Quality Friends Hotel

Quality Hotels in Oslo

Study trip to Quality Oslo

Just back from Oslo, a quick trip over to have a look at two of Quality Hotels flagship hotels in Oslo.

Quality Hotel 33, and Quality Hotel Expo.

We stayed at 33 and had dinner in their top floor restaurant, a fantastic night time view over Oslo's outer suburbs and a 5 course tasting menu to match.

Quality Hotel 33 features stunning industrial architecture and free flowing spacious conference, meeting and banqueting facilities.

The breakfast area featured smart & practical buffets solutions, I hope ours will be the same. We even took time to try out Quality Hotels all day conference snack, soft serve ice cream or popcorn from the self serve meeting area.

A quick taxi into central Oslo to visit to our head office then onto Quality Hotel Expo a new development out by the old Fornebu airport. A low rise hotel with an adjoining business complex all design and wood and glass and wood and space and wood,.

Quality Hotel Expo features an impressive ultra modern free flow reception area that links together break out rooms, restaurants, bar and relax areas. a big food and beverage operation in a fantastic setting.

Special thanks to Christian and Scott, executive chefs at both hotels for their time and help.

Smart solutions in Oslo

Quality Hotel Friends

Top Floor Restaurant

As yet we still don't have a name, at least by calling it the top floor restaurant we don't get it mixed up with the two restaurants we are opening at the same time.

August 31st is opening day. My first impression is wow its small a bar and restaurant for maybe up to 120 guests from this little kitchen, how the hell will this work, and once we install all the equipment it will be even smaller. we need to rethink from a conventional kitchen operation to a compact service delivery kitchen, our planning will need to be detailed to pull it off. hope its finished in time

The round windows will offer a fantastic north easterly view from the 25th floor, not bad for a kitchen,

Up on top will be the top floor restaurant

Pernod Ricard invitation

Wine, whiskey and Bar school C/O Absolut Vodka

A big day out was had by all, a special invitation to Absolut Vodkas inspirational headquarters in Stockholm.

Wine tasting was on the menu, a quick trip around the world, featuring stop offs in many countries. We tasted wines from Mumm, Perrier Jouët, Campo Viejo, Jacobs Creek, Molina and many more, we worked our way through approx. 25 sparkling, whites, reds and dessert wines, a cool head, lots of water & not swallowing were the order of the day.

The wine tasting was followed by whiskey school, held at the bar of course, lots of single malts and blends,

If the wine and whiskey weren't enough we also dabbled fro a couple of hours in drink mixing, we all got a chance to shake it loose behind the bar and mix our own.

Mine was an Absolut Hibiscus sour, a new challenge that went down well.

After the cocktail mixing we moved into the dinning area for beef a la Rydberg and some more fantastic cellar selections from Pernod Ricard Sweden.

Own cocktails c/o Absolut

Why re-invent the wheel

Malmö arena study trip.

We were just down in Malmö in southern Sweden for a look at their arena.

Malmö arena is primarily a ice hockey arena, home arena for the local Malmö Red Hawks.

We were inspecting their fast food outlets, of special interest was the customer flow through the self service outlets, hot food service-"hot dogs and hamburgers" and speed through the point of sale payment terminals.

Friends arena being ca 4 times bigger than Malmö arena have smart and speedy solutions through their fast food outlets, for us at friends to emulate their ease of service we will need to dismantle our kiosks and rebuild them, not an easy task when we have over 40 kiosks, no to mention the costs, return of investment ect.

Time will tell, but a little wiser are we. too bad the architects who designed Freinds didn't do their homework from the start.

Malmö arena kiosks

Probably the best

Carlsberg bar

The day after the first home match from our local team AIK 44000 spectators, and well behaved as well, the fifth largest spectator crowd for a national league match.
hopefully there will some larger crowds later in the season, the record is only about 10000 more so maybe there's a chance later in the season.
Our Carlsberg opened for lunch today and well received it was, our first regular restaurant to open, Carlsberg bar is a sports bar adjoining the main entrance with an entrance from the front or on event days from the side as well. Traditional Swedish home fare with a sports bar feel.

Bandy Final 2013

Field hockey on ice

13 March 2013, current progress with the ice rink preparations for the coming Swedish Bandy championship this Sunday.

We're expecting 40000+ spectators, a new spectator record for bandy.

For all of us who don't know what bandy is, Bandy is a predominately Nordic sport, similar to land hockey but played on an ice rink the size of a football pitch,

due to the size of the pitch bandy is normally played outside this could be one of the first in house matches.

Traditionally Swedes eat pytt i panna, "Swedish Hash" served either creamed or plain pan fried and served with beetroot and fried egg at bandy matches. we've bought up big time 1,6 ton pytt i panna & 6000 eggs. That should do the trick, hope the best team wins.

Friends Arena turned into an ice rink

Julbord 2012

Friends Arena Swedish Christmas smorgasbord

Our menu this year is a little smaller than an exclusive Christmas smorgasbord, we had a little more volume than many of our competitors ca, 25000 guests.

We had 5 Christmas events together with a Christmas show spread out throughout our arena catering venues.
This photo is taken the top of the first grand stand, 8 of dec. 2012. We had just over 7000 guests on the pitch and another 1000 in our banquet room + Christmas tables for another 300+ in our private booths.

From a kitchen view point our team has been working hard with planing and calculating for the

event, tomorrow is the first of five Christmas variety dinner shows that we'll be hosting this season.

Five shows within an eight day period, we'll be going up to 8000 guests next Friday.

We've only been open just over a month and have already hosted some fantastic events, this next week will be another challenge.

As a chef its not often you place an order for a tonne of something? we ordered 2 tonne of pork ribs for the week, our meat supplier of course is very pleased.

We've built up 4 satellite kitchens at pitch level and have had to order in a mobile dish washing machine, six extra convection ovens, five refrigerated containers, 17000 main course plates, among other items, 26 double sided buffet's, with a team of about 100 kitchen and buffet staff.

What a fantastic exciting and challenging work place. As we starting to warm up with events we are continuously looking for skilled and experienced team members to strengthen our kitchen, drop me a line if you are interested.

Swedish Christmas Smörgåsbord

Friends Arena 2012

Black currant pickled herrings / Svartvinbärssill

Pickled Herrings / Inlagt sill

Garlic herrings / Vitlökssill

Crayfish herrings / Kräft marinerad sill

Friend's Arenas own dill and tarragon Baltic herrings / Friends dill och dragongravad strömming

Gentleman's savoury / Gubbröra

Dill potatoes / Dillkokt potatis

Cumin spiced cheese, aquavit cheese / Kryddost, brännvinsost

Fäboda sourdough crisp bread, Huså crisp bread, wort bread / Fäboda surdegsknäcke, Huså Knäcke, Vörtbröd

Dill "gravad" salmon with sweetened mustard sauce / Gravad lax med hovmästaresås

Apple glazed hot smoked salmon with lemon and chive sauce / Äppleglaserad varmrökt lax med citron- och gräslökssås

Shellfish stuffed eggs with chives / Ägghalvor med skärgårdsröra och gräslök

Traditional Christmas ham / Julskinka

Swedish mustard, seed mustard with honey and rosemary / Slottsenap, Husets senap med honung och rosmarin

Smoked haunch of deer with pickles / Rökt hjortstek med pickles

Butchers salami / Slaktarkorv

Roe deer pate with cornichons and currant jelly / Rådjurspaté med cornichonger och gelé

Smoked turkey breast with Waldorf salad / Kalkonbröst med Waldorfsallad

Beetroot salad / Rödbetsallad

Swedish meatballs / Köttbullar

Sausages / Prinskorv

Janssons temptation / Janssons frestelse

Honey and ginger glazed ribs with apple sauce / Honung- och ingefärsglacerade revbensspjäll med äpplemos

Red cabbage / Rödkål

Saffrons pannacotta med vanilla lingon berries

/ Saffranspannacotta med vaniljkoktlingon

Apple pie with cinnamon sauce / Äppelpaj med kanelsås

Christmas chocolate cake / Julkaka

Citrus cream / Citruscréme

Fruit salad / Fruktsallad

Whipped cream / Grädde

Toffee / Knäck

Chocolate / Ischoklad

Apples and mandarin / Äpplen och mandarin

Ginger bread / Pepparkaka

Stilton cheese, Brie with fruit and nuts / Stilton, brie med frukt och nötblandning

Polka curls / Polkasnurror

Apple and cinnamon marmalade, pear and cardamon marmalade / Äpple- och kanelmarmelad, fruktmarmelad, pear- and kardemummamarmelad

Mint caramels, toffee creams, violet and liquorice caramels, ginger bread fudge, sweets / Mint kola, gräddekola, viol & lakriskola, pepparkaksfudge, julskum

What an enormous task and what a team, a big thank you to all team members especially our new team members of all levels. a great effort, welcome back again.

The whole football pitch at Friends as a Christmas party

The building continues

The Mall of Scandinavia

Our first day of winter 2012 a bit of a blizzard.

This is the view is looking out from the kitchen office on the fourth floor of Friends Arena out over the just started "Mall of Scandinavia" our neighbour.

The mall of Scandinavia's will be the largest mall in Scandinavia when completed. Just now late 2012 it's only starting to take shape at the foundation level.

Looking over the Mall of Scandinavia building site from the kitchen window

Team building

Persian food week

We are in the middle of a Persian food week in our team member restaurant, two of our cooks from are from Persia and they're cooking up a storm for us all.

Its fantastic to see how they've grown and developed from just normal cooks in the kitchen, to both be responsible for, independent and be proud of their heritage. The food is great and every one is loving it.

Amsterdam

A study visit reveals many hidden gems.

Koppert Cress

A little study trip to Amsterdam and Holland started with a visit to Koppert Cress in the growing region of southern Holland, Koppert Cress is a modern and forward thinking green house company, growing new herbs, edible flowers, cresses and grasses to modern cutting edge restaurants.

Koppert Cress source new products from all corners of the world and of course are exporting them back again.

Special focus areas are healthy products and tailor made solutions to demanding chefs, I hope they can help us with our hotel opening in September.

A special intro to the Big Green Egg grill was hosted by Ralph de Kok.

Ajax Amsterdam Arena

A study visit to Ajax Amsterdam's arena featured some real pearls, wine units, kiosks, cash cards, vending machines and a host of other ideas, it just shows now that we have started at friends how much more work we have to do.

BIJ TEUS

Bij Teus is a fantastic design restaurant, showing just how far one can develop a run down gas station to a modern new thinking concept.

Bij Teus features an open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant, two big green egg grills are featured they are the main cooking units in the kitchen, and are a major source of interest and discussion among guests.

The menu featured special little treats like smoked ice cream on the Grill Menu.

Pure Passie

Four grill dishes produced by Leo Elbenbass at Pure Passie, Leo uses a small big green egg during service in his restaurant.

The trial dishes only took minutes to grill, Leo uses his grill to prepare his mis en place before the start of service, then uses the grill the as the pivotal cooking unit during service.

Pretty impressive.

Big Green Egg

Big Green Egg Grills come in varying sizes. The Green egg shaped ceramic grill features temperature regulating possibilities, offering high temp grilling, smoking, baking, and low temp grilling, among other uses.

A low smoke output and long burning factor make the Big Green Egg grill a viable under canopy charcoal grill in a restaurant kitchen. during our study trip we saw first hand from two Dutch restaurant chefs, Leo at Pure Passie and Marten at Bij Teus that modern food from The Big Green egg is a viable and exciting option.

Internal training

Raw food

Raw food, working together & within a sports arena means we get a lot of special food requests, allergy, special dietary requirements and general hotel food and beverage needs.

We've just had a raw food training with Erica Palmcrantz, we're working on a conference alternative.

Morning coffee break and an afternoon coffee pause, raw chocolate brownie, dairy free berry and banana ice-cream with chocolate sauce, cashew nut cream, chocolate and avocado mousse, blueberry pie.

Smoothies, green smoothie with spinach & ginger and mango almond milk.

The food tasted great, we will need to do some work on the presentation, but thats all part of developing the concept. then we need to package and sell it.

I think everybody wants mentally to eat healthier food but nobody wants to order it, I hope I'm proved wrong.

From Russia with love

A Russian Ptichye Moloko cake

Traditional "birds milk" cake featuring fantastic traditional Russian cake decor skills,
Italian meringue & condensed milk looking forward to trying it I'm sure we can find an excuse to celebrate.

birds milk cake, ptichye moloko

Study visit

Dafgårds

20 Feb 2013, A visit to one of our suppliers Dafgårds in Kälby in southern Sweden.

We were especially interested in their range of French and Swedish bake off bread, great products that I'm sure we can pair into our very varied assortment of breakfasts, conference and banqueting business mix.

Irish red hereford and black angus meat was also on the menu, especially with the up coming Sweden-Ireland, world cup qualifying match next month.

We're going to try portion cuts direct from Ireland, they should be interesting, both quality wise and the ever present wage cost saving calculation.

The opening period and the first operational year were a challenge for all, team work is the key. a good dose of humility and humour also helps swallowing your mistakes.

Big time in Sweden

Kitchen dehydrator

Every time we get a new piece of equipment in the kitchen it's like Christmas all over again, This time a dehydrator how can we be innovative trendy and creative?

We open our new hotel the 31st of August and of course we'll need breakfast, too bad we won't have a hot food station at our breakfast station, but maybe we can have a cold food station. juicers, paco jet, blenders and a dehydrator for home dried fruit muesli and raw food alternatives.

We're also playing with the idea to have raw food conference breaks, many have tried raw food and healthy options ect as conference alternatives. Does any one have experience of how popular raw food is in a large conference establishment?

Our new dehydrator

super fast

Electrolux HSG micro Grill

The new Electrolux HSG micro grill we tried them during the Bruce Springsteen concerts grilled slow roasted Nebraskan chuck steak in focaccia bread with garlic butter, arugula salad and soft roasted cocktail tomatoes, served with tarragon mayonnaise.

25 seconds to grill two sandwiches, nice and crispy and full of flavour.

Not bad 25 seconds.

micro grill