiration

Come up with a nice theme and prolong the festivities surrounding Christmas. Since 18 December, the Christmas Season started and there is no one available for work-related Christmas parties so this initiative in Tilburg is a lovely way to throw a party and to generate additional revenue. Win / win for participants and entrepreneurs. Just as the ‘Kerstmiddag’ (Christmas Afternoon) on 24 December in Hengelo.

Sommelierwijnen; a new Dutch initiative for sommeliers with guts

22-12-2015

Sommelierwijnen (Sommelier Wine) is making exceptional wines from small, but very good winemakers available for the Dutch gastronomy. Sommelierwijnen is an initiative of eight wine importers who have joined forces to sell all their wines through one contact. Various sommeliers from Dutch Michelin starred restaurants already work with them.

Collaboration to make wine from small but major wineries accessible

The founders of Sommelierwijnen are all importers with great skill and passion for wines that are being delivered to restaurants. By combining their offerings they make it possible for sommeliers to work with several wineries that would otherwise be inaccessible or impractical. In plain language: you’re not waiting for yet another wine supplier where you might only buy 60 bottles a year or even less. Even though the wine is very special! Thanks to this initiative, sommeliers are now able to order wines at 8 different importers with the benefit of just one contact and one invoice.

One-stop-shopping at Sommelierwijnen

These importers offer many unique wines from the Jura, Corsica, India and even Thailand. Even from within Europe, they sell classic wines made from unknown grapes like Tibouren, Elbling, Frühroter and Roter Veltliner and unknown wines from for example Madeira, Serbia and Bosnia. The 8 different wine suppliers do introduce themselves at the website, each with two of their so-called ‘signature wines’; wines that are an example for their vision and quality.